SoundCloud’s Major ‘Next’ Upgrade Leaves Beta, Mobile Due 12/6
The major redesign and upgraded Next SoundCloud has launched from private
beta and is now the platform for all SoundCloud users. The
re-engineered platform increases engagement more than 30% over the
previous version, according to the company. New features allow users
to more easily:
- Discover new music: A new Explore page invites new users
to discover original music and audio from SoundCloud’s. There's also improved search, related sounds
suggestions, and Continuous Play. - Connect with sound creators and new audiences: An enhanced
Facebook sign-up allows new users to find their Facebook friends on
SoundCloud to both share with and discover music from those they’ve ‘liked’ to follow them on SoundCloud as well. - Share what you hear: Sets allow curation of sounds they like in
a single waveform. Reposts let friends, fans and followers share
sets and sounds within the community. Sound creator s and curators can also get real-time notifications of comments and reposts.
On this Thursday, December 6th, a mobile upgrade will allow users will be able to
enjoy reposts, updated mobile search, and UX updates on both iOS and Android.
SoundCloud use is continuing to grow with creators now posting 10+ hours of music and audio every minute. The platform
now reaches over 180 million people – 8% of the entire internet
population – every month.
I’m disappointed to say the least. Why oh why would the SC guys go through all the trouble of “private beta” if they dont care what we think. If it wasn’t for great apps like My Cloud Player – powered by SoundCloud today would have been doomsday for me. Thanx alot
disagree. while no service is perfect, soundcloud allows me to share my and others’ sounds easily with fb, tumblr etc., and ppl don’t need to sign up to hear them, unlike spotify. quality is great, and as there’s no video (like youtube or vimeo) ppl (like me) can listen easily on devices that are a few years old and not capable of sending you to Mars. so far, so good..
They apologized to me in an email that going live with the “Next” soundcloud was “uncomfortably early”. As musicians and paid subscribers we were making suggestions on the beta version but they went their own way.
On the plus side we all want more listeners so that is a good thing. There are also things that I like. The search feature is superior to the classic version. The “sets” feature lets me promote music by other musicians. But a lot of us are on there to co-write music, or find other musicians to work on tracks and give each other support so ‘Commenting’ on the tracks is really important. Now the comments are hard to read and write. Many musicians are switching back to Classic until SC goes through the growing pains. But that is what it is. They will work through it hopefully. They should respond to the anger that is brewing with the content providers.