Friends,
 
I know that this topic has been covered many times here but I was away from music for a few years and in that time I've noticed some big changes to the major music posting sites that are being used by people, particularly musicians on this forum.  I think it's an appropriate topic for the songs forum because as musicians we all want our music to reach as many people as possible and be played and displayed in the highest of sound quality and in the most attractive way imaginable.  That's the whole point of these sites is to market our music.  Here's my take on the current state of affairs.  Note:  I am only referring to the FREE services provided by these sites.
 
SoundClick;  Once an extremely popular hosting site, SoundClick looks sadly outdated (it hasn't been upgraded in years) and appears to me to be on it's way out the door.  What a shame because SoundClick is very user friendly for both the musician and the fan, it integrates well with other pages such as Facebook and has a very professional feel to it.  It also has charts which is something I like as well.  But most importantly the sound quality is great and I can upload files as big as 10mb (or more?). Verdict; On it's way to out.
 
Reverbnation;  What happened to the sound quality!!  It's sound quality is inferior to both SounClick & Soundcloud in every way and it only allows uploads of 8mb or less.  This was one of the most used sites here at the Cake forums at one time.  It looks like nobody uses it anymore.  That's unfortunate because I think it's probably the best site in terms of presentaion (it looks great) and user friendliness for the fan.  It integrates with other pages well and it has charts but they are sadly flawed allowing "being Fanned" to raise your chart position (In one day I got 40 new fans and 0 song plays).  Verdict;  The best site with the worst sound quality.
 
Soundcloud;  The most popular and most used site as far as I can see.  It's the hands down champ as far as reach is concerned, allowing music to be heard by the most possible people.  The main problem for me is that I can't stand the interface.  To an old geezer like me, the site is confusing to use, it does not integrate with Facebook well (you need to use BandPage to have a player in FB), it does not host videos, and it is totally unattractive, IMO.  To me it's got an "app" feel, which I don't like at all.  Many others would disagree, mostly young people, but I don't like it.  It also has no charts which sucks but it does keep very good stats and you can upload larger files.  Verdict; greatest reach by far, sood sound quality but the fewest features and integration. Ugly.
 
That's my take on the top 3 sites for hosting music.  Right now I'm using all 3 but I eventually want to integrate to one site.  It's too confusing & time consuming to manage 3 sites  My guess is that it's going to be Soundcloud even though I dislike it the most which sucks, that it's the necessary evil.  But the fact is that it has the best fan reach which is probably the most important factor to me, the second being good sound quality which it provides also.  Maybe I'll spring for a "Pro Plan" there but I am very adamant about using these sites for free.  My theory is that if I don't make any money from my music then I'm not going to spend any money to promote it.  
 
So that's the story.  Thanks for taking the time to read this post and please, chime in on the subject.  I would love to hear all of your opinions.
 
Thanks,
Don 

Personally I don't use any of 'em now. The paid-up version of Soundclick is very nice but I can't afford it now I've got my own website. For posting here I use Box.net and my site. People have commented that if they download from Box, it sounds a lot better than streaming from the link, so I allow either.
 
Not interested in charts, because by and large, they're meaningless IMO. Don't do FB, so that's not an issue.
 
Soundcloud looks awful in my opinion, and I hate the way it jumps straight to another track (sometimes by a different artist) as soon as the song stops playing.

I use Soundclick and pay 10 bucks a month to upload larger files because I love to write long songs.  I agree, it's far more attractive and I still love their simple sound pulse logo, or whatever you call it.  It looks cool.  And I'm 42, so I'm old and boring like that.  But I'm one of those that finds the youth culture pretty boring and uneventful too, particularly their ideas of apps and GUI.  
 
I agree with you too that I like Soundclick's interface with Facebook - but mine still requires a Band Page to add it, and it can't be the landing page.  But there again...I've had a lot of people listen to my music, and comment on it, but not a one has sent a friend request or added me.  I am not sure how popular Facebook is in amateur music networking.  I would have thought so..but...
 
I'm with you, Soundcloud is completely ugly to me.  But, by and large, that is THE most popular song site for musicians that I've run into.  Every-freaking-body is on Soundcloud.  I've wondered if I should migrate.  I don't know.
 
I'll be watching this thread - you bring up a good subject.  I hate to think that Soundclick is on its way out, but it sure seems like only us old farts are on there.  
 
 
 
 

Soundclick "didn't want my money..." I use RN but I'm not a fan of their interface as "to me" it seems too complex. I love soundcloud, and I pay extra to be able to upload larger files. For me, and for most, this is the way to go.

I use ReverbNation, Soundcloud, Facebook, iTunes, Spotify (part of the Cdbay deal) and Youtube. I agree with everything that's been said so far. Reverbnation is ok, but the audio quality isn't great. I would have to say Soundcloud is my favorite, but I just started with Youtube so I would hate to say much about it. People say the sound quality is better on Youtube, but I haven't done a comparison.

I agree with everything said on the comparisons so far. I have not found what I would consider the perfect site yet. I have trouble getting ReverbNation and Soundclick to consistently play off my iPhone, but have never had that issue with Soundcloud. I know, I know...there are a lot of iPhone haters out there, or iAnything for that matter. I have a 14 year old and a 20 year old and for the last 5 years, they and all of there friends, all I have seen them do is stream music. I bought my daughter an iTunes card for Christmas and I don't think she has even used it yet. However, I have had to routinely shut her data down for excessive You Tube music streaming.

Clint, I am starting to move in your same direction and have been experimenting with You Tube. It's a bummer for me to have to go an extra step now and make it onto a video so that I can attach the music to it.

The perfect sight to me would be one that combines all of the features of the ones mentioned so far, including video, but still have a modern look to the GUI and easily streams on Android and iPhone.

I exported my songs to youtube using Sonar X3. It took awhile, but I just inserted my cover art for the video. Almost as easy as exporting to soundcloud.

Hey Clint,
 
Sounds like there may be an easier way than how I went about it then.  I down loaded Microsoft Movie Maker and then imported one of my photo's, stretched it out to song length and then inserted the song into the file.  While I was at it I learned how to add text and do some simple fade in, fade outs.  Saved all that to a high resolution video and loaded that into Youtube.  
 
It probably took me much longer than it should have because it was all new to me.
 
Thank you for steering me to your Youtube site.  I have been studying it to figure out how to set up my own.  I just learned how to link it back to Sound Cloud today.

If I could get someone to shoot a video of me to go along with my Christmas tune, "Walking round in women's underwear" I'll post it on youtube? I can't seem to get any takers. It needs to be a quick shoot, those stiletto pumps are hard on the back. 

Now that's a video I would like to see!