SoundCloud Unveils Next; Revamped Web App

The folks that brought SoundCloud, the popular audio-sharing platform have today, unveiled a completely redesigned web-based application. The new application will start off in private beta with the developers already sending out ten thousand invites today alone. The application which is called ‘Next’ has been launched “uncomfortably early” according to Alexander Ljung, chief officer at SoundCloud. He explains that in order to complete the app and make it official, the developers want feedback from the community. He deems it necessary in order to get the application into “fighting shape” and ready for its next step, which is a public beta in a few months.

Reportedly, the application has been optimized to work on all browsers and mobile devices with an improved social-sharing that allows the ability to repost anything you might like. In addition to that, real-time notifications have also been added and they work when someone adds a new sound or likes on one of yours. According to the team behind the project, the UI has been revamped to feature a sleeker waveform player, profile pages and simpler navigation. That said however, the features that SoundCloud wants to highlight with it are all audio-related.

Users will be allowed to create and share sets of favorite files which apparently appear as one clean waveform. The team has also enabled users to listen to any file in the background without getting interrupted while browsing the new site. On top of that, continuous playing has also been enabled thus making the repetitive hitting of the ‘play’ button moot. As for where SoundCloud wants to take its ‘Next SoundCloud’ over the next few months, co-founder Eric Wahlforss said, “A lot of cool things we are able to do are under the HTML5 umbrella. This would mean that the developers will be using HTML5; which it previously ditched ‘Flash’ for, in order to bring about new and interesting experiences to users of its next web-browser based application. That is something that might be interesting and we should keep an eye out for it. Did you receive an invite to be part of the private beta for the web-app?

Pradeep Chandrasekaran
Categories: Audio, Web