At SHARE Beirut 2012, Thom Cummings of SoundCloud discusses how their platform is making music and other audio files a more interactive and social experience.

SoundCloud allows users to upload and share sounds and turn them into a visual object; users can leave  comments and highlight select points on the sound bar.

Cummings explains that musicians use the platform to promote their brand, allowing fans to interactively discuss and share each song over social their networks. Podcasts likewise use the platform to expand their reach and continue the conversation online.

Thus, SoundCloud is becoming a crowdsourced archive of all types of sounds; from songs to speeches, podcasts to independent compilations. The team hopes that SoundCloud will effectively become an archive of music and sound history as it grows.