Sound maps are created by associating landmarks (streets in a city, train stations, stores, pathways, factories, oil pumps, etc.)
Looking to challenge traditional ideas of recording reality, Schafer, along with several college music composers such as Barry Truax and Hildegard Westerkamp, funded the World Soundscape Project, an ambitious sound recording project that led the team based in Simon Fraser University to travel within Canada and out in Europe to collect data on local soundscapes.
[4] However, when those works were first published, the recordings were not available for the public to listen to as the project mainly aimed at building a database of sound over a long period of time.
The NYSoundmap project is the direct result of the NYSAE's interest in collecting and disseminating the city's aural experiences to the general public.
Through the NYSoundmap project, the NYSAE aims to facilitate a dialogue between people from a wide variety of communities and backgrounds - from beginners to professional sound artists and musicians.
The location data and sound recordings were then linked to a map created in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based desktop application.
[11] Sonoteca Bahia Blanca is a virtual platform that aims to provide a common space for the collection, concentration, sharing and distribution of sound through its georeferencing and organization in a database, from a collaborative, supportive cultural practice and community status.