Audio sharing platform SoundCloud has announced its latest functionality update: in conjunction with ThingLink, the image interaction tool provider, it's now enabling you to add sound and music to your images.
There are various obvious applications for this: you could create an interactive gig flyer that allows people looking at it to hear you and your band while they're reading, or add examples of your music to album artwork.
If you want to see the technology in action, check out Paper Garden Records' interactive flyer for their bands at SXSW or experience sound-filled images from the likes of Moby, Beck and The Smashing Pumpkins at this ThingLink gallery.
Commenting on the announcement, Alexander Ljung, founder and CEO of SoundCloud, said, "This simple concept of linking sound to the images that are meaningful to you opens up endless opportunities to audio creators. Not only will it change the way artists promote themselves, their music and their live shows, but it will also allow people to add narrative to their holiday snaps, verbal descriptions to their designs or funny soundbites to their illustrations."
So how do you do it? Here's the quick guide:
1. Set up a free account at ThingLink and SoundCloud.
2. Install a few lines of ThingLink javascript on your website or blog
3. When you input a SoundCloud URL into a tag's link field, a player appears in your tag. Click it and it starts playing the track in the background.
Find out more at ThingLink and SoundCloud.
