How to record and upload a sound to SoundGuessr

To add a sound to SoundGuessr, record a place with your phone or a recorder, sign in to the web game and open Upload a sound. The file can be m4a, mp3, wav or aac, 5 seconds to 5 minutes long and up to 25 MB. Put a pin where you made the recording. We listen to every upload before other players hear it.

What makes a good recording?

• Stay quiet while it records and keep conversations out of it. Recordings in which people can be identified or overheard are turned down.
• Keep music out. Music, films and broadcasts belong to someone else, and we can't use them.
• Hold the phone still and keep wind off the microphone. Handling noise and wind cover up the sounds that give a place away.
• Pick sounds that belong to the place: a tram, a market, birds in a park, waves on a beach, a ferry horn, a level crossing.

How do I upload it?

1. Sign in at soundguessr.com/play and open Upload a sound.
2. Choose the file. You can listen to it on the page before you send it.
3. Put a pin on the map where you made the recording. If you are still there, Use my location sets the pin for you. When there is a town within 50 km, its name is filled in from GeoNames. You can change it.
4. If you like, say what can be heard: a language, a bird, an instrument, an animal, or a vehicle or machine from the lists, or a short description of your own (2 to 60 characters) for anything else. Tagged sounds can also be used in Name the sound.
5. Confirm that you recorded it yourself and that it isn't music, a film or someone else's recording. Then upload.

A place name is required. The pin is optional, but without one the sound can't be used in map rounds or the daily five. Players see the place name and your pin after they guess, so don't put the pin on your home.

What happens to the file?

The server checks what the file contains, not what it is called, and re-encodes it to AAC at about 128 kbps in an m4a file. Only the first audio track is kept, and only the re-encoded file is stored. Metadata is removed in the process: the GPS position some phones write into a recording, the names in an MP3's tags, chapters and cover art. The game only uses the place name and pin you entered.

What gets rejected, and why?

Some files are turned down straight away, with a message that says why:

• it isn't an m4a, mp3, wav or aac file, or it can't be read as audio
• it is larger than 25 MB
• it is shorter than 5 seconds or longer than 5 minutes
• it is almost silent: its loudest moment is below −50 dBFS
• the exact same file is already in the game
• you have reached the daily upload limit

Everything else waits for review and shows as Waiting for review in Your sounds. If we turn it down, you see the reason there. We pick from these reasons or write our own:

• Music or other copyrighted audio
• People can be identified or overheard
• Place is wrong or unclear
• Too quiet, broken or just noise
• Not a recording of a place

A rejected upload stays in your list with its reason until you delete it. It doesn't count towards the daily upload limit.

What happens after it's approved?

An approved sound is used in every mode it fits. It can come up in Pick from 4, and with a pin also in On the map and the daily five. If you tagged it, it can come up in Name the sound too. Sounds tagged with a language stay out of the place modes, because the language would give the place away. After each round, players see "Recorded by" and your username.

In On the map, Pick from 4 and Name the sound, your own sounds only come up in your games when there aren't enough others. The daily five is the same for everyone, so it can include one of yours. In Your sounds you can see how often each of your sounds was played in other players' games, and what share of their map guesses landed within 500 km.

Players can report a sound after a round. Once three players have reported it, it is taken out of new games until we have looked at it again.

Can I delete a sound later?

Yes, at any time and in any state. Rounds that were already played keep their result, including the place name and credit. If you delete your account, those rounds show "Recorded by a former player" instead of your username.

Who owns the recording?

You do. By uploading it you allow SoundGuessr to store it, shorten and re-encode it, and play it to other players with your username, place name and pin while it is in the game. Only upload recordings you made yourself. Section 6 of the terms has the full rules.

Where the sounds come from covers the other sources, and how scoring works shows what a guess on your sound is worth.