Soundsnap

Soundsnap (www.soundsnap.com) is an online sound library with over 100,000 high-quality sound effects, tunes and loops. All of the sounds can be used for any commercial or non-commercial use (although some require attribution to the creator) and are created by Hollywood sound designers and professional music producers. Sounds can be downloaded in either mp3, .wav or aif format and in different bit and sampling rates. Due to the nature of the content on the site, most of its users are other sound designers and music producers, film-makers, web designers and video game developers although it is often used by hobbyists for home videos. It is the largest high-quality sound library on the internet.
Copyright
The Soundsnap website states that

"You can use them in any commercial or non-commercial application (movies, music, theater, video games etc. etc). However, your use has to comply with the Soundsnap license and our terms of use. Our terms make attribution optional- but recommended, and don't allow commercial distribution of the material if it is not transformed at all or included in a derivative work (film, other music). Therefore, you cannot sell CD's with these sounds or re-sell them online as they are- but only as a part of your music, film, website, installation etc."

Follow the link for the full terms of use -
No Free Sounds
On the 27 January 2010, Soundsnap announced in an e-mail to all existing users that new users would no longer receive 5 free sounds per month but would have to pay for all the sounds they downloaded on a credit basis. The existing users were told that they would keep their monthly free sounds allowance and they would be referred to as "Old Skool". Soundsnap's reasoning was that advertising wasn't working out as planned and they said that they would reinvest a lot of the money they earned from this back into making the library better, faster and bigger
Creation
Soundsnap was created in 2008 by Tasos Frantzolas, a sound designer from Athens, Greece. There is no major investor behind the website and with a team of 20 people, Tasos originally managed to get 30,000 sounds onto the website. The same 20 people still run the Cyprus-based company.
Profiles
Like many other media sites such as last.fm, it has a profile/social networking element to it. Users can create a profile and post a picture. They can also put up their favourite sounds from Soundsnap, their personal information, they can comment on other people's profiles and they can join other user's networks. There are also tag clouds and optional contact information. Some users often update their profile with new sounds such as the founder Tasos Frantzolas - click here to see his profile
Forums
This feature is a very widely used one among frequent visitors to the site. It is here that users can make suggestions for sounds they would like to have on the site and new features they think there should be, and they can let others know how they are using their Soundsnap sounds. The forums are listed as : Announcements, Introduce Yourself, Feedback, Feature Requests and Bugs, Soundsnap Rules and Legal, Gear, Software and Techniques, Links to Your Work using sounds from Soundsnap and Events.
Pricing
Sounds can be bought on a prepaid credit system. Users can buy:
5 sounds for 9 USD,
20 sounds for 29 USD,
100 sounds for 99 USD,
200 sounds for 149 USD,
or an Annual Unlimited subscription for 249 USD
The Site is VeriSign secured and users can pay using PayPal.

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