Make Some Noise (Literally), With Flipboard Magazines and SoundCloud

MagMaker / September 19, 2014

Sound is the perfect ingredient to make your magazine feel more dynamic and fun. So don’t be shy! Get loud and proud by adding audio tracks to your Flipboard magazines. Your readers can press play and enjoy the “soundtrack” while they flip through your magazine. And when one track ends, the next will play seamlessly—it’s just like creating a playlist, but in a magazine format.

The best way to add aural elements to your magazines is via SoundCloud, a popular platform that lets DJs, artists, labels and others upload and share all kinds of audio, from podcasts to long DJ mixes to indie and hip-hop tunes. We partnered with SoundCloud so that you can connect to your SoundCloud account and access your stream, likes, sets, uploads and more from right within Flipboard. If you haven’t tried SoundCloud out, you should. It’s free and easy to use. Just head over to soundcloud.com, sign up and prepare to be delighted by an amazing variety of sounds for all occasions.

There are four main ways to add SoundCloud tracks into your magazine:

1. Tap the plus on any SoundCloud item that you see while browsing Flipboard.

They look like this:

2. After connecting your SoundCloud account to Flipboard, easily access your likes and sets (aka playlists). Tap into them from your Accounts section in the app and then tap the plus on any track that you want to flip into your magazine.

3. Use the Flipboard web bookmarklet to flip tracks directly from SoundCloud.com into Flipboard.

4. Android users,  if you have the SoundCloud app, you can use the app-to-app sharing feature in SoundCloud to flip tracks into your Flipboard mags. Tap the the three-dot share icon on any track you like in the SoundCloud app, choose Flipboard from your list of apps to share to and choose magazine to flip the track into.

Now you know the way of the sound Samurai, but don’t just make your magazines noisy. Think of yourself as a DJ and make sure each track complements the rest of the content in your magazine. You can use music to accompany your magazine or a related interview or podcast to mix things up and give your audience a break from reading. You can even record your own narrative or music, upload it to SoundCloud and flip it into your magazine.

Whatever you decide to do with sounds, be sure to have fun doing it.

Keep flipping AND jamming!

– Deemanator is reading Electronic Dance Music Nation