Budding young artists are taking to popular music app, SoundCloud, allowing them to connect peers and friends to their music.

   There are Evanston students who have made accounts and have been putting their music up for the community to access their songs. Mainstream artists like Kehlani, Lil Yachty, and Chance the Rapper are among those who got their start on SoundCloud.

     The app allows students a platform to freely publish their music and to grow their sound. But SoundCloud has become part of artistic culture at ETHS, many students of any age are putting their music out, and many of their peers have supported them.

    Basement pop artist and senior Asher White has been working on Bandcamp and Spotify, services similar to SoundCloud, for around six years and argues that streaming services are, above all else, an opportunity to be heard.   

     “You have a lot of kids who don’t have a lot of resources and now have a way to share their art and music at no cost,” White says.

     SoundCloud isn’t just for creators and musicians. ETHS students use the app as a free way to listen to music or hear what their fellow students are putting on the app.

     “I listen to SoundCloud because there are some songs that aren’t on Spotify,” junior Eva Randhava says.

      The different artist and local music make for a wide selection that is hard to come by anywhere else.

   “It’s a big culture. SoundCloud plays a huge role because everyone talks about it, everyone is into it,” senior Jaysun Calhoun says.

   Calhoun has been on SoundCloud for over a year and has posted several songs on the website.  Between school and extracurriculars, students on SoundCloud make time to improve their music. “I work on my music everyday,” Calhoun says. “I wake up, play a beat and I freestyle.”

    “My goal is to be the most played artist of the year before I turn 20,” Calhoun says. Calhoun, like many other teens on the app seek high hopes for their music.

    Another student who is using SoundCloud as a creative outlet is senior Micah Miller who has been making music on the app for nearly seven years. Miller’s music, which mixes hip hop, dream pop and trap, is more than just a way for him to connect with his peers. According to Miller, his art is primarily a form of communication.

     “I can convey the emotions I’m feeling at a particular time,” Miller says. “If I’m feeling nostalgic, depressed, anxious or when I’m just really happy.”

    But what makes this app so accessible to teens, or anyone for that matter, is that posting and producing your own music can now happen without a record deal. Anyone can create and tailor their own sound and release it for the world to hear.

   SoundCloud, Spotify, and comparable music apps allow young peope to share, create and produce music at the touch of a button.

    “Being able to upload your music and share it that easily is a self perpetuating cycle. It inspires me to make more because you have that instant self gratification,” Miller says.

     With this accessibility and the ethusiasm of its contributors, it is no mystery why SoundCloud has taken the youth music scene by storm.