A better way to find collaborators
Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't see an easy way to find collaborators (or at least a way that provides a good user experience). Soundtrap Support suggests using this Community, but surely there must be a better way than just posting a message on what is quite a basic and infrequently used (looking at volume of posts and follows) message board. There just doesn't feel like there is any real engagement in the Community - it just feels flat which is a shame given how good the Studio is.
Overall, what I think is needed is a simple and intuitive way within the web app itself to find potential collaborators, rather then pushing people over to another site (ie the Community). The folk at Soundtrap seem to be taking away functionality to enable this rather than enhancing it - eg removing Discover (from Web at least) so you can't look and listen to other creators, and now our public profile pages are disappearing too, just adding to a feeling that you're "on your own" rather than part of a community of music makers.
Functionality in Soundtrap itself that I think would really help those steps of finding someone to work with in the first place:
- Have a "Collaboration" section in your profile - you can flag if you're open to collaboration, provide a bit of info about what you want to get out of working with someone else, how "serious" you are (eg hobby-ist or wannabe star) etc etc
- Ability to search for others wanting to collaborate (using keywords, tags etc), view their profile, listen to what sort of stuff they have been working onto see if there's common ground etc - ie the Discover and Public Profile stuff that is being taken away
- A "one-click" collaboration invite button with the option to add a message to the invitee.
- A "Collaboration inbox" where invites can be seen, links to the profile of the person who sent the invite, options to respond etc (maybe this is just part of the existing Messages functionality)
I really think this kind of functionality would foster new collaborations.
Collaboration is a much hyped feature of Soundtrap on its website and marketing emails and maybe once you find someone to work with or already know someone, the functionality works well, but the current user experience for establishing those links falls well short of anything intuitive or helpful, which is a real shame.
If anyone is out there and agrees, please upvote!
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Hi Oly. I 100% agree. I submitted a ticket because I saw a message about public profiles going away. I have so much love for this tool, but that's largely because I saw it as the way of the future for musical collaboration (and I have very passionate feelings about the collaboration as core component of the human musical phenomenon). I can only assume that they have something else in the game plan, but it could be security restrictions from Spotify (who also does not have a super great 'connection with others' capability) or something like that.
I expect their are many others that feel the same, but as you mention the community is not widely used, so... catch 22...
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This is a great suggestion. I'm working on a rap in soundtrap right now with my sister, but I need help finding the right beats and sounds and getting the whole project organized properly, but I don't know how to find collaborators besides asking on soundbetter or Facebook or something like that😐😐😐🤷♂️🤷♂️
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I'm sure that the folk at Soundtrap are fully aware of their competitors, but if they want to know how to bring the social element to music making, they should check out Bandlab. It's basically Facebook for music creators: You have a public profile (imagine that!) and home page you can post to with your music or any other kind of message, a feed from others that you follow, discover (I remember Soundtrap had that once...) other creators by searching or browsing. Bandlab even has its own (free) DAW, and maybe it's because I'm now familiar with Soundtrap, but I find Soundtrap easier to use.
So I'm creating in Soundtrap, but uploading/sharing in Bandlab (and not really bothering with YouTube or Soundcloud). It's a really nice feeling even just having a handful of people listen to something I've done and getting an occasional like or positive comment. Come on Soundtrap - if you want to keep your users, make it a social not solo experience!
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I use soundtrap daily but am forced to go to other sites like bandlab.com to post and collaborate or promote. It seems to me if soundtrap.com wants my 20.00 bucks a month they need to come into the social media and social networking present like everyone else. This "community-based ' poster board setup they have here reminds me of AOL back in the 90's with its lack of media and other options. Not to mention having to post font with no hyperlink to our public profile in these posts. Makes it near impossible for us to interact or find new musician's. I have been paying but it seems like I get a lot more on bandlab.com for free. We can't even click on the names within these very posts as a link to the users profile .!? Soundtrap.com needs a lot of work and upgrades to bring them up to speed with our wants and needs. Specially at these prices !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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