SOUNDCLOUD GETS BUZZED WITH NEW PLAYLISTS

SoundCloud has launched a new feature, the genre-specific Buzzing Playlists, "curated" via fan engagement.

SoundCloud views Buzzing Playlists as a solution to what former Chief Content Officer Tracy Chan referred to last year as “the ‘zero plays’ problem.” Chan cited data from Luminate that illustrated the challenge: 42% of songs on music services have fewer than 10 streams, and 24% have literally zero streams. “At SoundCloud, frankly, we think that sucks,” Chan wrote in a community blog post.

Buzzing Playlists will feature SoundCloud’s Next Pro artists, who’ve signed on to have their music analyzed by the platform’s First Fans recommendation algorithm. Per Soundcloud, "Our new Next Pro feature, 'First Fans,' changes the game. Using AI, we can quickly analyze tracks and surface them to listeners who are likely to enjoy [them]. Even if they're just uploaded and have zero plays."

The Next Pro program has yielded a catalog of 3.5 million songs, SoundCloud says, and Next Pro acts have seen their streams increase by a whopping 400%.

Categorized into pop, hip-hop and rap, R&B and electronic music, the playlists will be updated weekly.

The current Buzzing Electronic playlist finds GALGO, Ramiro Moreno and Sweet Divine in its top three spots. KING HENDRICK$, 6FTUNDER and Casper, meanwhile, top the Buzzing Hip-Hop & Rap chart. And on the Buzzing R&B chart, Micronesian singer AgeJay L0//!K0// has amassed almost 89,000 streams for “KosapwUti_AgeJay (Sleepless Beats),” evidence of the algorithm’s power. Explore further here.

Now, if only we could figure out why we keep getting served ads for vegan yogurt and intestinal-health supplements.