Xfinity and SoundCloud bring world cup songs to Atlanta

Soccer fans walking the Atlanta Beltline Eastside Trail near Krog Street Market got an unexpected invitation this week: step into a soundproofed booth, pick a beat, and record a song about the “Beautiful Game.”

The Xfinity x SoundCloud Mobile Booth, a fully wrapped mobile recording studio, popped up along the Beltline’s covered breezeway near Krog Street Market from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., giving passersby a chance to work with a live audio engineer and walk away with a track of their own.

“We really wanted to be a part of Atlanta during this incredible time period where the World Cup is happening in the states,” said Katy Garcia, senior account manager at SoundCloud, “Our platform really identifies with a lot of the creators and people here in Atlanta, and tying in these light layers of the beautiful game, it just makes sense.”

Garcia said the response exceeded expectations, with several people cycling through the booth throughout the afternoon.

“Everybody’s just kind of like, what is happening here? What can I be a part of?” Garcia said. “We’ve been getting three or four people in and out of the booth. People are also bringing their kids along and just making music. It’s really special.”

One moment stood out to Garcia: a mother and her child recording together.

“They were just so adorable coming up and putting him with the headphones on in there,” Garcia said. “She has to make a song with her child. How cool is that for them? It’s really cool to just be the middle person between that, the connector.”

Organizers built three tracks for the activation, each pulling from different genres to reflect both Atlanta’s hip-hop identity and the international flavor of the tournament.

“We’re in Atlanta, so there’s a hip-hop rap track,” Garcia said. “We also wanted to align with other cultures too, so there’s a Latinx reggaeton track and a UK European dance track, lightly aligning with the teams that are at this stage in the beautiful game.”

Scooter Taylor, co-founder of Top Barz, said this marked the second time his team has partnered with SoundCloud on a mobile booth, following a similar activation last August.

“Atlanta is a music city, but not just for the artists and the actual rappers, but for everybody,” Taylor said. “Why can’t everyone jump in the booth? That was our mission from the jump.”

Taylor said the team began planning the World Cup version of the activation back in February and elevated the setup for this run.

“It’s bigger and better,” Taylor said. “The game is literally going on right behind me, and having fans come out who are excited during halftime, making a song about France or making a song about their team, it’s pretty epic.”

Taylor said the range of participants was part of what made the day memorable.

“Whether they’re five or six years old and hearing their voice for the first time, or you’ve got people trying to drop their own mixtape soon on SoundCloud, or people who say, ‘I used to rap, but now I’m an accountant,’ and they still want to do it with their wife or their cousins, it’s been really cool to see how cross-generational music can be,” Taylor said.

Behind the boards were audio engineers DerMaine Jenkins and Malcolm Richardson, who Taylor said have worked every booth activation since the concept began.

“It’s the energy,” Jenkins said. “Sports and music go hand in hand. They’re both rhythm-based, momentum-based. Being out here with everybody already in a 10 mode was excellent.”

Richardson agreed, pointing to the natural overlap between the World Cup atmosphere and the booth’s energy.

“With soccer, it’s the most energetic sport. Everybody loves it,” Richardson said. “They’re bringing that energy into the booth, which is just fun to capture.”

For Richardson, the payoff came in participants’ reactions once they heard the finished product.

“That’s the cherry on top,” Richardson said. “Everybody comes out with a smile on their face. You can tell that they’re feeling it, and it gets their confidence up.”

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