Last year, SoundCloud upgraded its AAC encoder for the first time in over a decade. The new one (Fraunhofer’s libfdk_aac) delivers higher…
Soundcloud
https://developers.soundcloud.com/blog/ · 408 posts · history since 2012 · active
18 Jun
Last year, SoundCloud upgraded its AAC encoder for the first time in over a decade. The new one (Fraunhofer’s libfdk_aac) delivers higher…
16 Jun
In May we opened self-service app registration for Artist Pro subscribers. That fixed the browser flow. Two requests kept coming up anyway…
In May we opened self-service app registration for Artist Pro subscribers. That fixed the browser flow. Two requests kept coming up anyway…
18 May
Have you ever had a brilliant idea for a music app, a custom playlist curator, or a unique way to discover underground tracks on SoundCloud…
Have you ever had a brilliant idea for a music app, a custom playlist curator, or a unique way to discover underground tracks on SoundCloud…
15 Sept 2025
At SoundCloud, we’re always looking for ways to improve the listening experience for our creators, partners, and listeners. One of the…
At SoundCloud, we’re always looking for ways to improve the listening experience for our creators, partners, and listeners. One of the…
29 Apr 2025
To all developers using SoundCloud’s public API — we’re introducing an important change that will affect how you reference resources like…
To all developers using SoundCloud’s public API — we’re introducing an important change that will affect how you reference resources like…
3 Apr 2025
A while ago we made an improvement to how track and artist information is displayed on SoundCloud, making it clearer and easier to…
A while ago we made an improvement to how track and artist information is displayed on SoundCloud, making it clearer and easier to…
2 Dec 2024
tl;dr: If your app doesn’t store SoundCloud access tokens outside of the context of a user’s client (i.e. a database) the following should…
tl;dr: If your app doesn’t store SoundCloud access tokens outside of the context of a user’s client (i.e. a database) the following should…
23 Apr 2024
Earlier this year, we updated our API Guide to let developers know that SoundCloud authentication is now operating on the OAuth 2.1 protocol…
Earlier this year, we updated our API Guide to let developers know that SoundCloud authentication is now operating on the OAuth 2.1 protocol…
31 Jul 2023
Large Screen Devices - The New Frontier SoundCloud large screen optimized Recently, the Android team at SoundCloud took on a project to…
Large Screen Devices - The New Frontier SoundCloud large screen optimized Recently, the Android team at SoundCloud took on a project to…
2 Jun 2023
We’re working on improving our API offering. In order to do that, a few changes are coming: We need to revoke access for some of you with…
We’re working on improving our API offering. In order to do that, a few changes are coming: We need to revoke access for some of you with…
6 Jan 2023
I recently celebrated my one year anniversary as a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) trainee at SoundCloud. Looking back, I had very little…
I recently celebrated my one year anniversary as a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) trainee at SoundCloud. Looking back, I had very little…
11 Nov 2022
We recently made updates to our SoundCloud iOS and Android apps to address key user experience (UX) fixes according to user feedback. We’ll…
We recently made updates to our SoundCloud iOS and Android apps to address key user experience (UX) fixes according to user feedback. We’ll…
25 Oct 2022
In an earlier blog post, we talked about how we changed the interview process during remote working as a way of improving our recruiting…
In an earlier blog post, we talked about how we changed the interview process during remote working as a way of improving our recruiting…
17 Oct 2022
We recently made updates to our SoundCloud iOS and Android apps to address key user experience (UX) fixes according to user feedback. We’ll…
We recently made updates to our SoundCloud iOS and Android apps to address key user experience (UX) fixes according to user feedback. We’ll…
13 Oct 2022
The SoundCloud Android app recently got a significant makeover: a “new year, new me” type of thing. Our remarkable design team and…
The SoundCloud Android app recently got a significant makeover: a “new year, new me” type of thing. Our remarkable design team and…
19 Sept 2022
We’ve seen considerable adoption of our internal humane registry, Services Directory, since we sanitized ownership definition and introduced…
We’ve seen considerable adoption of our internal humane registry, Services Directory, since we sanitized ownership definition and introduced…
2 Aug 2022
SoundCloud has a variety of resource groups, and one such group is called Women in Engineering, or WINE. The mission statement of the group…
SoundCloud has a variety of resource groups, and one such group is called Women in Engineering, or WINE. The mission statement of the group…
12 Jul 2022
The first step to any code review is understanding what the code does and why. Although the author is by far the most qualified person to…
The first step to any code review is understanding what the code does and why. Although the author is by far the most qualified person to…
19 Apr 2022
I’m a backend developer who worked extensively writing code in Golang before joining SoundCloud. SoundCloud mostly uses Scala for its…
I’m a backend developer who worked extensively writing code in Golang before joining SoundCloud. SoundCloud mostly uses Scala for its…
14 Mar 2022
This is the story of how we used the Strangler pattern to migrate our public API from a monolithic codebase to a fully fledged BFF over the…
This is the story of how we used the Strangler pattern to migrate our public API from a monolithic codebase to a fully fledged BFF over the…
1 Feb 2022
In a previous blog post, we explained how we built an internal pull-based exception monitoring service called Periskop — which is heavily…
In a previous blog post, we explained how we built an internal pull-based exception monitoring service called Periskop — which is heavily…
6 Jan 2022
Imagine yourself as an engineer who just joined SoundCloud. Besides meeting your colleagues and getting your new laptop, badge, and that…
Imagine yourself as an engineer who just joined SoundCloud. Besides meeting your colleagues and getting your new laptop, badge, and that…
13 Oct 2021
This article discusses the powerful design choice of Apache Kafka, “an open-source distributed event streaming platform,” and gives a sneak…
This article discusses the powerful design choice of Apache Kafka, “an open-source distributed event streaming platform,” and gives a sneak…
17 Sept 2021
This article is the last part in a series of posts aiming to cast some light onto how service architecture has evolved at SoundCloud over…
This article is the last part in a series of posts aiming to cast some light onto how service architecture has evolved at SoundCloud over…
20 Aug 2021
This article is part of a series of posts aiming to cast some light onto how service architecture has evolved at SoundCloud over the past…
This article is part of a series of posts aiming to cast some light onto how service architecture has evolved at SoundCloud over the past…
29 Jul 2021
This article is part of a series of posts aiming to cast some light onto how service architecture has evolved at SoundCloud over the past…
This article is part of a series of posts aiming to cast some light onto how service architecture has evolved at SoundCloud over the past…
14 Jul 2021
There’s no single platform team that consists of only web engineers at SoundCloud, even though we consider ourselves to be part of the “Web…
There’s no single platform team that consists of only web engineers at SoundCloud, even though we consider ourselves to be part of the “Web…
1 Jul 2021
As part of our continuous effort toward making improvements to our API with the hope that we can relaunch API access to all developers, we…
As part of our continuous effort toward making improvements to our API with the hope that we can relaunch API access to all developers, we…
25 May 2021
SoundCloud was founded 13 years ago, and throughout its history, the company and much of its tech stack has changed. We started with a…
SoundCloud was founded 13 years ago, and throughout its history, the company and much of its tech stack has changed. We started with a…
6 May 2021
You can now retrieve metadata for our full SoundCloud catalog through our API by providing the new filter in your request. Until recently…
You can now retrieve metadata for our full SoundCloud catalog through our API by providing the new filter in your request. Until recently…
29 Apr 2021
It seems like a simple enough concept: You take data from how your users interact with your product, and you use it to make business and…
It seems like a simple enough concept: You take data from how your users interact with your product, and you use it to make business and…
20 Apr 2021
In a product company, changes are inevitable so as to best support the strategy and the vision. Often during such a change, new teams are…
In a product company, changes are inevitable so as to best support the strategy and the vision. Often during such a change, new teams are…
16 Mar 2021
As a part of our efforts to improve API use, we’re introducing a new object that’s more up to date with our current data model. The…
As a part of our efforts to improve API use, we’re introducing a new object that’s more up to date with our current data model. The…
11 Mar 2021
Paging Doctor Software In the past, on-call duty was often associated with doctors, but in recent years, it’s become common for software…
Paging Doctor Software In the past, on-call duty was often associated with doctors, but in recent years, it’s become common for software…
24 Feb 2021
SoundCloud’s iOS codebase faced a radical change a couple of years ago. The team had decided to modularize the codebase into frameworks…
SoundCloud’s iOS codebase faced a radical change a couple of years ago. The team had decided to modularize the codebase into frameworks…
2 Feb 2021
Testing is at the heart of engineering practices at SoundCloud. We strive to build well-balanced test pyramids within our code repositories…
Testing is at the heart of engineering practices at SoundCloud. We strive to build well-balanced test pyramids within our code repositories…
25 Nov 2020
I started my journey as an Engineering Manager at SoundCloud close to a year ago. This came after working as a Software Engineer for more…
I started my journey as an Engineering Manager at SoundCloud close to a year ago. This came after working as a Software Engineer for more…
16 Oct 2020
“To me, legacy code is simply code without tests.” — Michael Feathers If untested code is legacy code, why aren’t we testing data pipelines or ETLs (extract, transform, load)? In particular, data pipelines built in SQL are rarely tested. However, as software engineers, we know all our code should be tested. So in this post, I’ll describe how we started…
“To me, legacy code is simply code without tests.” — Michael Feathers If untested code is legacy code, why aren’t we testing data pipelines or ETLs (extract, transform, load)? In particular, data pipelines built in SQL are rarely tested. However, as software engineers, we know all our code should be tested. So in this post, I’ll describe how we started…
21 Sept 2020
As part of our efforts to improve our APIs, we’re introducing updates on how we paginate over tracks. This only affects developers and apps…
As part of our efforts to improve our APIs, we’re introducing updates on how we paginate over tracks. This only affects developers and apps…
11 Aug 2020
Code refactoring is an essential part of the job of software developers. As time goes on, technology evolves, product requirements change…
Code refactoring is an essential part of the job of software developers. As time goes on, technology evolves, product requirements change…
17 Jul 2020
DeveloperBridge is a year-long, full-time, paid traineeship program where participants learn from and work with engineering teams at…
DeveloperBridge is a year-long, full-time, paid traineeship program where participants learn from and work with engineering teams at…
30 Jun 2020
Please also see Part 1: Rethinking the Backend Engineering Interview Take-Home Challenge and Part 2: The Recruiting Perspective and Results…
Please also see Part 1: Rethinking the Backend Engineering Interview Take-Home Challenge and Part 2: The Recruiting Perspective and Results…
26 Jun 2020
Please also see Part 1: Rethinking the Backend Engineering Interview Take-Home Challenge Among the engineering groups at SoundCloud, backend…
Please also see Part 1: Rethinking the Backend Engineering Interview Take-Home Challenge Among the engineering groups at SoundCloud, backend…
25 Jun 2020
Technical Interview Reform, Part 1: Rethinking the Backend Engineering Interview Take-Home Challenge
Most SoundCloud backend engineers have good feelings about the old backend engineering take-home challenge. It’s commonly been characterized…
Technical Interview Reform, Part 1: Rethinking the Backend Engineering Interview Take-Home Challenge
Most SoundCloud backend engineers have good feelings about the old backend engineering take-home challenge. It’s commonly been characterized…
12 Jun 2020
A previous post on this blog ended with the following paragraph: “We might also replace JSON with a more efficient serialization protocol…
A previous post on this blog ended with the following paragraph: “We might also replace JSON with a more efficient serialization protocol…
20 May 2020
Stretch opportunities are tasks or projects that are a bit beyond your current skill or knowledge level and that allow you to improve and…
Stretch opportunities are tasks or projects that are a bit beyond your current skill or knowledge level and that allow you to improve and…
5 May 2020
A little while back, the web team at SoundCloud got an urgent report that our upload page looked weird in the US. Web engineering is based…
A little while back, the web team at SoundCloud got an urgent report that our upload page looked weird in the US. Web engineering is based…
16 Mar 2020
Periskop is an exception monitoring service that we built here at SoundCloud. It was designed with microservice environments in mind, but it…
Periskop is an exception monitoring service that we built here at SoundCloud. It was designed with microservice environments in mind, but it…
3 Mar 2020
The topic of datasets is not new, and they have been successfully used at SoundCloud for analytics purposes for a long time. In this blog…
The topic of datasets is not new, and they have been successfully used at SoundCloud for analytics purposes for a long time. In this blog…
20 Feb 2020
Planet Earth vs. Jupiter. There is the same order of magnitude between the ratio of these two planets and the amount of code that defined…
Planet Earth vs. Jupiter. There is the same order of magnitude between the ratio of these two planets and the amount of code that defined…
7 Feb 2020
My first six months at SoundCloud as an iOS engineer on the Recommendations team have just finished. In that time, I’ve already contributed…
My first six months at SoundCloud as an iOS engineer on the Recommendations team have just finished. In that time, I’ve already contributed…
30 Jan 2020
A large portion of an Android app’s build time can consist of Dagger annotation processing, and most developers agree that productivity is…
A large portion of an Android app’s build time can consist of Dagger annotation processing, and most developers agree that productivity is…
20 Jan 2020
At KotlinConf 2019, I talked about the power of types. In essence, I discussed limiting the number of primitives we use in our code in favor…
At KotlinConf 2019, I talked about the power of types. In essence, I discussed limiting the number of primitives we use in our code in favor…
8 Nov 2019
Last week’s update to the SoundCloud iOS app includes support for Dark Mode. This took several months of work and collaboration between…
Last week’s update to the SoundCloud iOS app includes support for Dark Mode. This took several months of work and collaboration between…
1 Oct 2019
This is part two in a series about solving Gradle remote build cache misses. Solving build cache misses is important to both avoid work that…
This is part two in a series about solving Gradle remote build cache misses. Solving build cache misses is important to both avoid work that…
30 Aug 2019
Until recently, one of the top technical risks facing SoundCloud’s Android team was increasing build times. Our engineering leadership was well aware of the problem, and it was highlighted in our company’s quarterly goals and objectives as modularization. Faster build times means more productive developers. More productive developers are happier and can iterate on products more quickly. Modularization is key…
Until recently, one of the top technical risks facing SoundCloud’s Android team was increasing build times. Our engineering leadership was well aware of the problem, and it was highlighted in our company’s quarterly goals and objectives as modularization. Faster build times means more productive developers. More productive developers are happier and can iterate on products more quickly. Modularization is key…
21 Jun 2019
Media and playback are at the core of SoundCloud’s experience. For that reason, we have established and grown an engineering team that is specialized in providing the best possible streaming experience to our users across multiple platforms. To do this, we combine the industry’s best-fitting solutions with our own custom technologies, libraries, and tools. In this article, let’s dive into…
Media and playback are at the core of SoundCloud’s experience. For that reason, we have established and grown an engineering team that is specialized in providing the best possible streaming experience to our users across multiple platforms. To do this, we combine the industry’s best-fitting solutions with our own custom technologies, libraries, and tools. In this article, let’s dive into…
4 Jun 2019
If there is anything like a silver bullet for creating meaningful and actionable alerts with a high signal-to-noise ratio, it is alerting based on service-level objectives (SLOs). Fulfilling a well-defined SLO is the very definition of meeting your users’ expectations. Conversely, a certain level of service errors is OK as long as you stay within the SLO — in other…
If there is anything like a silver bullet for creating meaningful and actionable alerts with a high signal-to-noise ratio, it is alerting based on service-level objectives (SLOs). Fulfilling a well-defined SLO is the very definition of meeting your users’ expectations. Conversely, a certain level of service errors is OK as long as you stay within the SLO — in other…
3 May 2019
Maestro is a library we have developed to handle all playback across SoundCloud web applications. It successfully handles tens of millions of plays per day across soundcloud.com, our mobile site, our widget, Chromecast, and our Xbox application. We are considering open sourcing it, and this blog post is a technical overview of what we’ve achieved thus far with Maestro.
Maestro is a library we have developed to handle all playback across SoundCloud web applications. It successfully handles tens of millions of plays per day across soundcloud.com, our mobile site, our widget, Chromecast, and our Xbox application. We are considering open sourcing it, and this blog post is a technical overview of what we’ve achieved thus far with Maestro.
18 Apr 2019
We’re excited to announce the launch of our public bug bounty program with Bugcrowd — the #1 crowdsourced security platform. This public program is open to Bugcrowd’s full crowd of top, trusted whitehat hackers, and we will award up to $1,500 per vulnerability identified on our website, API, and mobile apps.
We’re excited to announce the launch of our public bug bounty program with Bugcrowd — the #1 crowdsourced security platform. This public program is open to Bugcrowd’s full crowd of top, trusted whitehat hackers, and we will award up to $1,500 per vulnerability identified on our website, API, and mobile apps.
3 Apr 2019
Once every two weeks, we prepare new versions of our mobile apps to be published to the app stores. Being confident about releasing software at that scale — with as many features and code contributions as we have and while targeting a wide range of devices like we do at SoundCloud — is no easy task. So, over the last…
Once every two weeks, we prepare new versions of our mobile apps to be published to the app stores. Being confident about releasing software at that scale — with as many features and code contributions as we have and while targeting a wide range of devices like we do at SoundCloud — is no easy task. So, over the last…
21 Mar 2019
In the past, the Search Team at SoundCloud had high lead times for making updates to Elasticsearch clusters, either during the implementation of a new feature or simply while fixing a bug. This was because both tasks require us to reindex our catalog from scratch, which means reindexing more than 720 million users, tracks, playlists, and albums. Altogether, this process…
In the past, the Search Team at SoundCloud had high lead times for making updates to Elasticsearch clusters, either during the implementation of a new feature or simply while fixing a bug. This was because both tasks require us to reindex our catalog from scratch, which means reindexing more than 720 million users, tracks, playlists, and albums. Altogether, this process…
6 Mar 2019
Last month we launched SoundCloud Premier Distribution, which allows creators to distribute their music from SoundCloud to many other…
Last month we launched SoundCloud Premier Distribution, which allows creators to distribute their music from SoundCloud to many other…
15 Feb 2019
Although it can be easy to know if you’ve messed up badly as a manager, it’s not always as easy to know if you’re doing a good job. In…
Although it can be easy to know if you’ve messed up badly as a manager, it’s not always as easy to know if you’re doing a good job. In…
24 Jan 2019
The SoundCloud Xbox application is a regular React Redux application that runs in a native web view wrapper on Microsoft’s UWP framework. In…
The SoundCloud Xbox application is a regular React Redux application that runs in a native web view wrapper on Microsoft’s UWP framework. In…
23 Nov 2018
Almost every company accumulates tech debt as time goes on. Tight deadlines, changing requirements, scaling issues, poor or short-sighted system designs, knowledge silos, inconsistent coding practices, turnover of key staff — these things all happen and can contribute to tech debt. So what can be done about it once it’s there?
We write a lot of unit tests while working on the SoundCloud iOS application. Unit tests are obviously great. They’re short, they’re…
Almost every company accumulates tech debt as time goes on. Tight deadlines, changing requirements, scaling issues, poor or short-sighted system designs, knowledge silos, inconsistent coding practices, turnover of key staff — these things all happen and can contribute to tech debt. So what can be done about it once it’s there?
We write a lot of unit tests while working on the SoundCloud iOS application. Unit tests are obviously great. They’re short, they’re…
2 Nov 2018
The current SoundCloud iOS App was built back in 2014, resulting in a huge codebase consisting of both Objective-C and Swift, with multiple…
The current SoundCloud iOS App was built back in 2014, resulting in a huge codebase consisting of both Objective-C and Swift, with multiple…
19 Sept 2018
SoundCloud is built on hundreds of microservices. This creates many challenges, among them debugging latency issues across the services…
SoundCloud is built on hundreds of microservices. This creates many challenges, among them debugging latency issues across the services…
29 Aug 2018
At SoundCloud, we follow best practices around continuous delivery, i.e. deploying small incremental changes often (many times a day). In…
At SoundCloud, we follow best practices around continuous delivery, i.e. deploying small incremental changes often (many times a day). In…
6 Aug 2018
Nowadays, it’s rather common to encounter Apache Spark being utilized in a lot of companies that need to process huge amounts of data, and things aren’t any different here at SoundCloud — as one can imagine, we have lots of data to process all the time.
Nowadays, it’s rather common to encounter Apache Spark being utilized in a lot of companies that need to process huge amounts of data, and things aren’t any different here at SoundCloud — as one can imagine, we have lots of data to process all the time.
25 Jul 2018
Sometimes, an important team that’s part of an otherwise healthy company culture starts tanking and the people on the team get frustrated and even quit. In this article, I want to share what I learned when I started to manage a team — referred to as the R Team from here on out — that had huge problems when I…
Sometimes, an important team that’s part of an otherwise healthy company culture starts tanking and the people on the team get frustrated and even quit. In this article, I want to share what I learned when I started to manage a team — referred to as the R Team from here on out — that had huge problems when I…
22 Jun 2018
Agile retrospectives are a widely used practice within engineering teams. They provide teams with a way to reflect on how they work and become better at what they do. One of the main benefits of retrospectives is that they empower teams to define and make changes by analyzing what happened in an iteration and by determining what can be improved…
Agile retrospectives are a widely used practice within engineering teams. They provide teams with a way to reflect on how they work and become better at what they do. One of the main benefits of retrospectives is that they empower teams to define and make changes by analyzing what happened in an iteration and by determining what can be improved…
5 Jun 2018
Or, how to raise a project from the dead with tools you probably have lying around at home.
Or, how to raise a project from the dead with tools you probably have lying around at home.
24 May 2018
An absolutely crucial part of the experience of being an engineer at SoundCloud is learning and growing as a person. Pretty much everyone we hire mentions this aspect as one of their main motivations for joining the company. And while retaining highly talented and motivated people and helping them develop is naturally valuable for SoundCloud as a company, it’s also…
An absolutely crucial part of the experience of being an engineer at SoundCloud is learning and growing as a person. Pretty much everyone we hire mentions this aspect as one of their main motivations for joining the company. And while retaining highly talented and motivated people and helping them develop is naturally valuable for SoundCloud as a company, it’s also…
11 May 2018
Track play counts are essential for providing a good creator experience on the SoundCloud platform. They not only help creators keep track of their most popular songs, but they also give creators a better understanding of their fanbase and global impact. This post is a continuation of an earlier post that discussed what we do at SoundCloud to ensure creators…
Track play counts are essential for providing a good creator experience on the SoundCloud platform. They not only help creators keep track of their most popular songs, but they also give creators a better understanding of their fanbase and global impact. This post is a continuation of an earlier post that discussed what we do at SoundCloud to ensure creators…
4 May 2018
Testing mobile applications is not always an easy feat. In addition to defining what to test and determining how to write those tests, actually running tests can also be problematic — in particular, UI test suites running on real mobile devices or emulators sometimes run for an extensive amount of time.
Testing mobile applications is not always an easy feat. In addition to defining what to test and determining how to write those tests, actually running tests can also be problematic — in particular, UI test suites running on real mobile devices or emulators sometimes run for an extensive amount of time.
26 Mar 2018
One challenge engineering teams often face is dealing with work that doesn’t revolve around developing new features but that still requires the team’s attention and time. The Content Engineering Team here at SoundCloud is no exception, so we iterated on a process to deal with unplanned and support tasks to end up with fewer interruptions and more time to spend…
One challenge engineering teams often face is dealing with work that doesn’t revolve around developing new features but that still requires the team’s attention and time. The Content Engineering Team here at SoundCloud is no exception, so we iterated on a process to deal with unplanned and support tasks to end up with fewer interruptions and more time to spend…
26 Jan 2018
Apple introduced automated UI testing in Xcode 7. This was a great addition for developers because this native support promised, among other things, an improvement in the flakiness notoriously associated with automation tests. As many of us developers have experienced, tests can sometimes fail even when there has been no modification to the test or underlying feature code.
Apple introduced automated UI testing in Xcode 7. This was a great addition for developers because this native support promised, among other things, an improvement in the flakiness notoriously associated with automation tests. As many of us developers have experienced, tests can sometimes fail even when there has been no modification to the test or underlying feature code.
24 Jan 2018
SoundCloud consists of hundreds of millions of tracks, people, albums, and playlists, and navigating this vast collection of music and personalities poses a large challenge, particularly with so many covers, remixes, and original works all in one place.
SoundCloud consists of hundreds of millions of tracks, people, albums, and playlists, and navigating this vast collection of music and personalities poses a large challenge, particularly with so many covers, remixes, and original works all in one place.
18 Jan 2018
Back in 2016, the SoundCloud People Team collaborated with engineering management in an effort to bring more junior engineers into the…
Back in 2016, the SoundCloud People Team collaborated with engineering management in an effort to bring more junior engineers into the…
7 Dec 2017
A little less than two years ago, SoundCloud began the journey of replacing our homegrown deployment platform, Bazooka, with Kubernetes. Kubernetes automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
A little less than two years ago, SoundCloud began the journey of replacing our homegrown deployment platform, Bazooka, with Kubernetes. Kubernetes automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications.
16 Oct 2017
Growth in code bases come with exciting scalability challenges. As the size of our iOS codebase and team at SoundCloud grew, we faced challenges: long compile times and conflicts. Our productivity started to suffer as a result. We took inspiration from the work done in the backend (Building Products at SoundCloud) and applied it to mobile development. The main goal…
Growth in code bases come with exciting scalability challenges. As the size of our iOS codebase and team at SoundCloud grew, we faced challenges: long compile times and conflicts. Our productivity started to suffer as a result. We took inspiration from the work done in the backend (Building Products at SoundCloud) and applied it to mobile development. The main goal…
4 Oct 2017
Here at SoundCloud, we’ve been working on helping our Data Scientists be more effective, happy, and productive. We revamped our organizational structure, clearly defined the role of a Data Scientist and a Data Engineer, introduced working groups to solve common problems (like this), and positioned ourselves to do incredible work! Most recently, we started thinking about the work that a…
Here at SoundCloud, we’ve been working on helping our Data Scientists be more effective, happy, and productive. We revamped our organizational structure, clearly defined the role of a Data Scientist and a Data Engineer, introduced working groups to solve common problems (like this), and positioned ourselves to do incredible work! Most recently, we started thinking about the work that a…
27 Sept 2017
Product development flow (flow) is the rate at which our products are developed, from idea to deployment. Good flow means that products should pass through the development cycle quickly and continuously.
Product development flow (flow) is the rate at which our products are developed, from idea to deployment. Good flow means that products should pass through the development cycle quickly and continuously.
28 Jul 2017
If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, you might be aware that we have been transitioning to a microservices based architecture over the past four to five years, as we have shared insights into the process and the related challenges on multiple occasions. To recap, adopting a microservices architecture has allowed us to regain team autonomy by breaking up…
If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, you might be aware that we have been transitioning to a microservices based architecture over the past four to five years, as we have shared insights into the process and the related challenges on multiple occasions. To recap, adopting a microservices architecture has allowed us to regain team autonomy by breaking up…
28 Jun 2017
A method for signing in to a device that doesn’t have a keyboard When we were developing our SoundCloud app for Xbox One, something became very obvious during usability testing: signing in with a game controller really sucks. Entering text requires navigating a virtual keyboard to individual letters, numbers, and characters one at a time – such a nightmare! Plus,…
A method for signing in to a device that doesn’t have a keyboard When we were developing our SoundCloud app for Xbox One, something became very obvious during usability testing: signing in with a game controller really sucks. Entering text requires navigating a virtual keyboard to individual letters, numbers, and characters one at a time – such a nightmare! Plus,…
20 Jun 2017
Once upon a time, we had a single monolith of software, one mothership running everything. At SoundCloud, the proliferation of microservices came from moving functionality out of the mothership. There are plenty of benefits to splitting up features in this way. We want the same benefits for our data as well, by defining ownership of datasets and ensuring that the…
Once upon a time, we had a single monolith of software, one mothership running everything. At SoundCloud, the proliferation of microservices came from moving functionality out of the mothership. There are plenty of benefits to splitting up features in this way. We want the same benefits for our data as well, by defining ownership of datasets and ensuring that the…
7 Dec 2016
Building and operating services distributed across a network is hard. Failures are inevitable. The way forward is having resiliency as a key part of design decisions. This post talks about two key aspects of resiliency when doing RPC at scale - the circuit breaker pattern, and its power combined with client-side load balancing.
Building and operating services distributed across a network is hard. Failures are inevitable. The way forward is having resiliency as a key part of design decisions. This post talks about two key aspects of resiliency when doing RPC at scale - the circuit breaker pattern, and its power combined with client-side load balancing.
23 Sept 2016
Today we are launching a new API application process. Starting today, developers will need to fill out an application form to request access…
Today we are launching a new API application process. Starting today, developers will need to fill out an application form to request access…
26 Aug 2016
In a previous series of blog posts, we covered our decision to move away from a monolithic architecture, replacing it with microservices, interacting synchronously with each other over HTTP, and asynchronously using events. In this post, we review our progress toward this goal, and talk about the conditions and strategy required to decommission our monolith.
In a previous series of blog posts, we covered our decision to move away from a monolithic architecture, replacing it with microservices, interacting synchronously with each other over HTTP, and asynchronously using events. In this post, we review our progress toward this goal, and talk about the conditions and strategy required to decommission our monolith.
3 Aug 2016
About a year ago we faced an interesting question at SoundCloud: can we build SoundCloud Pulse — our app for creators — with React Native? Is a five-month-old technology mature enough to become part of SoundCloud’s tech stack?
About a year ago we faced an interesting question at SoundCloud: can we build SoundCloud Pulse — our app for creators — with React Native? Is a five-month-old technology mature enough to become part of SoundCloud’s tech stack?
1 Aug 2016
As well as adding new features and updates, we review existing features to see if they’re still beneficial to the community. As we dug into…
As well as adding new features and updates, we review existing features to see if they’re still beneficial to the community. As we dug into…
27 Jul 2016
Since we started breaking our monolith and introduced a microservices architecture we rely a lot on synchronous request-response style communication. In this blog post we’ll go over our current status and some of the lessons we learned.
Since we started breaking our monolith and introduced a microservices architecture we rely a lot on synchronous request-response style communication. In this blog post we’ll go over our current status and some of the lessons we learned.
19 Jul 2016
On Monday this week, the Prometheus authors have released version 1.0.0 of the central component of the Prometheus monitoring and alerting system, the Prometheus server. (Other components will follow suit over the next months.) This is a major milestone for the project. Read more about it on the Prometheus blog, and check out the announcement of the CNCF, which has…
On Monday this week, the Prometheus authors have released version 1.0.0 of the central component of the Prometheus monitoring and alerting system, the Prometheus server. (Other components will follow suit over the next months.) This is a major milestone for the project. Read more about it on the Prometheus blog, and check out the announcement of the CNCF, which has…
5 Jul 2016
Over the last 100 years we have dialed into radio stations at home, on the road, or in the office to access a curated mix of top hits delivered to us by our favorite DJ. With more and more of our daily activities taking place online, we find our source of music now comes from a mix of our mobile…
Over the last 100 years we have dialed into radio stations at home, on the road, or in the office to access a curated mix of top hits delivered to us by our favorite DJ. With more and more of our daily activities taking place online, we find our source of music now comes from a mix of our mobile…
21 Jun 2016
With more than 125 million tracks from over 12 million creators heard each month on our platform, SoundCloud is uniquely positioned to offer listeners a full spectrum of music discovery. Classic hits, the latest releases, gems from underground talent and the best of what’s up-and-coming – all in one place. How can you make great content discoverable and available at…
With more than 125 million tracks from over 12 million creators heard each month on our platform, SoundCloud is uniquely positioned to offer listeners a full spectrum of music discovery. Classic hits, the latest releases, gems from underground talent and the best of what’s up-and-coming – all in one place. How can you make great content discoverable and available at…
1 Jun 2016
With Java 8 now in the mainstream, Scala and Clojure are no longer the only choices to develop readable, functional code for big data technology on the JVM. In this post we see how SoundCloud is leveraging Apache Crunch and the new Crunch Lambda module to do the high-volume data processing tasks which are essential at early stages in our…
With Java 8 now in the mainstream, Scala and Clojure are no longer the only choices to develop readable, functional code for big data technology on the JVM. In this post we see how SoundCloud is leveraging Apache Crunch and the new Crunch Lambda module to do the high-volume data processing tasks which are essential at early stages in our…
13 May 2016
We previously introduced new playlist representations. The compact representation returns only the playlist itself without any of the tracks…
We previously introduced new playlist representations. The compact representation returns only the playlist itself without any of the tracks…
21 Mar 2016
Last week, we open-sourced LightCycle, an Android library that helps break logic out of and classes into small, self-contained components called LightCycles. Components that typically need to be aware of and lifecycle events include presenters, UI tracking code, input processors and more. We’ve been using LightCycle extensively in the SoundCloud Music & Audio and SoundCloud Pulse apps over the last…
Last week, we open-sourced LightCycle, an Android library that helps break logic out of and classes into small, self-contained components called LightCycles. Components that typically need to be aware of and lifecycle events include presenters, UI tracking code, input processors and more. We’ve been using LightCycle extensively in the SoundCloud Music & Audio and SoundCloud Pulse apps over the last…
6 Oct 2015
In part one we described how running into Android’s method limit may leave you unable to build, and offered strategies you can employ to make your app fit into a single DEX file. In this part we share an alternative option: using multiple DEX files.
In part one we described how running into Android’s method limit may leave you unable to build, and offered strategies you can employ to make your app fit into a single DEX file. In this part we share an alternative option: using multiple DEX files.
1 Oct 2015
We are happy to announce version 3.0.0 of our SoundCloud JavaScript SDK. The new SDK improves stream security and content uploading…
We are happy to announce version 3.0.0 of our SoundCloud JavaScript SDK. The new SDK improves stream security and content uploading…
21 Sept 2015
At SoundCloud we have been building for the Android platform since 2010. Much has changed since then: the team has grown, the list of features has grown, and our audience has grown. Today, eight engineers are working full time on the official SoundCloud app, across various areas, with contributions pouring in from other parts of the organization. Due to the…
At SoundCloud we have been building for the Android platform since 2010. Much has changed since then: the team has grown, the list of features has grown, and our audience has grown. Today, eight engineers are working full time on the official SoundCloud app, across various areas, with contributions pouring in from other parts of the organization. Due to the…
16 Jun 2015
At SoundCloud, we’re building an ecosystem where creativity thrives. Developers are an important part of that ecosystem. We’re continually…
At SoundCloud, we’re building an ecosystem where creativity thrives. Developers are an important part of that ecosystem. We’re continually…
8 Jun 2015
Requests for playlists have always included the full track objects contained within. This representation may be convenient for playlists…
Requests for playlists have always included the full track objects contained within. This representation may be convenient for playlists…
18 May 2015
In October 2014, Apple announced that all submissions to the App Store must include 64-bit support by June 1, 2015. The SoundCloud API for…
In October 2014, Apple announced that all submissions to the App Store must include 64-bit support by June 1, 2015. The SoundCloud API for…
2 Feb 2015
The SoundCloud API will be dropping support for offset-based pagination on March 2, 2015, in favor of linked partitioning. To page through a…
The SoundCloud API will be dropping support for offset-based pagination on March 2, 2015, in favor of linked partitioning. To page through a…
26 Jan 2015
In previous blog posts, we discussed how SoundCloud has been moving towards a microservice architecture. Soon we had hundreds of services, with many thousand instances running and changing at the same time. With our existing monitoring set-up, mostly based on StatsD and Graphite, we ran into a number of serious limitations. What we really needed was a system with the…
In previous blog posts, we discussed how SoundCloud has been moving towards a microservice architecture. Soon we had hundreds of services, with many thousand instances running and changing at the same time. With our existing monitoring set-up, mostly based on StatsD and Graphite, we ran into a number of serious limitations. What we really needed was a system with the…
2 Dec 2014
Recently we teamed up with Concurrent Inc., the backers of the data-processing framework Cascading, to do a case study of how we use…
Recently we teamed up with Concurrent Inc., the backers of the data-processing framework Cascading, to do a case study of how we use…
17 Nov 2014
The SoundCloud API will be dropping support for Extensible Markup Language (XML) responses. XML will be phased out on the following schedule…
The SoundCloud API will be dropping support for Extensible Markup Language (XML) responses. XML will be phased out on the following schedule…
15 Sept 2014
When we rebuilt our iOS app, the player was the core focus. The interactive waveform was at the center of the design. It was important both…
When we rebuilt our iOS app, the player was the core focus. The interactive waveform was at the center of the design. It was important both…
7 Jul 2014
Recently, SoundCloud launched the new iOS application which was a complete rewrite of the existing iOS application. The Mobile engineering…
Recently, SoundCloud launched the new iOS application which was a complete rewrite of the existing iOS application. The Mobile engineering…
3 Jul 2014
Here at SoundCloud, in order to provide counts and a time series of counts in real time, we created something called Stitch. Stitch was…
Here at SoundCloud, in order to provide counts and a time series of counts in real time, we created something called Stitch. Stitch was…
13 Jun 2014
In the first two parts of this series, we talked about how SoundCloud started breaking away from a monolithic Ruby on Rails application into…
In the first two parts of this series, we talked about how SoundCloud started breaking away from a monolithic Ruby on Rails application into…
12 Jun 2014
In the previous post, we talked about how we enabled our teams to build microservices in Scala, Clojure, and JRuby without coupling them…
In the previous post, we talked about how we enabled our teams to build microservices in Scala, Clojure, and JRuby without coupling them…
11 Jun 2014
Most of SoundCloud’s products are written in Scala, Clojure, or JRuby. This wasn’t always the case. Like other start-ups, SoundCloud was…
Most of SoundCloud’s products are written in Scala, Clojure, or JRuby. This wasn’t always the case. Like other start-ups, SoundCloud was…
9 May 2014
Let’s talk about the stream. The SoundCloud stream represents stuff that’s relevant to you primarily via your social graph, arranged in time…
Let’s talk about the stream. The SoundCloud stream represents stuff that’s relevant to you primarily via your social graph, arranged in time…
1 May 2014
SoundCloud is pleased to introduce a new major version of the SoundCloud JavaScript SDK. In version 2, we’ve rewritten much of the internal…
SoundCloud is pleased to introduce a new major version of the SoundCloud JavaScript SDK. In version 2, we’ve rewritten much of the internal…
27 Apr 2014
We were counting down the days until Berlin Buzzwords on May 25, when we realised that it would be great if you came too! With that in mind…
We were counting down the days until Berlin Buzzwords on May 25, when we realised that it would be great if you came too! With that in mind…
11 Apr 2014
On Monday, April 7th, 2014, a major security vulnerability in OpenSSL was made public. The vulnerability was filed as CVE-2014-0160 and…
We’ve taken some time to bring all our developer resources together into a single site. In doing so, we’ve reorganized the layout to make…
We’ve taken some time to bring all our developer resources together into a single site. In doing so, we’ve reorganized the layout to make…
On Monday, April 7th, 2014, a major security vulnerability in OpenSSL was made public. The vulnerability was filed as CVE-2014-0160 and…
8 Mar 2014
I’m excited to announce that SoundCloud is sponsoring the development of CocoaPods through a Travis Foundation grant. CocoaPods is an open…
I’m excited to announce that SoundCloud is sponsoring the development of CocoaPods through a Travis Foundation grant. CocoaPods is an open…
20 Feb 2014
The site is a single-page application that displays a multitude of users’ images. At SoundCloud, we use a technique to make the loading of…
The site is a single-page application that displays a multitude of users’ images. At SoundCloud, we use a technique to make the loading of…
23 Oct 2013
Both our Android and iOS teams use the reactive programming paradigm to simplify asynchronous, concurrent code in our native mobile apps…
Both our Android and iOS teams use the reactive programming paradigm to simplify asynchronous, concurrent code in our native mobile apps…
7 Oct 2013
Sketchy is a spam-fighting, open-source software framework developed by SoundCloud engineers Matt Weiden, Rany Keddo, and Michael Brückner…
Sketchy is a spam-fighting, open-source software framework developed by SoundCloud engineers Matt Weiden, Rany Keddo, and Michael Brückner…
20 Sept 2013
SoundCloud has a service-oriented architecture, which allows us to use different languages for different services. With concurrency and…
SoundCloud has a service-oriented architecture, which allows us to use different languages for different services. With concurrency and…
9 Sept 2013
Background When we started to work on the new version of our mobile web app, we knew we wanted to run unit tests on a wide variety of…
Background When we started to work on the new version of our mobile web app, we knew we wanted to run unit tests on a wide variety of…
12 Aug 2013
A common problem in Android development is that you need to jump off the main UI thread to retrieve data from an IO-based source. At…
A common problem in Android development is that you need to jump off the main UI thread to retrieve data from an IO-based source. At…
9 Aug 2013
The lineup for BaRuCo 2013 looks amazing, with speakers such as Aaron Patterson, Katrina Owen, Sandi Metz, and Ruby’s inventor Yukihiro…
The lineup for BaRuCo 2013 looks amazing, with speakers such as Aaron Patterson, Katrina Owen, Sandi Metz, and Ruby’s inventor Yukihiro…
9 Jul 2013
The first Music Hack Day — organized by our very own Dave Haynes — was held in July 2009 in London, UK. Since then there have been over 3…
The first Music Hack Day — organized by our very own Dave Haynes — was held in July 2009 in London, UK. Since then there have been over 3…
25 Apr 2013
Late last year, six women crowded in to a Mitte cafe booth and listened to Berlin Geekettes founder Jess Erickson share her idea: Berlin’s first all-women hackathon. With SoundCloud’s Amelie Anglade the then newly-appointed the Berlin Geekettes Tech Ambassador, we agreed that it was a great idea to produce the hackathon as a partnership between the Geekettes and the women…
Late last year, six women crowded in to a Mitte cafe booth and listened to Berlin Geekettes founder Jess Erickson share her idea: Berlin’s first all-women hackathon. With SoundCloud’s Amelie Anglade the then newly-appointed the Berlin Geekettes Tech Ambassador, we agreed that it was a great idea to produce the hackathon as a partnership between the Geekettes and the women…
16 Apr 2013
The endpoint has traditionally accepted an parameter for ordering results by either creation date or ‘hotness’. The method for calculating…
The endpoint has traditionally accepted an parameter for ordering results by either creation date or ‘hotness’. The method for calculating…
23 Jan 2013
Last weekend, we sponsored and attended our first PennApps, the world’s largest student run hackathon held at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Nearly 500 students participated from a variety of universities across the US and elsewhere. Students were given 36 hours to get into teams, hack on projects, then show them off to the judges. The results were astounding.…
Last weekend, we sponsored and attended our first PennApps, the world’s largest student run hackathon held at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Nearly 500 students participated from a variety of universities across the US and elsewhere. Students were given 36 hours to get into teams, hack on projects, then show them off to the judges. The results were astounding.…
4 Dec 2012
Search is front-and-center in the new SoundCloud, key to the consumer experience. We’ve made the search box one of the first things you see…
Search is front-and-center in the new SoundCloud, key to the consumer experience. We’ve made the search box one of the first things you see…
2 Nov 2012
The web has come a long way. We have APIs that allow developers to create amazing applications quickly, and browser technologies have…
The web has come a long way. We have APIs that allow developers to create amazing applications quickly, and browser technologies have…
2 Oct 2012
On Saturday, we hosted Story Hack Boston along with P2PU and Mashery at the MIT Media Lab. About 50 people from content and technical backgrounds joined us to create new story telling experiences. The crowd was pretty evenly split, which made for a lot of awesome collaboration.
On Saturday, we hosted Story Hack Boston along with P2PU and Mashery at the MIT Media Lab. About 50 people from content and technical backgrounds joined us to create new story telling experiences. The crowd was pretty evenly split, which made for a lot of awesome collaboration.
18 Sept 2012
We’re making some changes to how we manage our App Gallery and wanted to take some time to explain them to you, our developer community. The…
We’re making some changes to how we manage our App Gallery and wanted to take some time to explain them to you, our developer community. The…
30 Aug 2012
Just over a week ago we had our first internal hackathon at SoundCloud. You can read (and listen!) about it on our community blog or read…
This is a story of how we adapted our architecture over time to accomodate growth. Scaling is a luxury problem and surprisingly has more to…
Just over a week ago we had our first internal hackathon at SoundCloud. You can read (and listen!) about it on our community blog or read…
This is a story of how we adapted our architecture over time to accomodate growth. Scaling is a luxury problem and surprisingly has more to…
14 Aug 2012
As some of you might know, we had an outage yesterday. We believe that in every mistake there is something to learn from, so after each…
As some of you might know, we had an outage yesterday. We believe that in every mistake there is something to learn from, so after each…
13 Aug 2012
Today we’re featuring a guest post from our friends at Retronyms. They’ve built some amazing community features into their app Tabletop using the SoundCloud API and have open sourced their CloudSeeder Devkit. This post was written for us by David Shu. David is a software engineer at the Retronyms and has worked on a number of iOS apps, including Tabletop…
Today we’re featuring a guest post from our friends at Retronyms. They’ve built some amazing community features into their app Tabletop using the SoundCloud API and have open sourced their CloudSeeder Devkit. This post was written for us by David Shu. David is a software engineer at the Retronyms and has worked on a number of iOS apps, including Tabletop…
24 Jul 2012
SoundCloud is a polyglot company, and while we’ve always operated with Ruby on Rails at the top of our stack, we’ve got quite a wide variety…
SoundCloud is a polyglot company, and while we’ve always operated with Ruby on Rails at the top of our stack, we’ve got quite a wide variety…
12 Jul 2012
A few weeks ago, I attended News Hack Day in San Francisco. News Hack Days are events that bring together journalists, developers and designers for multi day creative coding and brainstorming sessions. I really like the idea of hack days that bring together people from different backgrounds. After chatting with a few journalists, it became obvious to me that recording…
A few weeks ago, I attended News Hack Day in San Francisco. News Hack Days are events that bring together journalists, developers and designers for multi day creative coding and brainstorming sessions. I really like the idea of hack days that bring together people from different backgrounds. After chatting with a few journalists, it became obvious to me that recording…
6 Jul 2012
There are many approaches to building libraries that wrap HTTP APIs. For many of our officially supported SDKs we chose to build light wrappers around HTTP client libraries with a few added features to make it easier to work with the SoundCloud API. This approach has a few benefits. It guarantees a certain consistency and is relatively easy to maintain.…
There are many approaches to building libraries that wrap HTTP APIs. For many of our officially supported SDKs we chose to build light wrappers around HTTP client libraries with a few added features to make it easier to work with the SoundCloud API. This approach has a few benefits. It guarantees a certain consistency and is relatively easy to maintain.…
29 Jun 2012
SoundCloud loves hack days. Our latest hack day adventure brought us to Music Hack Day in Barcelona and we thought we’d share a bit of the great experience we had there. Photo by Thomas Bonte
SoundCloud loves hack days. Our latest hack day adventure brought us to Music Hack Day in Barcelona and we thought we’d share a bit of the great experience we had there. Photo by Thomas Bonte
26 Jun 2012
Waveforms I’ve worked at SoundCloud for over two years now, and if there’s one thing I do a lot, it’s color waveforms. Tons of them. And, I’ve done it several different ways. Today, Johannes and I are pumped to announce a new JavaScript library called Waveform.js that will assist you in your coloring efforts. But first, let’s take some time…
Waveforms I’ve worked at SoundCloud for over two years now, and if there’s one thing I do a lot, it’s color waveforms. Tons of them. And, I’ve done it several different ways. Today, Johannes and I are pumped to announce a new JavaScript library called Waveform.js that will assist you in your coloring efforts. But first, let’s take some time…
18 Jun 2012
Premiere 1.5 Smashing Pumpkins are using a BETA of the next version of Premiere to debut their new record “Oceania.” Here’s what’s new about the app.
Premiere 1.5 Smashing Pumpkins are using a BETA of the next version of Premiere to debut their new record “Oceania.” Here’s what’s new about the app.
14 Jun 2012
This article is also available in: Serbo-Croatian: Pravljenje novog SoundCloud Armenian: SoundCloud (ձայնամպ) ծրագրավորողների համար The…
This article is also available in: Serbo-Croatian: Pravljenje novog SoundCloud Armenian: SoundCloud (ձայնամպ) ծրագրավորողների համար The…
17 Apr 2012
On Saturday, I joined over a hundred other hackers at HackTO. This has become a regular event in the Toronto tech scene, thanks to excellent organizing by Leila Boujnane and Corey Reid. SoundCloud joined several other API providers, including Atomic Reach, Context.IO, FreshBooks, Shopify, TinEye, Twilio, Trendspottr, WordPress and YellowAPI. The idea behind the event is simple: find a team…
On Saturday, I joined over a hundred other hackers at HackTO. This has become a regular event in the Toronto tech scene, thanks to excellent organizing by Leila Boujnane and Corey Reid. SoundCloud joined several other API providers, including Atomic Reach, Context.IO, FreshBooks, Shopify, TinEye, Twilio, Trendspottr, WordPress and YellowAPI. The idea behind the event is simple: find a team…
11 Apr 2012
In the last weeks we got pretty excited about the idea of using timed comments to create and script rich media experiences. Imagine being able to trigger all kinds of visualizations & interactions for a timed comment while playing a track. Timed Comments with Media
In the last weeks we got pretty excited about the idea of using timed comments to create and script rich media experiences. Imagine being able to trigger all kinds of visualizations & interactions for a timed comment while playing a track. Timed Comments with Media