SoundCloud announced today that it is introducing a discovery feed reminiscent of TikTok, featuring vertical scrolling and brief song clips. This music streaming platform initially began testing this feature in March, and it will soon become available to all iOS and Android users in the coming days.
With the updated app, users will have the ability to listen to a 30-second snippet of a song, enabling them to decide whether they’d like to hear the full track. If they wish to do so, they can simply tap the play button during the preview to access the complete version.
Artists can select 30-second highlights from their own tracks, but SoundCloud leverages the capabilities of Musiio’s AI technology, a startup it acquired in 2022, to automatically curate the best 30-second segments from songs.
The redesigned discovery feed interface also features convenient shortcuts for adding a song to a playlist or library and for liking a track, ensuring it appears in the “Liked tracks” section for easy access later.
For users who prefer the older following feed format, they can still access it through the “Following” tab at the top of their screens to view content published by artists they follow.
In March, Spotify also unveiled a vertical feed with short previews for both music and podcasts. Additionally, ByteDance’s TikTok Music and Resso rely on vertical feeds for music discovery.
SoundCloud claims to host more than 320 million tracks created by 40 million artists. Although specific details about active users were not provided, a blog post earlier this year indicated it has 130 million “engaged fans.”
The company has been actively working on initiatives to help artists promote their songs and connect with their fan base. In May, it introduced a suite of engagement tools, including features such as analytics and the ability to direct message fans. In June, it began testing a feature called “First Fans,” which guarantees that a new track will be recommended to users with similar musical tastes to give it an initial boost.
In a recent interview with Music Business Worldwide, Emily Lovell, the company’s head of music, revealed that more than 500,000 artists are now part of SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalty program, which was launched in 2021. This program distributes advertising and subscription revenue to artists based on the listening habits of their fans, rather than the traditional pro-rata model that simply counts overall stream numbers.
In an effort to achieve profitability, the company implemented staff reductions of 8% in May. This followed a 20% workforce reduction in August of the previous year.
