Music discovery is all the rage lately — Spotify recently reported that more than 40 million listeners use its Discovery Weekly playlists, and streaming services from Apple Music to Microsoft’s Groove Music are adding their own discovery features. It was only a matter of time before SoundCloud debuted a similar feature of its own.
On Wednesday, SoundCloud announced in a blog post a new feature by the name of Suggested Tracks. The company says that this feature is powered by its “state-of-the-art machine-learning algorithm,” and similar features from other services, and that it delivers new tracks based on users’ tastes, pulling tunes from SoundCloud’s library of more than 125 million choices. The feature promises tracks from artists you may not be familiar with, but that are similar to what you already love.
If you’re a heavy SoundCloud user already, you’re probably going to get the most out of this new feature, as the company says that the more you listen, the more accurate the algorithm gets. Unlike Spotify’s Discover Weekly, this isn’t a separate playlist, but is more built into the entire interface, whether on the web or via mobile apps. In the blog post, SoundCloud said these tracks will be refreshed “frequently,” though it didn’t specify exactly how often.
Getting started with the new feature differs based on whether you’re using SoundCloud on the web or via a mobile app. On the web, a new Discover tab has been added with Suggested Tracks serving as the centerpiece. In the mobile apps, the feature is integrated into the search field — found in the footer of the iOS app or the header of the Android app.
The blog post mentions that SoundCloud has been built around discovery from the beginning, and it seems this new feature may just be the start. The post promises that even more ways to find more music will be coming in the next few weeks.
