Dear Freesounders,
As promised, here are some plots and charts and insights we got after analysing the more than 1,300 survey responses that you filled in some weeks ago. Warning: you’ll see some box plots in this post which might look strange. These are not really hard to interpret. In general, the more concentrated the “box” is in the top scores, the better.
Let’s start with your answers to the question “I’d describe myself as…”:
I’d describe myself as a…![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170902175827im_/http://blog.freesound.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-11-at-11.26.25.png)
NOTE: this question (and some others below) multiple responses where accepted per participant. The percentage shown in the figure is calculated over total number of participants in the survey (therefore the sum of all bars > 100%).
Apparently, Freesound user profiles are quite heterogeneous :). A similar observation can be made looking at your responses about what do you use the sounds you download for:
The Freesound sounds I download, I use them…
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170902175827im_/http://blog.freesound.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-11-at-11.31.33.png)
And, again, we also observe significant heterogeneity in the kinds of sounds you’re interested in finding:
In particular, I’m interested in finding the following kinds of sounds:
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170902175827im_/http://blog.freesound.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-11-at-11.35.59.png)
The previous chart can be compared with the termcloud that we showed in our previous 2016 in numbers blog post, it seems to be quite well aligned, doesn’t it?
Even though you are interested in a wide variety of different sounds, the survey responses tell us that, when searching in Freesound, users typically end up finding what they’re looking for (or at least some other useful sounds). Also, the quality of uploaded sounds is also generally well valued.
When I search in Freesound…![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170902175827im_/http://blog.freesound.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-11-at-11.51.15.png)
And how often do you use Freesound? Well, apparently most of you are quite regular users and use Freesound at least a couple of times a month…
I normally use Freesound…![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170902175827im_/http://blog.freesound.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-11-at-11.55.15.png)
…but the majority of users only download sounds, do not upload:
I use Freesound…![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170902175827im_/http://blog.freesound.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-11-at-11.56.36.png)
This is nothing new. In fact, we know from our data that less than 1% of users do upload sounds (way less that what the survey suggests). This kind of balance between uploading/downloading (i.e. producing/consuming) is quite normal in the web.
For the questions regarding Creative Commons licenses, it seems that Freesound users are generally aware of Creative Commons licenses and consider them to be important (including downloaders). Also, there seems to be a tendency of users who would like to be able to use more CC licenses than those currently offered (CC0, CC-BY, and CC-BY-NC), but this does not seem to be a very generalized or strong claim.
About Freesound and Creative Commons licenses![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170902175827im_/http://blog.freesound.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-11-at-11.43.46.png)
Finally, lets finish this post with a chart with the things you like the most about Freesound…
What are the things you like the most about Freesound?![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170902175827im_/http://blog.freesound.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-11-at-16.02.00.png)
Apparently you like lots of things about Freesound :), most prominently that fact that Freesound is free to use (as long as their sounds when license requirements are met), but also very importantly you value its philosophy and community of users.
Again, thanks for your participation in the survey, this certainly gives us insights to continue working in the future!
frederic