SoundCloud growth playbook

Publish /llms.txt that summarizes the API and links the LLM context, OpenAPI JSON, API Guide, Widget API and Get an API key pages; add /sitemap.xml with every docs and blog URL and declare it in robots.txt; write titles and descriptions for the homepage and each docs page. Then test the common questions in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity each month and track Artist Pro checkouts that carry the developer portal's referral code.

AI assistants and search engines prefer sources they can find and parse. A one-day change puts SoundCloud's agent-ready docs in front of the developers already asking assistants how to add music to their apps.

[ ] /llms.txt with API summary and links
[ ] /sitemap.xml with all docs and blog URLs
[ ] Sitemap line in robots.txt
[ ] Title and description on every docs page
[ ] Search Console and Bing submission
[ ] Monthly test: 10 questions in 4 assistants
[ ] Referral-coded Artist Pro checkouts tracked

• Assistants change slowly

  Track monthly and keep the files current with each API release.

• Docs drift from the API

  Generate llms.txt from the OpenAPI file on release.

• Your websiteMachine-readable discovery (checked October 21, 2026): /sitemap.xml and /llms.txt both return 404, although /docs/llm-context offers "a compact facts-and-patterns summary optimized for agents" and the Building with AI page gives an OpenAPI JSON, "a reusable system-style prompt" and example prompts for Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude.Source
• HiringSenior Director, Integrated Marketing & Growth (New York, posted August 25, 2026, reporting to the Chief Growth & Marketing Officer): build "SoundCloud's growth operating system", own acquisition, lifecycle, paid media and conversion, "while expanding emerging discovery channels including SEO, AI search, AEO, App Store Optimization, and growth loops", and ensure "our platform remains discoverable in a world increasingly shaped by AI-powered search and recommendation engines".Source
• Competitor researchRival developer portals: Spotify for Developers publishes /llms.txt ("the developer portal for Spotify's platform APIs and SDKs, including the Web API, iOS SDK, Android SDK, Embeds, and more"); Audius publishes /llms.txt for its docs ("Build on the largest open music catalog on the internet"); Apple offers MusicKit.See the research Source
• Your websiteHomepage: title "SoundCloud Developers" with no meta description; a numbered menu led by "01 Building with AI new!" and "02 Get an API key new!"; support points to GitHub issues and Stack Overflow; the footer's "Competition Terms" link opens the terms of the "Berlin Buzzword competition" that ran April 27 to May 5, 2014.Source
• Your websiteGet an API key: "You need a SoundCloud Artist Pro subscription to register API applications and receive credentials"; credentials come from a one-line CLI with "--remote" pairing for "SSH sessions, CI, cloud shells, and coding-agent environments", and the page links to the Artist Pro checkout with a referral code.Source

Fix the base URL in the feed template, render code spans as plain text in summaries, add the post image, and submit the feed to developer newsletters and aggregators.

Clean feeds get reposted; broken ones get skipped, and the blog is SoundCloud's best developer reach (96 Hacker News mentions).

• Readers show old items again

  Keep the same guid values.

• Your websiteBackstage Blog: recent posts on August 11, June 18, June 16 and May 18, 2026 ("Vibe Coding with SoundCloud: Announcing New Docs for your Agents"), then September 2025. In the RSS feed every post link has a double slash ("/blog//one-line-of-python-and-a-3x-drop-in-p99") and summaries lose inline code values ("fell from a steady to ,").Source
• Hacker NewsSoundCloud's engineering work has 96 Hacker News mentions, most recently August 13, 2026; the top story is "Roshi: a CRDT system for timestamped events" (108 points).Source

Move the old terms to an archive URL without a footer link, and put "Changelog" and "Status" in the footer of every page.

Footer links are prime space; current links help developers and remove a sign of neglect.

• Legal wants the terms reachable

  Keep them at the same URL.

• Your websiteHomepage: title "SoundCloud Developers" with no meta description; a numbered menu led by "01 Building with AI new!" and "02 Get an API key new!"; support points to GitHub issues and Stack Overflow; the footer's "Competition Terms" link opens the terms of the "Berlin Buzzword competition" that ran April 27 to May 5, 2014.Source
• GitHubsoundcloud/api, the public repo for bugs and feature requests: 260 stars, 75 open issues, releases on August 14, September 16 and September 30, 2026. Open requests include exposing "Repeat Listeners" and "Fan Support contributions" (October 2026), "User Top Tracks" and "User Track Play Statistics"; widget issues open since 2022 include "Embeddable player fails Accessibility Insights Audit" and "Widget API Play issue with Instagram In-App Browser".Source

Reserve space for the cookie notice (or render it as an overlay that does not push content), set image and font sizes, and watch the field number until it passes.

A stable page feels faster, avoids mis-taps and passes Core Web Vitals on the page that starts the developer journey.

• Consent tool limits

  Use its overlay mode.

• Google PageSpeedDeveloper homepage: mobile performance 70/100 (desktop 83), with the cookie notice as the largest element in the lab (10.6s). Real Chrome visitors to the page get a fast largest paint (1.95s) and responsive taps (177ms) but fail on layout shift: 0.28 against Google's "good" limit of 0.1 (0.09 across the whole site).Source
• Your websiteHomepage: title "SoundCloud Developers" with no meta description; a numbered menu led by "01 Building with AI new!" and "02 Get an API key new!"; support points to GitHub issues and Stack Overflow; the footer's "Competition Terms" link opens the terms of the "Berlin Buzzword competition" that ran April 27 to May 5, 2014.Source

Add a short "What you get" block (API access plus the Artist Pro features), a clear note on who needs it, and an FAQ for teams and students. Track key page views to checkout to first API call, and test the copy.

Developers convert when value is clear; the referral code makes the developer portal a measurable subscription channel.

• Developers object to a paywall

  Explain why (abuse prevention, quality) plainly.

• Your websiteGet an API key: "You need a SoundCloud Artist Pro subscription to register API applications and receive credentials"; credentials come from a one-line CLI with "--remote" pairing for "SSH sessions, CI, cloud shells, and coding-agent environments", and the page links to the Artist Pro checkout with a referral code.Source
• HiringEngineering Manager, Ads (London, posted October 16, 2026): "Advertising is one of SoundCloud's core revenue streams. It earns money directly, and it is also one of the main ways free listeners discover and move to a paid subscription"; the team uses "churn risk, subscription propensity, user LTV" models to set ad load.Source
• HiringSenior Director, Integrated Marketing & Growth (New York, posted August 25, 2026, reporting to the Chief Growth & Marketing Officer): build "SoundCloud's growth operating system", own acquisition, lifecycle, paid media and conversion, "while expanding emerging discovery channels including SEO, AI search, AEO, App Store Optimization, and growth loops", and ensure "our platform remains discoverable in a world increasingly shaped by AI-powered search and recommendation engines".Source

Open a #developers channel with a pinned guide (Building with AI, API key, Widget API), run monthly office hours with an engineer, and send real bugs to the GitHub tracker.

Fast, friendly help keeps new builders going, and their projects become content for the community.

• Support load

  Office hours, not 24/7 help.

• HiringAssociate Community Manager (part-time, New York, posted October 2, 2026): "an active, recognizable presence in SoundCloud's Discord", running daily prompts, "listening parties", "live streams, town halls, Q&As, stage channels, and creator spotlights", and surfacing "feedback and community sentiment to the wider team"; a three-month, 20-hour-a-week role.Source
• Your websiteHomepage: title "SoundCloud Developers" with no meta description; a numbered menu led by "01 Building with AI new!" and "02 Get an API key new!"; support points to GitHub issues and Stack Overflow; the footer's "Competition Terms" link opens the terms of the "Berlin Buzzword competition" that ran April 27 to May 5, 2014.Source
• GitHubsoundcloud/api, the public repo for bugs and feature requests: 260 stars, 75 open issues, releases on August 14, September 16 and September 30, 2026. Open requests include exposing "Repeat Listeners" and "Fan Support contributions" (October 2026), "User Top Tracks" and "User Track Play Statistics"; widget issues open since 2022 include "Embeddable player fails Accessibility Insights Audit" and "Widget API Play issue with Instagram In-App Browser".Source

Publish a gallery of apps and widgets built on the API (with the builders' permission), tagged by use case, with a submission form and the branding kit.

Examples inspire new builds, and featured builders promote the page themselves.

• Low-quality apps

  Review before listing.

• Your websiteWidget API page: parameters, methods, getters, audio and UI event types and a playground for the embedded player; the homepage pitches "Connect your platform to millions of tracks" and "EXPLORE THE EMBEDDED PLAYER"; a Buttons & Logos page offers a branding kit.Source
• Your websiteHomepage: title "SoundCloud Developers" with no meta description; a numbered menu led by "01 Building with AI new!" and "02 Get an API key new!"; support points to GitHub issues and Stack Overflow; the footer's "Competition Terms" link opens the terms of the "Berlin Buzzword competition" that ran April 27 to May 5, 2014.Source
• GitHubsoundcloud/api, the public repo for bugs and feature requests: 260 stars, 75 open issues, releases on August 14, September 16 and September 30, 2026. Open requests include exposing "Repeat Listeners" and "Fan Support contributions" (October 2026), "User Top Tracks" and "User Track Play Statistics"; widget issues open since 2022 include "Embeddable player fails Accessibility Insights Audit" and "Widget API Play issue with Instagram In-App Browser".Source

Fix the top widget issues (Instagram in-app playback, accessibility), add tracked "Listen on SoundCloud" and follow actions, and report plays, follows and sign-ups that start from embeds.

Every embed is free distribution; making it work everywhere and convert turns other sites' traffic into SoundCloud users.

• Platform browser limits

  Fall back to opening the app.

• GitHubsoundcloud/api, the public repo for bugs and feature requests: 260 stars, 75 open issues, releases on August 14, September 16 and September 30, 2026. Open requests include exposing "Repeat Listeners" and "Fan Support contributions" (October 2026), "User Top Tracks" and "User Track Play Statistics"; widget issues open since 2022 include "Embeddable player fails Accessibility Insights Audit" and "Widget API Play issue with Instagram In-App Browser".Source
• Your websiteWidget API page: parameters, methods, getters, audio and UI event types and a playground for the embedded player; the homepage pitches "Connect your platform to millions of tracks" and "EXPLORE THE EMBEDDED PLAYER"; a Buttons & Logos page offers a branding kit.Source
• HiringSenior Director, Integrated Marketing & Growth (New York, posted August 25, 2026, reporting to the Chief Growth & Marketing Officer): build "SoundCloud's growth operating system", own acquisition, lifecycle, paid media and conversion, "while expanding emerging discovery channels including SEO, AI search, AEO, App Store Optimization, and growth loops", and ensure "our platform remains discoverable in a world increasingly shaped by AI-powered search and recommendation engines".Source

Publish a roadmap page with the top 10 requests and their status (planned, exploring, not planned), and ship the first artist-authorized analytics endpoints from the Fan Insights work.

Clear direction keeps developers invested, and analytics endpoints let third-party tools add value for artists.

• Privacy of fan data

  Aggregate and require artist authorization.

• GitHubsoundcloud/api, the public repo for bugs and feature requests: 260 stars, 75 open issues, releases on August 14, September 16 and September 30, 2026. Open requests include exposing "Repeat Listeners" and "Fan Support contributions" (October 2026), "User Top Tracks" and "User Track Play Statistics"; widget issues open since 2022 include "Embeddable player fails Accessibility Insights Audit" and "Widget API Play issue with Instagram In-App Browser".Source
• HiringCreator tools: a Senior Product Designer, Creator Analytics & Tools (posted August 27, 2026) to turn "streaming analytics, audience demographics, and financial metrics" into dashboards; a Senior Full-Stack Engineer, Artist Success (September 25) for "the A&R Dashboard, Fan Insights, and artist-facing growth and insights experiences"; and Android and iOS engineers for Fan Monetization, "building features that enhance how fans engage with and support their favorite artists".Source
• HiringSenior Director, Product Marketing & Market Intelligence (New York, posted August 25, 2026): define positioning "across creator, fan, AI, subscription, and monetization experiences", build "market and audience intelligence" tracking "music, AI, and the creator economy", and run "always-on feedback loops" with "creator councils and advisory panels".Source

Invite the top 20 tools artists use to a partner program: early API access, a co-marketing kit using the Buttons & Logos guidelines, a "Works with SoundCloud" badge and a partner page.

Partners bring their users, and better integrations raise Artist Pro value.

• Partners also compete

  Focus on complementary tools.

• HiringSoundCloud's description in its job posts: "a creator-first platform" with "over 4x the music catalog of every other major streaming platform, spanning 40+ million artists across 190+ countries", and offices in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and London.Source
• HiringSenior Director, Product Marketing & Market Intelligence (New York, posted August 25, 2026): define positioning "across creator, fan, AI, subscription, and monetization experiences", build "market and audience intelligence" tracking "music, AI, and the creator economy", and run "always-on feedback loops" with "creator councils and advisory panels".Source
• Your websiteWidget API page: parameters, methods, getters, audio and UI event types and a playground for the embedded player; the homepage pitches "Connect your platform to millions of tracks" and "EXPLORE THE EMBEDDED PLAYER"; a Buttons & Logos page offers a branding kit.Source
• Your websiteGet an API key: "You need a SoundCloud Artist Pro subscription to register API applications and receive credentials"; credentials come from a one-line CLI with "--remote" pairing for "SSH sessions, CI, cloud shells, and coding-agent environments", and the page links to the Artist Pro checkout with a referral code.Source

Publish an open-source MCP server for the public API (search, track and playlist reads, uploads with the user's authorization), list it in MCP directories and link it from Building with AI.

Agents choose tools that are easy to connect; an official server makes SoundCloud the default music source in agent workflows.

• Abuse through agents

  Use existing rate limits and anti-abuse checks.

• Your websiteMachine-readable discovery (checked October 21, 2026): /sitemap.xml and /llms.txt both return 404, although /docs/llm-context offers "a compact facts-and-patterns summary optimized for agents" and the Building with AI page gives an OpenAPI JSON, "a reusable system-style prompt" and example prompts for Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude.Source
• Your websiteGet an API key: "You need a SoundCloud Artist Pro subscription to register API applications and receive credentials"; credentials come from a one-line CLI with "--remote" pairing for "SSH sessions, CI, cloud shells, and coding-agent environments", and the page links to the Artist Pro checkout with a referral code.Source
• HiringSenior Director, Integrated Marketing & Growth (New York, posted August 25, 2026, reporting to the Chief Growth & Marketing Officer): build "SoundCloud's growth operating system", own acquisition, lifecycle, paid media and conversion, "while expanding emerging discovery channels including SEO, AI search, AEO, App Store Optimization, and growth loops", and ensure "our platform remains discoverable in a world increasingly shaped by AI-powered search and recommendation engines".Source

Track pairing, first successful call, first error, and 30-day activity per app; email developers who stall after an error with the fix; review drop-offs monthly.

What gets measured improves; one email at the right moment saves many integrations.

• Privacy

  Track apps, not personal behavior.

• Your websiteGet an API key: "You need a SoundCloud Artist Pro subscription to register API applications and receive credentials"; credentials come from a one-line CLI with "--remote" pairing for "SSH sessions, CI, cloud shells, and coding-agent environments", and the page links to the Artist Pro checkout with a referral code.Source
• HiringSenior Director, Integrated Marketing & Growth (New York, posted August 25, 2026, reporting to the Chief Growth & Marketing Officer): build "SoundCloud's growth operating system", own acquisition, lifecycle, paid media and conversion, "while expanding emerging discovery channels including SEO, AI search, AEO, App Store Optimization, and growth loops", and ensure "our platform remains discoverable in a world increasingly shaped by AI-powered search and recommendation engines".Source
• GitHubsoundcloud/api, the public repo for bugs and feature requests: 260 stars, 75 open issues, releases on August 14, September 16 and September 30, 2026. Open requests include exposing "Repeat Listeners" and "Fan Support contributions" (October 2026), "User Top Tracks" and "User Track Play Statistics"; widget issues open since 2022 include "Embeddable player fails Accessibility Insights Audit" and "Widget API Play issue with Instagram In-App Browser".Source

Send each release to app owners by email with "what you need to do", give 90 days' notice for breaking changes, and add an RSS feed for the changelog.

Fewer surprise breakages mean fewer abandoned apps and support tickets.

• Email fatigue

  One email per release, short.

• GitHubsoundcloud/api, the public repo for bugs and feature requests: 260 stars, 75 open issues, releases on August 14, September 16 and September 30, 2026. Open requests include exposing "Repeat Listeners" and "Fan Support contributions" (October 2026), "User Top Tracks" and "User Track Play Statistics"; widget issues open since 2022 include "Embeddable player fails Accessibility Insights Audit" and "Widget API Play issue with Instagram In-App Browser".Source
• Your websiteBackstage Blog: recent posts on August 11, June 18, June 16 and May 18, 2026 ("Vibe Coding with SoundCloud: Announcing New Docs for your Agents"), then September 2025. In the RSS feed every post link has a double slash ("/blog//one-line-of-python-and-a-3x-drop-in-p99") and summaries lose inline code values ("fell from a steady to ,").Source

Set a two-week cadence with one post per open team (ads ML, recommendations, streaming), link each post to the matching job, and share on Hacker News, Bluesky and X.

Regular posts keep developers and candidates coming back, and each one is a recruiting page.

• Engineers lack time

  Pair them with an editor.

• Your websiteBackstage Blog: recent posts on August 11, June 18, June 16 and May 18, 2026 ("Vibe Coding with SoundCloud: Announcing New Docs for your Agents"), then September 2025. In the RSS feed every post link has a double slash ("/blog//one-line-of-python-and-a-3x-drop-in-p99") and summaries lose inline code values ("fell from a steady to ,").Source
• Hacker NewsSoundCloud's engineering work has 96 Hacker News mentions, most recently August 13, 2026; the top story is "Roshi: a CRDT system for timestamped events" (108 points).Source
• HiringEngineering Manager, Ads (London, posted October 16, 2026): "Advertising is one of SoundCloud's core revenue streams. It earns money directly, and it is also one of the main ways free listeners discover and move to a paid subscription"; the team uses "churn risk, subscription propensity, user LTV" models to set ad load.Source

Collect the 20 most-asked questions from GitHub, Stack Overflow and Discord, add a docs FAQ with tested code, and link it from the support page and llms.txt.

Self-serve answers cut support time and are exactly what AI assistants quote.

• Answers go stale

  Review with each release.

• Your websiteHomepage: title "SoundCloud Developers" with no meta description; a numbered menu led by "01 Building with AI new!" and "02 Get an API key new!"; support points to GitHub issues and Stack Overflow; the footer's "Competition Terms" link opens the terms of the "Berlin Buzzword competition" that ran April 27 to May 5, 2014.Source
• GitHubsoundcloud/api, the public repo for bugs and feature requests: 260 stars, 75 open issues, releases on August 14, September 16 and September 30, 2026. Open requests include exposing "Repeat Listeners" and "Fan Support contributions" (October 2026), "User Top Tracks" and "User Track Play Statistics"; widget issues open since 2022 include "Embeddable player fails Accessibility Insights Audit" and "Widget API Play issue with Instagram In-App Browser".Source
• Your websiteMachine-readable discovery (checked October 21, 2026): /sitemap.xml and /llms.txt both return 404, although /docs/llm-context offers "a compact facts-and-patterns summary optimized for agents" and the Building with AI page gives an OpenAPI JSON, "a reusable system-style prompt" and example prompts for Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude.Source

Build official assistant apps and actions on the public API (search, play, follow, save), starting with the assistants that support third-party apps, and track listening and sign-ups that start there.

Being the playable answer inside assistants is a new acquisition channel where catalog depth matters most.

• Platform rules change

  Build on the public API so apps are portable.

• HiringSenior Director, Integrated Marketing & Growth (New York, posted August 25, 2026, reporting to the Chief Growth & Marketing Officer): build "SoundCloud's growth operating system", own acquisition, lifecycle, paid media and conversion, "while expanding emerging discovery channels including SEO, AI search, AEO, App Store Optimization, and growth loops", and ensure "our platform remains discoverable in a world increasingly shaped by AI-powered search and recommendation engines".Source
• HiringSoundCloud's description in its job posts: "a creator-first platform" with "over 4x the music catalog of every other major streaming platform, spanning 40+ million artists across 190+ countries", and offices in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and London.Source
• Your websiteMachine-readable discovery (checked October 21, 2026): /sitemap.xml and /llms.txt both return 404, although /docs/llm-context offers "a compact facts-and-patterns summary optimized for agents" and the Building with AI page gives an OpenAPI JSON, "a reusable system-style prompt" and example prompts for Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude.Source
• Competitor researchRival developer portals: Spotify for Developers publishes /llms.txt ("the developer portal for Spotify's platform APIs and SDKs, including the Web API, iOS SDK, Android SDK, Embeds, and more"); Audius publishes /llms.txt for its docs ("Build on the largest open music catalog on the internet"); Apple offers MusicKit.See the research Source

Offer a limited sandbox key (read-only, low rate limit, 90 days) and compare app quality, abuse and Artist Pro conversion with the paid path before deciding.

A measured test settles the trade-off between ecosystem growth and subscription revenue.

• More abuse

  Strict limits and quick revocation.

• Your websiteGet an API key: "You need a SoundCloud Artist Pro subscription to register API applications and receive credentials"; credentials come from a one-line CLI with "--remote" pairing for "SSH sessions, CI, cloud shells, and coding-agent environments", and the page links to the Artist Pro checkout with a referral code.Source
• Competitor researchRival developer portals: Spotify for Developers publishes /llms.txt ("the developer portal for Spotify's platform APIs and SDKs, including the Web API, iOS SDK, Android SDK, Embeds, and more"); Audius publishes /llms.txt for its docs ("Build on the largest open music catalog on the internet"); Apple offers MusicKit.See the research Source
• HiringEngineering Manager, Ads (London, posted October 16, 2026): "Advertising is one of SoundCloud's core revenue streams. It earns money directly, and it is also one of the main ways free listeners discover and move to a paid subscription"; the team uses "churn risk, subscription propensity, user LTV" models to set ad load.Source

Report quarterly on API usage by endpoint, the fastest-growing app types, top requests and AI-agent traffic, and feed it into product and positioning reviews.

Builders are early signals; their demand points to features artists and fans will want next.

• Usage data is noisy

  Exclude abuse and test traffic.

• HiringSenior Director, Product Marketing & Market Intelligence (New York, posted August 25, 2026): define positioning "across creator, fan, AI, subscription, and monetization experiences", build "market and audience intelligence" tracking "music, AI, and the creator economy", and run "always-on feedback loops" with "creator councils and advisory panels".Source
• GitHubsoundcloud/api, the public repo for bugs and feature requests: 260 stars, 75 open issues, releases on August 14, September 16 and September 30, 2026. Open requests include exposing "Repeat Listeners" and "Fan Support contributions" (October 2026), "User Top Tracks" and "User Track Play Statistics"; widget issues open since 2022 include "Embeddable player fails Accessibility Insights Audit" and "Widget API Play issue with Instagram In-App Browser".Source
• Your websiteMachine-readable discovery (checked October 21, 2026): /sitemap.xml and /llms.txt both return 404, although /docs/llm-context offers "a compact facts-and-patterns summary optimized for agents" and the Building with AI page gives an OpenAPI JSON, "a reusable system-style prompt" and example prompts for Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude.Source

Run a six-week online challenge for tools built on the API (artist analytics, DJ prep, discovery), with prizes of Artist Pro and a demo night in the Berlin and London offices; feature winners in the gallery.

Challenges create a burst of apps, posts and community, and winners become advocates.

• Low entries

  Partner with universities and AI tool makers.

• Your websiteHomepage: title "SoundCloud Developers" with no meta description; a numbered menu led by "01 Building with AI new!" and "02 Get an API key new!"; support points to GitHub issues and Stack Overflow; the footer's "Competition Terms" link opens the terms of the "Berlin Buzzword competition" that ran April 27 to May 5, 2014.Source
• Your websiteMachine-readable discovery (checked October 21, 2026): /sitemap.xml and /llms.txt both return 404, although /docs/llm-context offers "a compact facts-and-patterns summary optimized for agents" and the Building with AI page gives an OpenAPI JSON, "a reusable system-style prompt" and example prompts for Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude.Source
• HiringSoundCloud's description in its job posts: "a creator-first platform" with "over 4x the music catalog of every other major streaming platform, spanning 40+ million artists across 190+ countries", and offices in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and London.Source

Partner with two universities on a recommendation research project using aggregated, privacy-safe data, publish results on the Backstage Blog and at conferences, and host interns.

Visible research attracts senior talent and positions SoundCloud as an authority on music discovery.

• Data privacy

  Aggregated data only, legal review.

• Hacker NewsSoundCloud's engineering work has 96 Hacker News mentions, most recently August 13, 2026; the top story is "Roshi: a CRDT system for timestamped events" (108 points).Source
• Your websiteBackstage Blog: recent posts on August 11, June 18, June 16 and May 18, 2026 ("Vibe Coding with SoundCloud: Announcing New Docs for your Agents"), then September 2025. In the RSS feed every post link has a double slash ("/blog//one-line-of-python-and-a-3x-drop-in-p99") and summaries lose inline code values ("fell from a steady to ,").Source
• HiringSoundCloud's description in its job posts: "a creator-first platform" with "over 4x the music catalog of every other major streaming platform, spanning 40+ million artists across 190+ countries", and offices in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and London.Source

Interview five artist-developers about what they built, publish each as a blog post and Discord spotlight, and invite them to office hours.

Peer stories inspire both artists and developers and show the platform's creative side.

• Artists prefer privacy

  Feature only those who opt in.

• Your websiteGet an API key: "You need a SoundCloud Artist Pro subscription to register API applications and receive credentials"; credentials come from a one-line CLI with "--remote" pairing for "SSH sessions, CI, cloud shells, and coding-agent environments", and the page links to the Artist Pro checkout with a referral code.Source
• HiringAssociate Community Manager (part-time, New York, posted October 2, 2026): "an active, recognizable presence in SoundCloud's Discord", running daily prompts, "listening parties", "live streams, town halls, Q&As, stage channels, and creator spotlights", and surfacing "feedback and community sentiment to the wider team"; a three-month, 20-hour-a-week role.Source
• Your websiteBackstage Blog: recent posts on August 11, June 18, June 16 and May 18, 2026 ("Vibe Coding with SoundCloud: Announcing New Docs for your Agents"), then September 2025. In the RSS feed every post link has a double slash ("/blog//one-line-of-python-and-a-3x-drop-in-p99") and summaries lose inline code values ("fell from a steady to ,").Source