You can submit your sound and get a SoundKey without having to register or login. However, if you want all your sounds to be associated with your username, you may want to register and login.

Even if there is a SoundKey on a particular subject (e.g. how to pronounce 'potato'), you are encouraged to submit your own version. People's and regions' pronunciations vary, and it's good if we get a good sample of all the ways people say, for example, "Harvard Yard".

It's most convenient to record your sound or voice directly on this website.

However, if you prefer, you can upload a file you already have.

• The audio file has to be an MP3 file.
• The audio file has to be less than 1 MB.

• "Learn how to say
  Boise
  like the locals. It's not what you think."

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://soundkey.com/scripts/soundkey_player.js"></script>


Learn how to say <div class="soundkey_player" soundkey="eh2498"> Boise </div> like the locals. It's not what you think.

SoundKeys can appear on

• Facebook profile and status updates
• Twitter profile and tweets
• LinkedIn profile
• Business cards
• Resumes
• Websites
• Blogs
• Message boards
• Email
• Books & eBooks
• Magazine articles
• And many more...

For examples of how you can use SoundKeys today, see SoundKeys in Action

You can listen to SoundKeys on a variety of platforms

• Web browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc)
  • You can use SoundKey.com to look up a SoundKey and hear it from your computer speakers.
  • You can click on a SoundKey link on any webpage or blog to hear it from your computer speakers
  • Also works in the iPhone/iPod/iPad browser, where you hear the sound via your device's speakers

• Smartphone apps* (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, etc)
  • People can look up a SoundKey and hear it from their phone’s speaker

Below is a small sample of the countless uses for SoundKeys

From the more casual:

• Having a discussion on a message board about how something is pronounced?
  • Everyone gets a SoundKey and posts it in the thread.
• Your car is making some weird noise and you want to ask uncle Bob in New York what it might be?
  • Get a SoundKey and send it to him via email or IM
• Going to an Italian restaurant on a first date?
  • Hear how the different foods are pronounced so you can order properly and not look bad in front of your date.

To the more formal:

• Record your name
  • To make sure future business contacts know how to pronounce it .
• Find out how to properly pronounce the names of important people you interact with
  • Potential customers, clients, or colleagues, before you first meet or call them.
  • Your new teachers or new students.
  • Your new doctor or new patient.
• Add a SoundKey to a book or magazine article
  • So your readers can hear what that part of the passage sounds like (e.g. running brook)

SoundKeys can be used for

• Names - Zbigniew Brzezinski, Li Xsiu
• Places - Glouchestershire, Saint-Tropez, La Jolla
• Celebrities - Zooey Deschanel, Saoirse Ronan
• Regional pronunciations - Nuclear, caramel
• Common foreign words - Faux pas, hoi polloi
• Brands - Versace, Dolce Cabbana
• Food - Bruschetta, schnitzel, amuse bouche
• Sounds of nature - A brook, a bird chirp
• Any sound whatsoever

Assume you have the SoundKey abc123. How do you use it?

• In print (business cards, resumes, etc):
  • soundkey.com/abc123
• On Facebook, Twitter, emails, IMs:
  • http://soundkey.com/abc123
• On websites, blogs:
  • <a href=”http://soundkey.com/abc123”> Listen </a>
• On message boards:
  • [url="http://soundkey.com/abc123"] Listen [/url]
• In any browser
  • In address bar: soundkey.com/abc123
• Advanced:
  • Icon: <a class="soundkey_speaker" href="http://soundkey.com/abc123">.</a>
  • Flash player: <div class="soundkey_player" soundkey="abc123"> </div>
  
  Note:
  • Icon can be used instead of a basic HTML link if you want to have a speaker icon instead of a text link, as in the following:
    • "Our talking Cockatoo . was having none of it"
    To do this you need to include the following

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://soundkey.com/scripts/soundkey_embeds.css" type="text/css" />
    
    
    Our talking Cockatoo  <a class="soundkey_speaker" href="http://soundkey.com/j2g633">.</a> was having none of it
    

  • Flash player enables you to have an audio player embedded on your website, which plays the sound in place, as in the following:
    • "Learn how to say
      Boise
      like the locals. It's not what you think."
    To do this you need to include the following

    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://soundkey.com/scripts/soundkey_player.js"></script>
    
    
    Learn how to say <div class="soundkey_player" soundkey="eh2498"> Boise </div> like the locals. It's not what you think.
    

• Every submission gets a random SoundKey, which is a unique 6-digit alphanumeric code associated with the submitted sound
  
  • We will make sure the key is not a word in the dictionary, or a place or person name, or a Trademark.
  • It will not contain letters that can be confused with numbers (e.g. l, o), and will be case-insentitive.

• For a premium, you can get your own “Premium SoundKey” *
  • e.g. bobsmith, kitty
  • Only the owner of a Trademark can get a SoundKey for that Trademark
  • e.g. Only the Coca-Cola company can get a SoundKey called "coke"

• Each SoundKey submission has to have a title and can potentially have some tags
  • e.g. title: "La Jolla", tags: "California"
  • or, title: "Saoirse Ronan", tags: "Actress, Irish"