Adding social features to music streaming apps seems like the new norm. For some reason, Spotify now lets you DM people on its platform. This feature has already been available for several years on the community-driven music streaming platform SoundCloud, where you can message artists and other people.
SoundCloud is moving forward with a new collection of features that turn it into an even bigger social butterfly. For starters, it"s getting a "Hot for you" section to display a single recommended track of the day based on your music taste and what"s being shared and liked by other people.
You will be able to keep an eye on what"s trending across your community and the wider platform through a "visual, feed-like tracklist of what’s rising on SoundCloud, filterable by what’s most relevant to you." More like a social media feed, but for music.
SoundCloud is adding two new features to the homepage to help you find new and popular music on the platform. An auto-generated tracklist called "Liked By Your Crew" will put together all the tracks liked by people you follow, including your friends and creators.
If you want to explore the taste of a particular person, SoundCloud will also display a carousel featuring separate playlists of music liked by your friends and artists you follow. On the homepage, SoundCloud will recommend accounts of artists and tastemakers to follow, as well as people you might already know.
SoundCloud says you should follow other people with similar taste in music to optimize your Liked By Playlists even better. It will bring more social discovery features to users and creators in the future.
While these new social features might look enticing, they can raise privacy concerns for some users. By default, you are automatically pulled into these Liked By Playlists, but you can find the option to opt out in SoundCloud"s settings.