SoundCloud - Music Audio for iPhone

Discovering and sharing

SoundClould for iOS lets you discover new music by searching artists, genres and keywords, as well as giving you suggestions on who to follow.

SoundCloud is heavily integrated with Facebook, giving you the option to register using the social media platform, show a live feed of what you are listening to, find and follow Facebook friends, and share music to your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google+ accounts.

The verdict?

SoundCloud is a great service, especially for discovering new or emerging artists or even creating your own sounds, but the streaming capabilities of the app for iPhone could be improved to provide a better iOS experience.

The SoundCloud home screen features music shared by those users you follow to give you the most current updates of new sounds. Saving your favorite sounds is easy with the option to 'like' sounds, create playlists and sets, and re-post music.

Navigating through to your own profile, searching for sounds and tracking user activity is done through a panel at the bottom of the app.

SoundCloud lets you stream individual sounds, sets, or create playlists. There can be a slight lag when switching between sounds, and the app itself can be slow to load content.

The latest major update to SoundCloud revamps the app's user interface in an attempt to beautify the design and make the controls easier to use. The new 'one thumb' player interface allows you to play, pause, skip and explore without fiddly menus.

Other improvements include the ability to look a user's profile straight from a track or playlist, and to display all your likes and playlists in the same place, much like the Your Music section in Spotify, or the Library in Google Play Music.

Many will be unhappy with the changes made to SoundCloud, which could be seen as 'oversimplification' of the app. The app no longer allows you to add or view comments on tracks, there's no auto-suggest as you search, no recording feature, and the use of larger cover artwork means even more scrolling.