SoundCloud is making a significant push to deepen user engagement and redefine music discovery by rolling out a suite of new social features. The platform is shifting its focus from purely algorithmic suggestions to a more communal and personal experience, placing friends’ and followed artists’ tastes at the center of the listening journey. This evolution aims to foster a more vibrant and connected community, offering users ways to explore music through trusted human curation.
Diving into “Liked by Your Crew” and Social Discovery
At the heart of this update is the introduction of “Liked by Your Crew,” a dynamic, daily-refreshed playlist that curates songs actively enjoyed by a user’s friends and the artists they follow. This feature, prominently displayed on the homepage, transforms passive listening into an active, shared experience. Instead of relying solely on algorithms to suggest what to listen to next, users can now tap into the genuine musical preferences of their social circle. Complementing this is “Liked by Playlists,” a scrollable carousel that aggregates playlists built directly from the collective likes of friends and followed artists, essentially creating living mixtapes curated by one’s network. This approach moves beyond anonymous data points to leverage the power of social endorsement in music discovery.
Expanding the Social Ecosystem: Trending Tracks and Personalized Picks
Beyond friend-centric discovery, SoundCloud is also bolstering its platform-wide trending features. The new “Trending Track wall” (or “Trending Trackwall”) serves as a visual, feed-style list that highlights popular songs currently making waves across the service. This feature includes filters for specific genres and moods, allowing users to efficiently navigate the vast library and find top tracks that align with their current preferences without sifting through endless playlists. For mobile users, SoundCloud has introduced “Hot for You,” a daily personalized recommendation that surfaces a single trending track based on individual listening habits, offering a blend of personal relevance and platform popularity. Additionally, a “recommendation to follow” feature, presented as a mobile-exclusive carousel, suggests users, artists, and even real-life friends who share similar musical tastes, facilitating the expansion of a user’s network and musical exploration.
SoundCloud’s Strategic Pivot: Community, Competition, and User Control
These enhancements signal a strategic pivot for SoundCloud, a platform long known for its role in nurturing independent musicians and unique remixes. The company is actively working to transform itself into a more personalized social network for music aficionados, directly addressing the increasing saturation of the music streaming market by emphasizing its community roots. This move is also a response to the broader trend in the industry, with competitors like Spotify and Apple Music also investing in their social capabilities. SoundCloud’s CEO, Eliah Seton, and other leaders like Devi Mahadevia (Chief Growth Officer) and Marni Greenberg (SVP & Head of Communications) are guiding this strategy. The company emphasizes that these updates are about increasing transparency and user control, clarifying how profile information and on-platform activities like likes, comments, and follows power new discovery features. While most features are opt-in, users are advised to check settings for privacy controls, as like activity was public by default and now plays a more prominent role.
The Impact on Artists and the Future of Music Exploration
The integration of these social elements aims to create a more dynamic ecosystem for both listeners and creators. For fans, the promise is a more serendipitous and personally curated music discovery experience, reducing the effort of finding new top tracks and viral hits through the endorsements of people they trust. For artists, these features could offer a more direct route to gaining exposure and reaching new audiences by tapping into existing fanbases and social connections. SoundCloud’s strategy suggests a belief that taste is a team sport, aiming to make music discovery less about passive consumption and more about active, community-driven exploration across all forms of entertainment, including music, fashion, and technology. This direction aligns with the platform’s historical strength in fostering community and is being rolled out across its web, iOS, and Android applications.
Conclusion: A Socially-Driven Soundscape
SoundCloud’s latest wave of features, spearheaded by “Liked by Your Crew,” represents a deliberate effort to amplify its social DNA and create a more engaging, human-centric music discovery engine. By leveraging the power of social connections, the platform aims to offer a richer experience that goes beyond algorithmic recommendations. As these new tools integrate into the user experience, SoundCloud is positioning itself to be a more connected and vibrant hub for music lovers and creators alike, reinforcing its place in the competitive landscape of digital entertainment.
