Rethinking SoundCloud

SoundCloud is one of the largest music and audio platforms in the world, but we found much of its design is cluttered and confusing. In the course „Digital Products” we dealt with the redesign of the app and designed new features. Our goal was to improve Pain Points, but to keep the basic character of SoundCloud.

Redesign
In the first step, we studied the structure and user journey of the app extensively and used different methods, such as the analysis of pain points and the competitor analysis. From this, we defined areas for improvement and created a list of initial ideas for the redesign. In the further process we created three different design directions before we finally decided on a final direction.

Afterwards, we focused on the implementation of a new feature. We designed a concept for an Inside the Song feature and integrated it into the redesign.

Lyrics and Chords
We designed a feature that allows the user to view all lyrics in combination with the chords while listening to a song. This way you have the possibility to play a song with the guitar (for example) without searching for the chords on different websites.

Behind the Song
Behind the lyrics of a song there is usually more story than you think. To bring this story more into focus and to have the possibility to learn more about a musician, we designed a feature with which you can directly display the meaning of the lines.

Translate the Song
Looking into the future, we expanded our app concept with the new feature „Translate the Song”. This feature is designed to allow users to listen to a song in different languages with the help of AI.

Audio Tracks
With our second Future Feature it should also be possible to listen to different versions of a song. No matter if instrumental, a cappella or a pure piano version. Audio tracks of the different instruments as well as the vocals can be switched on and off by buttons.

With our clean design and new features we designed a version of SoundCloud that makes listening to music even more attractive and gives musicians the opportunity to tell their personal story through their lyrics.