Audio-sharing platform SoundCloud has been working on growing its audience of listeners over the past couple of years. It started with a website redesign and today, that laser focus on the listener is coming to the iOS app. The app was previously a “Swiss Army knife,” says Mustafa Sezgin, SoundCloud’s Director of Mobile Engineering. It used to be a tool for both creators and consumers of audio, with the ability to do things like upload audio straight from the app. Now, with simpler navigation, cleaner profile pages and a new interface that’s light on buttons, heavy on gestures, it’s more of a “lean back and enjoy experience,” Sezgin explains.
Streaming audio service SoundCloud has revamped its iPhone app, with Android to follow, as it looks to capitalise on the fact that two-thirds of its listening now happens on mobile devices – up from half six months ago. The update has removed the ability to record audio and upload it to SoundCloud in order to focus on listening, boiled down to three key features. First, there’s a feed of music, either from friends and followed artists, or trending tracks from specific genres. Second, there’s a search function to search for music, comedy, podcasts and other audio from SoundCloud’s entire catalogue. And third, the ability for users to access their personal collection of playlists and liked tracks. Unlike the existing SoundCloud iPhone app, users do not have to be registered and logged in to use it: if they’re not, they can stream the trending tracks instead. Meanwhile, the app is simpler to navigate around, with bigger, bolder artwork for tracks and creator profile pages.
