Transom.org is a terrific site aimed at public radio that does wonderful reviews of audio tools of many sorts.  This post reviews Audioboo and SoundCloud:  “Sharing audio on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter was especially tricky, but new applications are making hosting and sharing audio a simple procedure.” But these tools are much more than this —

SoundCloud is … an application that runs on desktop computers and mobile devices, but it’s more than just a program or a website: it’s a syndication service that can distribute your audio to many destinations; it’s a social networking site that hosts your content and encourages comments, groups, linking and community-building. This has proven attractive to large numbers of independent musicians who post original compositions, remixes and mash-ups. Despite its current preponderance of musical content, SoundCloud can be just as useful to journalists, documentarians and storytellers.  It’s a deep well of audio material of all types, and one could easily spend countless hours browsing though the many submissions. The typical tools of interactive media can help sort through the chaos: if you find something you like, you can follow its creator, explore groups that it’s in, share it with friends as a favorite, add it to a playlist, make comments, etc.

On a more practical level for any kind of audio producer, it offers an easy way to make your tracks available for others to hear. ….You don’t even have to own a recording device, or any additional recording or editing software. If you have a microphone attached to your computer, or one built-in, you can simply press the Record button on the SoundCloud page to create shareable audio.  Recording into the mobile app (for iPhone or Android) is every bit as easy….