I have never had a clue that Audiomack existed until I started actively looking for SoundCloud alternatives on Reddit, where multiple users suggested the service and I started wondering what is it about and if it's any good.

So I naturally signed up and began to upload my music. At first, I was happy that the simultaneous upload of multiple WAVs was supported, only to discover that the order of the tracks I uploaded got somehow switched during the process, and my OCD just didn't let me leave it like that. Unfortunately, when I tried to reupload my tracks, none of the newly uploaded ones were showing on my profile and I have to wait some time before everything went back to normal. At least they have this clever mechanism that recognizes tracks you have uploaded before (and then deleted) and automatically fills up all the metadata for you, but the upload process is generally bugged as hell (and if I was a bit pissed off at Audius for taking long to upload my music, Audiomack showed me that it can be even way worse).

Anyway, after looking around the website for a bit, I have to say that the music exploration/listening features are quite standard and there is nothing extra compared to the other services - basically, it's just the obligatory mixture of various types of feeds - what you follow, what's new, what's hot, etc. And the same itself goes for the user library and the track detail view - apart of filling some basic metadata, there is not much to do, but hey - at least you can make the track private, unlike on Audius (although I reckon that this will get added there soon, too). Sadly you can't make tracks downloadable (nor sell them).

However, there is one useful feature I have been especially missing on SoundCloud (and basically everywhere), and that's an ability to easily switch between more artist accounts. For a person with three musical outlets, this is a big thing and it's a shame these services are forgetting about this issue.

At first, I was tempted to compare Audiomack to Audius, as feature-wise, the services feel really similar and both are also boasting with unlimited uploads. But after digging a bit deeper (and also doing some research on the service), I noticed a few important differences. First, Audiomack is way older (in fact, even older than Hearthis.at). Second, Audiomack has actually an admirable userbase counting over 1.5 million active users, which is still nowhere near SoundCloud, but not bad at all. Third, Audiomack has, as opposed to Audius, a visible monetization strategy - the site contains ads and there also appears to be a partnership with distribution service Tunecore, that is being recommended on multiple places throughout the Audiomack website. And last, Audiomack has its web app and also a paid pro tier (but funnily enough, there is literally NO mention of it anywhere on the website and you can get it only via the mobile app).



The mobile app is actually pretty neat tho' - definitely way better than all the other ones. It's not perfect (as relatively soon after first launching it I experienced a funny glitch where I wasn't able to bring up the view for currently playing track), but it's relatively intuitive and easy to navigate, the app dark design is a pleasure to look at and finally, the "now playing" screen has by far the best layout I've seen in a music streaming app. You can even download music to have it stored locally, not needing to have an internet connection all the time, but sadly, you can't upload your own music via the app. Some of its features are only available with the pro plan tho', which costs around $3 per month - speaking of which, I should mention the sound quality. Audiomack seems to use 160kbps for free users and 320kbps for those with premium, but again, I couldn't find any information about codecs they are using.

The most interesting thing about Audiomack is probably the way how it works with labels, for whose it basically serves as a kind of a talent-scouting network. If an artist makes into Audiomack's algorithmically curated "top" lists, it really means something and there is a chance of being picked up by some label A&R executive.

All in all, it looks like Audiomack could deserve a shot, too (especially with hip hop, which was the only genre Audiomack was originally designed for), as it seems that despite its bugs and glitches, the website is alive and kickin', there is a lot of people hungry for new music and also the possibility of getting picked by a label is something pretty unique and interesting.





Why not Bandcamp?

A lot of people were also suggesting Bandcamp as a SoundCloud alternative, but here I simply can't agree. The reason behind that is that Bandcamp completely misses the social aspect of people just roaming on the website with an endless stream of new music being fed to them. In fact, Bandcamp is way closer to a shop - it's the place where you usually send your existing fans to buy your music (and it's one of the best services out there for that), but you simply won't get any new fans there.





Couldn't Mixcloud help?

Mixcloud has been around for quite some time and I have also seen some people recommending it, but in my opinion, Mixcloud has never meant to be a competition for SoundCloud, but rather a different service aiming at DJ-mixes only. It's really a great tool for DJs, but not so great one for producers - in fact, I think that uploading single tracks is not allowed there at all. If you're a DJ, definitely give Mixcloud a try, but if you're a producer, rather look somewhere else.





And what about YouTube?

Youtube is debatable, as there definitely are some social and music discovery aspects. To me, personally, it just feels way too different as it's not actually made for music and it doesn't really offer any music-related features to artists (and the UX itself isn't really too friendly for music consumption anyway). But it's still one of the most popular places where people listen to music nowadays, so no matter how much of true "alternative" to SoundCloud it is, getting your music there is certainly worth the time.





So maybe Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Pandora or those other ones?

Well, not exactly. Those are also not SoundCloud alternatives in the right meaning of the word. Those are all just a little different kind of service. Despite there is a strong focus on delivering the best music discovery experience, they are too lacking in the social aspect. Also, as opposed to all the above-mentioned services where you could upload freely almost anything (whatever weird meme bootleg you just created), to get your music on streaming platforms you need to have a distributor (which equals you have to pay some money to get your music there). Anyway, if you're serious with your music, confident about your output but not already present on streaming platforms, I'd say you're doing it wrong. The biggest difference to SoundCloud is that here, you get actually paid for every single stream and damn, you deserve to be paid for your hard work!





The final word

There definitely are a few services where we could move after SoundCloud finally rests in peace one day, but unfortunately, none of them will probably ever grow to SoundCloud's former size and popularity. Those times seem to be over for good as the people tend to favor spending most of their time on social media, turning away from "traditional" music discovery services like SoundCloud (and also a lot of them getting more and more used to Spotify and other streaming platforms).

To me, Hearthis.at looks like the best choice out there so far, as it's one of the oldest SoundCloud competitors (which means they have probably the biggest userbase of them all) and also it's the only service that actually offers it's members some really interesting features.

But after all - if you have the time, it won't hurt you simply to get your music EVERYWHERE. The more places where people can somehow discover (or just listen to) your music, the better ;)



