Soundcloud Joins The Vertical Feed Craze With The New Discovery Feature

March 7, 2023

SoundCloud, the popular music streaming platform, is testing a new feature for music discovery that will feel familiar to users of TikTok and other social media apps. The feature is a vertical feed highlighting short clips of AI-powered songs personalized to each user’s tastes. The company hopes that the feature will make it easier for users to discover new artists and songs and stay engaged with the platform.

How the Discover page works on SoundCloud’s iOS and Android apps

The new feature is currently tested on SoundCloud iOS and Android apps with a selected group of users. These users will see a new “Discover” page, along with the existing “Following” page, under the Feed tab. Previously, the Feed tab only showed new tracks from artists the user was following and reposts from friends. According to SoundCloud, the discover page will display songs “depending on your listening history and musical taste.”

Personalized Recommendations with captions explaining why they’re included

One of the critical features of the new discovery feature is personalized recommendations. SoundCloud’s AI will analyze each user’s listening history and preferences to suggest new songs and artists that they might like. What’s more, each recommendation will come with a caption explaining why it’s recommended. For example, a user might see the caption “Because you follow A” or “Because you liked B” next to a recommended track.

Enhance SoundCloud’s offerings with Musiio Previews and AI-powered discovery

SoundCloud is rolling-out 30-second previews of each track to make the discovery feature even more helpful. Artists can choose their own clip to highlight or rely on Musiio’s AI technology to pick the most attention-grabbing part of the song. Musiio is a startup that SoundCloud acquired last year, intending to improve music discovery on the platform.

Easy Access to Track Information, Commenting, and Playlists with Revamped Page Design

Along with the new discovery feature, SoundCloud has also redesigned the page for each track to make it easier to engage with the music. Users can now easily access information about the track, such as the artist’s name and title, and leave comments or add the track to a playlist. SoundCloud has also kept its “like” button, which allows users to save tracks to their “Liked tracks” list, rather than replacing it with a “plus” button as Spotify has done.

SoundCloud Wants to be the Ultimate Music Discovery Platform

With the new discovery feature and its other recent innovations, SoundCloud is positioning itself as the ultimate music discovery platform. Thus, combining AI-powered recommendations with short previews and easy access to track information, the company hopes to make it simple for users to find and engage with new music. While other platforms like Spotify and Resso have also experimented with vertical feeds and AI-powered recommendations, SoundCloud aims to be the first to bring all of these ingredients together in one place.

SoundCloud’s impressive stats and recent transformations

Soundcloud is one of the world’s largest music streaming platform platforms, with over 130 million “engaged fans” and more than 320 million tracks from 40 million creators. However, the company has faced financial challenges in recent years and had to lay off 20% of its workforce. Thus, SoundCloud has introduced innovative programs like fan-powered royalties, which allow smaller artists to earn money from user subscriptions or ad revenues based on the artists they listen to.