When comparing SoundCloud vs Amazon Digital Music Store, the Slant community recommends SoundCloud for most people. In the question“What are the best ways of finding new music?” SoundCloud is ranked 2nd while Amazon Digital Music Store is ranked 30th. The most important reason people chose SoundCloud is:
Links to related music, based on what you're listening to, can be found in the sidebar.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Recommendations
Links to related music, based on what you're listening to, can be found in the sidebar.
Pro Subscribe to artists
You can subscribe to artists to be notified the instant they upload a new song or give an update.
Pro Explore tab has new music constantly
Explore tab on SoundCloud shows trending music that can be filtered based on genre/tag. There's a constant stream of new music.
Pro Follow people
You can follow people with similar tastes or that often find new music. When they favorite a song, SoundCloud will notify you about it.
Pro Free to use
You don't even have to log in or sign up for an account if you don't want to.
There are paid options for if you want to upload large quantities of audio (eg if you're a music label you'll need this), but it's free to download as much and as often as you like.
Pro Pre-releases
Some music labels, especially newer ones, release on SoundCloud before anywhere else.
Pro Creative Commons filter
SoundCloud allows for finding music that is licensed under Creative Commons.
Pro Amazon recommends other bands purchased by customers who purchased the current music listed
Amazon has a feature called "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" that will show artists that customers purchased who also purchased the current artist shown.
Pro All songs can be previewed
Amazon has a play button next to each song that allows for all songs to be previewed, enabling the listener to tell if the music is any good.
Cons
Con Can't do an advanced search
You can't search, for example, for Creative Commons music with the tag #trap. It could be useful to search for music you like that is under Creative Commons.
Con Interface is full of bugs
The SoundCloud website has tons of problems, including issues with notifications, favorites, and uploading sounds.
Con Audio ads in some uploaded content
Some content on SoundCloud includes audio ads, particularly sponsored podcasts.
(Note that SoundCloud itself doesn't add these - all the audio you're hearing is exactly as it was uploaded.)