Music discovery on SoundCloud

I’ve become an avid user of SoundCloud and got into a few habits that help keep a record of decent tunes I discover as well as encountering new artists and tracks.

First off it’s an absolute gold-mine for music from the underground scene. I appreciate all kinds of music (except Gabba) but SoundCloud is the go-to place to find Techno / (Tech + Deep) House flavours.

As such I tend to look for live sets, which normally have a running time of 1h+. This makes for decent background listening for focus tasks like coding or wind-down timepassing like end-of-day commuting. Funny how this genre works well for different levels of intensity.

Anyway, during these sets a belter will usually drop that deserves a tip of the hat. If it’s during a set I’ll usually put a comment in with some fittingly enthused remark like “dope” (ok maybe something like that, but not that) mainly to mark the point in the set I can go back to later. Then if it’s quality and something I want to get to easily it’ll get a like + repost to publish on my profile.

Reposted tracks makes for an ideal insta-playlist when I just want to play decent vibes without thinking about it. SoundCloud’s profile view makes for an excellent epicentre for your faves. Mash the play button and it’ll glide through the list until you’ve had your fix. Also works well for whacking on a sound system for some easy background sound.

Finally, artists behind the tracks can be easily followed to see more from them in the feed, which helps broaden incoming tracks. Likewise quality can be kept high by unfollowing anything that appears out-of taste. Similar to how you would on twitter.

The trickiest part is hearing an unidentified track in a set. Finding out the ID can be a challenge but worth the reward when you track it down (NPI). Sometimes another user will post it up in a comment, you can always ask, or if it’s super early stage you may even re-encounter it in future with a proper ID.