SoundCite beta, in-line audio tool, ready to use

https://vimeo.com/68383495

Knight Lab officially took the wraps off of SoundCite this week, our most recent tool for content creators. In a nutshell, SoundCite makes it incredibly easy for web publishers and writers to include in-line audio in their stories.

We released an alpha version a month or two back and WBEZ's Jim DeRogatis used it to give a profile of Chance the Rapper more depth by allowing readers to hear the lyrics DeRogatis cited in his piece.

Indeed, music reviews were the original inspiration for SoundCite, but we can imagine it as an effective way to  give readers quick access to clips of 911 calls, speeches, or even ambient sound. The only requirement is that the audio be hosted on SoundCloud. Unfortunately, because of SoundCloud's embed technology, it doesn't yet work on iPhones and other iOS-enabled devices. But don't fret! Your text will still appear and the reader will not even be aware of the missing clip.

SoundCite is open-source and available on GitHub. We encourage you to contribute in any way you wish — fork it, send us pull requests or just let us know what you think. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with just using the tool, either.

And if you find it useful, send a thank-you to SoundCite's creators: Knight Lab student fellow and Medill student Tyler Fisher and Medill assistant professor Jeremy Gilbert.

Check out the video above for a quick tutorial on how SoundCite works and be sure to send us any feedback: knightlab@northwestern.edu.

About the author

Ryan Graff

Communications and Outreach Manager, 2011-2016

Journalism, revenue, whitewater, former carny. Recently loving some quality time @KelloggSchool.

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