SoundCloud has launched a mobile app that caters to the needs of content creators and musical artists.
The popular iOS and Android music app has unleashed SoundCloud Pulse. The new app works on a simple premise that artists should gain more control over their creations and receive more feedback about their content. It allows them to share beats publicly or privately, track how popular the latest song is, engage listeners in debates in the comment section, and follow various users.
Currently the app only works on Android, but the developers promise more advanced features once the iOS version becomes live. Once the improved software hits the Apple App Store, users get to edit the track info and can easily upload new content.
SoundCloud is taking steps to legitimize its service. It does so by planning a paid subscription service and considering sending labels part of the revenue it makes from the music. SoundCloud Pulse has the potential to attract more indie artists to the pool of sounds the service offers. This would be helpful for the developers, as they are in a tight race with Apple's Music service, which welcomes independent musicians among its ranks.
One of the upsides of Pulse is that it restores a number of features which were present in the initial variant of the app, but were since abandoned. As most of these options were targeted at creators, the new app is a breath of fresh air for them.
Brendan Codey, Senior Marketing Manager at SoundCloud, pointed out that the company made a lot of considerations before deciding to have two apps, one destined for listeners and another for musicians. This allows both applications to be updated regularly while keeping the user experience at its best.
The total number of SoundCloud registered users is 150 million. Each month, 175 million listeners tap into the sound pool of the service. According to a report, the fan base of the music service is younger than Pandora's and Spotify's.
Offering the community of musical artists a well-rounded app is a great way to step up the game for SoundCloud.
The paid subscription service that the company announced to come out "later this year" might use the SoundCloud Pulse as a launching platform, but that remains to be seen when it happens.