Back in 2014, Clyp started out as a simple platform to upload audio files - kind of like the Imgur of audio. Then slowly over the years, thanks in part to feedback from many of you, we added more features and worked to create the best place for creators to share audio on the web.

At the same time, we also realized we had to make some money in order to keep the lights on. Turns out hosting millions of audio files is pretty expensive. So we ended up adding premium features like lossless WAV streaming, custom playback widgets, unlimited uploads, and much more. While this helped some, it wasn’t quite enough.

In true 2020 fashion, we will be making some major (and likely quite unpopular) changes to the platform. This was a very tough decision, but we realized it is absolutely necessary for the long-term survival of Clyp.

Effective December 5, 2020 Clyp will be moving to a fully paid platform.

What this means is that after December 5, 2020 we are removing the ability to upload new Clyps to free accounts. The current free tier, known as Basic, will become $3/month or $24/year. We will be offering a discount through the end of 2020 where current free users can upgrade to Basic for only $18/year for the first year (subsequent renewals will be billed at full price). Plus and Pro will remain unchanged.

If you currently have a free account, you will still be able to login and listen to anything you’ve uploaded, leave comments, and download your Clyps - the only thing you will not be able to do anymore is upload new content.

We know this is a big change, but if you can, we hope you’ll continue to support us. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thanks,
The Clyp Team

We’re excited to announce the winners of the Producer Challenge! After 30 days, hundreds of submissions, and some seriously awesome tracks, we have our Grand Prize and Runner-up winners. 

🥇 Grand Prize Winner: INFINITI - Fragmented

🥈 Runner Up Winner: Kooce - Refractions

Notable Mentions

Krohna - Tourmaline

eliderp - memories

Aphelion - Singularity

Thanks to everyone who participated and helped make the Producer Challenge a success!

Tell us a little bit about yourself

My name’s Jonathan and I produce mostly electronic music under the alias Initiation. 2018 marks my 4th year of music production.

What inspired you to start making music?

2012 and 2013 dubstep initially inspired me to try to create my own music, but after I got FL Studio, I probably played around for a week and promptly abandoned the thought of ever doing music. A while later, I rediscovered electronic music through the label Monstercat and decided to try again more seriously.

Tell us about your approach to writing and production.

My production starts with listening. I draw inspiration and ideas from other people’s music, so it’s not difficult for me to start a song, but it does mean I’m fairly unoriginal. Usually if I hear a song I like the vibe of, I just note the part of the song I want to emulate. Doing this for a long period of time has generated me a document full of bits and pieces I can use for inspiration. When I want to write a song, I’ll choose some of these inspirations that I think would work together and then arrange the song. I write quite linearly, from the intro of the song through to the outro, usually starting with a chord progression, bassline and atmosphere, but I know a lot of people start from the drop or with a melody.

What programs, equipment and other tools do you use when producing?

I don’t own a lot of hardware, but I do have a pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50x studio headphones and an Alesis V49 keyboard. I also have a Launchpad which I occasionally play around with. My DAW of choice is FL Studio but I know how to use Ableton; my main instruments are Sylenth, Serum, Kontakt and Absynth. Other than stock plugins, my go-to effects are the Fabfilter Suite and Valhalla reverbs (Room, Shimmer and Vintage Verb), but there are many others I use situationally.

How has Clyp played a role in your production process?

Clyp is my primary platform for uploading works in progress and promoting the projects I have been working on (through featuring). It’s very easy and convenient to reach the community and gather feedback for improvement. It’s also a surprisingly effective way of gaining publicity for not only my works, but myself as a creator. Clyp has truly changed the way I produce away from the studio.

How does the feedback you get influence your production and creation process?

I rely on feedback to push my work to a higher quality. My ears often don’t spot the things other people do, it’s very beneficial to use criticism to drive improvement. I almost always seek feedback on songs once I have finished arranging them.

Who are your influences at the moment?

The music I’m inspired by varies a lot over time. At the moment, I love Aljosha Konstanty’s music, and I have made countless songs drawing from his works (plus some of the people he’s worked with, like October Child and Faodail). Kasbo, Grant and Hundaes are some future-esque producers who I find unique and creatively stimulating. Citylights is a definite favourite for beats, and I think Siren is highly underrated for his unique style across so many different types of music. I love progressive, so Nigel Good and Joe Lyons are among my favourites. There’s many more such as yitaku, Puppet, Shadient, Lights & Motion, Notaker, Gate, Virtual Riot, COPYCATT, Au5 and too many others to name.

Can you share a Clyp you’re currently working on?

This is a song I’m working on at the moment with my close friend Mike, or Avenues, with some bass guitar recorded by kleyna. Mike sent me an old song he’d made and I scrapped the chords from it, rearranged them a bit and we wrote this chill beat inspired by October Child. It’s probably my proudest work to date.

Any tips or advice for other creators/producers/musicians?

For me, music production has always been about moving - I don’t like to dwell on a particular style of music. Trying different sounds and experimenting keeps music production fresh and challenging and offers different reserves of knowledge which can be hugely beneficial to growing your sound. Always try new things.

I personally have avoided hopping on bandwagons or making the hottest, trendiest genres of music. Something which really resonated with me was a small speech Lido gave about making what settles with yourself as an artist. It means, creatively, to pursue what you want to hear and not what the crowd wants. Genuine music is a lot easier to connect with, and creating works which click with you will live longer than ones which are made for others. Stay connected with your art.

That said, avoid steering yourself into shutting out other opinions and only listening to what you want to hear. Listening to criticism is a great way to improve your production quality, especially as a growing producer, and it is certainly a crucial step in my production process. You don’t have to listen to everything but be receptive and open-minded to what others have to say.

Lastly, don’t be afraid of copying the music you like. You’d be surprised how many new techniques and skills you’d learn just from emulating other works.

Tell us a little bit about yourself

I am an electronic music producer from Austria and call myself “Tc-5” or “THE CØSMIC EFFECT”. I actually spend all my time on music, sports and school!

What inspired you to start making music?

It’s actually a pretty long story, but I’ll tell you anyway. It was back in the day when I was playing a lot of different video games. I was searching for background music to listen to when I’m gaming, and I asked a friend what he listens to usually. He said he mainly listens to Monstercat. So I checked out their channel and was amazed by all the cool music and great artists. 

I then had a strong urge to make the same style of music myself, so I searched for “Online Music Maker Programs” and found a free online DAW. And that’s where it all started. First I only used loops and samples, but later learned how to make my own melodies and instruments. Then a friend told me about FL Studio and claimed it’s a lot better than a free online DAW, so I gave it a try and downloaded the demo. It was love at the first try. 

Tell us about your approach to writing and production.

Usually I get ideas for new songs by just listening to music. I then open up FL Studio and begin with a simple melody or a unique instrument. When I have a good idea down and I get inspired I don’t get away from producing till the early morning hours…

What programs, equipment and other tools do you use when producing?

For a DAW I use FL Studio. I also use a lot of good 3rd party VST plugins like Serum, Sylenth1, Nexus, and Spire. I actually don’t have any studio headphones, but I do have really good monitors. I bought the Neumann KH 120 A‘s and they’re awesome. I’ll get the matching subwoofer soon! As an interface I use the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 2nd Gen. 

How has Clyp played a role in your production process?

I always used Clyp to share previews of upcoming tracks and get feedback. At first I didn’t have an account, but then I found that it’s pretty cool to see the process I’ve made over time and look back at my old WIP’s!

How does the feedback you get influence your production and creation process?

I think feedback is a REALLY important step of music production. It’s a great way to improve my music and get opinions from other people. Also when I mix a new song, I get too used to hearing it and don’t notice if a particular part sounds bad. That’s why it’s important to share it with others so they can point out what sounds bad so I can improve it. 

Can you share something you’re currently working on?

This is a very experimental type of project for me because I never tried that genre before. But when I started with the melody I really couldn’t think of another genre that would fit so I tried melodic dubstep. And to be honest, I’m really proud of what I’ve done.

Who are your influences at the moment?

That’s a pretty hard question since I listen to nearly EVERY type of music. I even listen to classical and jazz music. But I get most of my influence from electronic producers like Alan Walker, K-391, Don Diablo and KSHMR. I also get inspired by some Galantis and Martin Garrix songs!

Any tips or advice for other creators/producers/musicians?

Keep working. There truly are no shortcuts around hard work. But the good news is that if you really work your ass off and put in a ton of hours, you will get really good!

Tell us a little bit about yourself

Hey, I’m Trev. I’m an artist that goes under the name ’Astrale’. I’ve been producing for a little over 4 years now.

What inspired you to start making music?

I have no clue what really inspired me to get into music. I guess I just wanted to do it because I thought it would be a great opportunity, and wanted to see what I could do with it.

Tell us about your approach to writing and production.

When it comes to writing and production, I tend to always start off by making a chord progression, that’s always the first thing I do. After that, I usually find myself a groove and tempo, and just work from there.

What programs, equipment and other tools do you use when producing?

The DAW I currently use to produce is FL Studio. The equipment I tend to use on a daily basis is my keyboard and a pair of M-Audio BX5 Speakers. I also have a Roland SPD-SX that I will be using when I have the opportunity to play shows.

How has Clyp played a role in your production process?

Clyp is a very artist friendly platform. That being said, Clyp is like a community at this point. It has played a big role in having other artist’s critique each other and give feedback so they can get better. I think it’s a great place for artists to talk to each other about each other’s music and become better producers and musicians.

Who are your influences at the moment?

My biggest inspirations are constantly changing, because the sound of music is always going to be different as time goes on. I’d say the people I look up to are Puppet, my friend Foria, and Xan Griffin.

Can you share something you’re currently working on?

Any tips or advice for other creators/producers/musicians?

Advice I would give to other creators is to not compare yourself to others. Comparing yourself to others is a great way to not motivate yourself to want to get better. Tutorials do help and all as well and I’m not telling you to not take advantage of them, but I will tell you that improvement comes from experience.

We’re excited to introduce Pro, a new tier of Premium that includes custom embed widgets, larger upload limits, and more. Starting today, when you upgrade to Pro you’ll get access to these awesome new features:

Customized Embed Widgets

• A few weeks ago we released a new, redesigned version of our embed player widget. Well now as a Pro user, you can customize it by adding your colors and swapping the Clyp logo for your own, creating a personalized listening experience that fits your brand. You can test out the new customizable widget here.
  

Larger Upload Limits

• We’ve raised the file size limit to 500mb for Pro users - that’s 20x more than Basic users and 2x more than Plus users. Larger upload limits allow you to upload longer, higher quality files without having to worry about file size. 
  

Embed Unlisted Clyps

• Now as a Premium user (Plus and Pro), you can embed unlisted Clyps using our fancy new embed player widget. 
  

All of these features are available today as part of the new Pro plan. If you have any feedback or suggestions for other features, don’t hesitate to give us a shout.

After 4 weeks, hundreds of submissions and thousands of listens, we officially have our winners for the first ever Producer Challenge. This decision was not easy, but after much deliberation by the judges we narrowed it down to 10 finalists. From there, one grand prize winner and one runner-up winner were selected.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your winners of the Producer Challenge:

🥇 Grand Prize Winner: Astrale - Airborne

🥈 Runner Up Winner: Tc-5 - Crashing Down

Notable Mentions

Chris Ponate - Everywhere

SkEc - Hourglass (Feat. 6 Feet Under)

Martin Belousov - Savant in a Forest

Thanks to everyone who participated and helped make the Producer Challenge a success!

We’re excited to introduce an all-new, completely redesigned embed player widget! While the old widget worked fine, we found it lacked some of the features you can get directly on the site, things like being able to download the Clyp and seeing how many listens or comments a Clyp has. 

Here’s what the new widget looks like: 

Keep in mind the general functionality of the widget hasn’t changed. It’s still very easy to use and embed directly into your page. The main difference is the height of the new widget has increased to 265px from 160px.

Give us a shout if you have any questions about the new widget: hello@clyp.it

We’re excited to share that yearly Premium subscriptions are now available! This means you can pay for an entire year of Premium up front, instead of having to deal with monthly payments.

In addition to yearly subscriptions, we’ve also updated the Premium pricing for all new subscribers. If you’re currently subscribed to Premium, your price will not change.

The new pricing is:

• $72 for a yearly Premium subscription ($6/month, billed yearly)
  
• $12 for a month-to-month Premium subscription
  

If you have any feedback on any of the recent changes, don’t hesitate to reach out directly: hello@clyp.it

Thanks,

Tyson and Jordan

Tell us a little bit about yourself

My name is Sara or Slyleaf. I’m vocalist/musician from the US. I also love playing video games, laughing, and reading.

What inspired you to start making music?

I have been doing music related stuff for a long time now! I was in band and theatre while I was in school, and taught myself piano and guitar while I was in middle school. Singing, however, was just something I kind of always did. I sang in the shower, in the car, around my house… I mostly just liked learning songs that I loved on guitar and singing those. 

I got into this community by just randomly deciding one day a few years back to upload one of my recordings from my phone of me singing. I showed my friends and eventually bought myself a cheap mic and just continued to sing and upload them. I never thought too much about writing music until a producer approached me about singing on his song, so I tried my hand and writing lyrics and melodies for it and it has been rinse and repeat/trial and error ever since then!

Tell us about your creative approach.

The way I write songs is kind of how you would approach writing a paper in an English class. I always make a document and start writing down things related to the theme of the song. This can be specific words I’d like to use, phrases I’d like to include or just ideas or metaphors in general. Once I have a substantial amount of content, I try to rearrange those ideas to be more song-like, or making them rhyme by substituting different words or whatever. Once I have lyrics and everything in mind I basically loop whatever track I’m working on at the time and hum along with my lyrics in front of me until I get a melody I really like.

What programs, equipment and other tools do you use?

I have a Rode NT1A mic and Scarlett Solo interface. To record I use Reaper and to mix/produce I use FL Studio. 

How has Clyp played a role in your creative process?

I really love Clyp for uploading quick WIPs and warmups. It gives me a place to archive them and see what I need to go back and work on more.

How does feedback influence your process?

I really appreciate any kind of feedback I can get on my music. Sometimes after working for hours on a song and hearing the same thing over and over your ears can get very tired; so hearing an opinion from someone who has a fresh ear to the song can really help catch things you might have missed.

Who are your influences at the moment?

Right now I’m VERY into Korean pop music and Japanese indie music. I find myself coming up with melodies that fit into those genres. I’m also hugely into Allie X, Lights, Paramore and CHVRCHES right now, so I also notice I’m taking inspiration from their vocal techniques and lyrical style.

Can you share a Clyp you’re currently working on?

“Better Off” is a collaboration with Koi. The lyrics are about gaining momentum again after leaving a relationship and getting over the awkwardness.  All production was done by Koi and the lyrics and vocals were done by me, along with some rough processing for the demo. 

Any tips or advice for other creators?

My advice to producers: Don’t be discouraged to branch out and try new things. Get inspired and use that to your advantage! Make music to express your emotions and share your music to convey those emotions to others. These should be your priorities when creating music :)

My advice to vocalists: If you are collaborating with a producer, don’t be afraid to communicate with them! Make sure that when they send you a mixdown that you are happy with the way your voice sounds. Also producers be mindful of your vocalists wishes :)