When we first built the app we figured that sometimes people want to express a message without a visual. i.e. tell a joke, play a song on the guitar - all with

When we first built the app we figured that sometimes people want to express a message without a visual. i.e. tell a joke, play a song on the guitar - all without having to worry about what you look like or how somethings being filmed. The other issue we were trying to solve with other audio related networks were the lack of time constraints. A 3-5 minute clip is a long time for a 'synchronous' activity like listening to audio. I can't just browse the clip like I can a Tweet. So we figured by limiting the sounds to 45 seconds or less, listeners would be risking less of their time and creators would be more concise. Today, people use Soundtribe mainly for singing. It's been really fun to watch it evolve over time. I'd say 90% of the clips are teenage girls singing with the 'Chipmunk' filter. What this tells me is there are a ton of self conscious vocalists out there that are unsure about their natural voice. The filters help ease people into sharing their voice while being less self conscious. The service is built like Twitter where your clips are meant to be a one-to-many broadcast. It seems like most people using the service want to build an audience, so we post certain clips on the homepage. If your account is private, your posts will not appear there. Good call on the scroll bar. That was one of those small features that I spent WAY too much time implementing- and its turned out to actually be impractical.