SoundCloud takes on Spotify's Discover Weekly feature with new 'Buzzing Playlists'

SoundCloud has launched a new set of playlists under the “Buzzing Playlists” moniker to highlight up-and-coming tracks from artists.

There are playlists for pop, hip-hop, R&B, and electronic music, and they feature tracks from artists who are part of SoundCloud’s Next Pro paid subscription program. SoundCloud said it looks at signals like repeat plays, playlist adds, likes, comments, and reposts to add tracks to Buzzing Playlists, which are updated every week.

Last year, the company launched a First Fans program that suggests new tracks to people in autoplay mode to help artists reach their first 100 listeners with a new release. The company said it used machine learning to match people’s music tastes to a song’s profile, and the top tracks from this experiment are suggested to 1,000 users.

The company said it has analyzed over 3.5 million tracks since it released First Fans in June 2023. It noted that Next Pro artists have seen a 400% rise in the number of listeners due to this feature.

The company noted that tracks featured in Buzzing Playlist have a chance of being highlighted further in SoundCloud charts or editorial playlists based on their performance.

Buzzing Playlists feels like SoundCloud’s take on Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists, though the latter suggests music that you may not have heard before based on your listening history.