Soundtrap is a

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ...

online cross-platform

digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integr ...

(DAW) for browsers that allows users to create music or podcasts. The DAW is operated by Soundtrap AB, which was bought by

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active use ...

in November 2017. Soundtrap is offered in 15 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, and Swedish, with the latter four being added in 2017. The DAW includes inputs for external instruments, an instrument player, a way to input and export MIDI files, collaboration features, Patterns BeatMaker (introduced in 2017) and a built-in autotune provided by Antares Audio Technologies.

History

Soundtrap - Jonas Lundquist, Vanja Steinholtz & Linnéa Rodén 8 - MTFCentral Hack Camp (2015-09-20 15

Soundtrap and Soundtrap AB were founded April 1, 2012 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

, Sweden by Björn Melinder, Fredrik Posse, Gabriel Sjöberg, and Per Emanuelsson, who believed that it was too "complex to make music" and who wanted to create a studio with collaboration and “a full production environment where you can do professional-sounding podcasts, collaboratively done on the web.” Soundtrap Studio was launched in beta in 2013. The next year, it was featured at

Google I/O Google I/O (or simply I/O) is an annual developer conference held by Google in Mountain View, California. "I/O" stands for Input/Output, as well as the slogan "Innovation in the Open". The event's format is similar to Google Developer Day. Hi ...

. In 2016, Soundtrap raised $6 million in their

Series A round A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exch ...

of financing. Soundtrap logo (pre-2017)

In November 2017,

acquired Soundtrap, with Soundtrap stating that the move was a "culturally, creatively and strategically" great fit. The company had revenues of 900,000 kronor, making it one of Spotify's most expensive acquisitions. In 2018, Soundtrap won the EdTech Awards for the Arts, Music, Creative Solutions Category. The next year, it offered unlimited projects for the free tier without having to upgrade to a better plan.

Programs

Soundtrap is split into three programs: Soundtrap for Music Makers, Soundtrap for Storytellers, and Soundtrap for Education.

Soundtrap for Education

Soundtrap for Education was introduced in 2015, being showcased in 2016 at the Future of Education Technology Conference as a way for teachers and students of all ages to explore creative sound making in a safe and secure environment as well as at home. The program is COPPA,

GDPR The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union regulation on data protection and privacy in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and of human rights law, in parti ...

and

FERPA The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA or the Buckley Amendment) is a United States federal law that governs the access to educational information and records by public entities such as potential employers, publicly funded ...

compliant and is compatible with

Google Classroom Google Classroom is a free blended learning platform developed by Google for educational institutions that aims to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process o ...

and Soundtrap for Storytellers. The program was named "The Best Website for Teaching and Learning" in 2015 by the

American Association of School Librarians The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is a division of the American Library Association (ALA) that has more than 7,000 members and serves primary school and secondary school librarians in the U.S., Canada, and even internationally. P ...

and was featured on

Google for Education Google for Education is a service from Google that provides independently customizable versions of several Google products using a domain name provided by the customer. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditiona ...

's "Creative Apps for Chromebooks" in 2016. It was also given by

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

, saying that the dashboard was easy to use and that the "extensive video tutorials and support features facilitate use of this tool to its fullest potential." In March 2020, Soundtrap for Education was made free for the fall semester due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. That same year, it was named the "Music Education Solution of the Year" by EdTech.

Soundtrap for Storytellers

Soundtrap for Storytellers was introduced on May 24, 2019 as a way for people to create

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

s. The program includes a transcript feature which can record and automatically transcribe a voice, a tool to edit the transcript, and a tool for managing shows and episodes as well as directly upload podcasts to Spotify. Then in October 2019, the transcription feature was expanded to include

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

. The program also has a way to remotely interview guests and to create your own jingle. The program was created to help podcasters with editing, transcribing, remote interviewing, and adding sound effects, as well as having one platform to create podcasts with. According to the CEO of Soundtrap AB, Per Emanuelsson, Soundtrap for Storytellers "helps teachers differentiate instruction for students of all abilities within one classroom, giving students a compelling way to channel their thoughts and perspectives." Soundtrap for Storytellers has been described as the "

Google Docs Google Docs is an online word processor included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google, which also includes: Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Forms, Google Sites and Google Keep. Go ...

of podcasting."

Soundtrap for Music Makers

Soundtrap for Music Makers was introduced in 2020 and has more features than the free tier, including

Auto-Tune Auto-Tune (or autotune) is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances. Auto-T ...

, more instruments, and sounds from Splice and

Freesound Freesound is a collaborative repository of Creative Commons licensed audio samples, and non-profit organisation, with more than 500,000 sounds and effects (as of May 2021), and 8 million registered users (as of March 2019). Sounds are uploade ...

References

{{Digital audio workstations Music software Digital audio workstation software Music looping Soundtrack creation software