Products · Product
SoundCloud
Raised as a usability problem by 105 people on Hacker News over 16 years (2011–2026), in 49 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Liked songs load only ten at a time, making scrolling painfulUnreviewed
20112026- Navigating the collection is messy, and web shuffle only mixes recently loaded songs2016-03-29
- Liked songs load only ten at a time, making long lists a huge pain to scroll2016-03-29
- Can't reach older likes without endlessly scrolling; no real shuffle, sort, or offline caching2016-02-11
Search can't find niche tracks people used to findUnreviewed
20112026- Search is poor, so users can't discover niche tracks they used to find2017-07-30
- Favorited tracks get lost in mobile UI; must rely on global search to find them again2016-02-11
- Can't search own uploaded tracks; must search the entire site instead2013-01-15
Artist profiles sort poorly and discovery is missingUnreviewed
20112026- Artist profiles have poor sorting, and discovery is missing entirely2020-06-26
- Followed artists appear somewhere in the feed, hard to find; history forgotten after signing up2016-08-18
- Track page auto-advances to unrelated artists; artist page lists can't be sorted2014-12-13
Rewinding tracks requires a paid subscriptionUnreviewed
20112026- Can't seek through tracks unless the user registers for an account2024-11-13
- Rewinding tracks requires a paid subscription, which is hostile to users2020-02-12
- How tracks are presented is very annoying, so user stopped sharing2016-02-11
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Consent notice lists 954 partners, so users can't reasonably understand what they're agreeing to2026-04-15
- Hidden limits are not communicated; users get upsold instead of told why2026-01-28
- Can't seek through tracks unless the user registers for an account2024-11-13
- Couldn't find any way to master an uploaded track, with no explanation shown2024-01-17
- Menuing is so poorly designed that it's hard to open and use menus2023-12-13
- Settings, notifications and casting are hidden in inconsistent tabs, so users can't find them2023-12-13
- Cannot log in to SoundCloud unless the browser is changed2022-01-24
- Hard to use for finding obscure music; UX described as horrible2021-05-17
- Artist profiles have poor sorting, and discovery is missing entirely2020-06-26
- Oversized cover art means fewer list titles are visible at once, hampering overview2020-05-06
- Docs describe app registration, but it is disabled, so users cannot register2020-05-05
- Constant audio ads make the listening experience unusable for the listener2020-05-01
- Rewinding tracks requires a paid subscription, which is hostile to users2020-02-12
- Cancelling requires a phone call, creating friction for users2020-02-12
- Autoplay jumps to unrelated tracks after a shared track ends, unnoticed unless you read small text2018-08-09
- Links force installing the app instead of opening in the browser2018-07-02
- App misses subscription status and blocks playing the user's collection, intermittently2018-02-28
- Reaching favorite podcasts takes 5-10 slow loading clicks2017-12-12
- Play related either repeats the same tracks or plays unrelated ones, and the UI is hard to fiddle with2017-08-11
- Repeat reposts of the same song flood the feed and make it unusable2017-08-11
- Can't filter out reposts from feed, so random shared tracks crowd out followed artists2017-08-10
- Newer HTML5 web frontend consumes excessive CPU and has not improved2017-08-10
- No way to adjust volume for just the SoundCloud stream without affecting other audio2017-08-02
- Download link is obscured, so users can't easily copy the file URL2017-08-02
- UI feels confusing and haphazard, unlike Spotify's layout2017-08-01
- Removing five playlist items requires opening and closing a modal five times2017-07-31
- Scrolling the feed in Chrome overheats the computer and spikes CPU use2017-07-30
- Service is confusing and hard to find wanted music or download albums2017-07-30
- Search is poor, so users can't discover niche tracks they used to find2017-07-30
- After the redesign the product became abysmal to use, with long-standing bugs2017-07-30
- Redesigned interface became worse to use, driving the commenter away2017-07-30
- Can't disable mid-song comments; autoplay playlist is hard to find2017-07-30
- Dragging to re-sort Spotlight tracks crashes Chrome, unfixed for years2017-07-06
- Reposts make the activity stream poor, with duplicate tracks appearing repeatedly2017-07-06
- Playback shortcuts only work when the SoundCloud browser tab is focused, so skipping is cumbersome2017-07-06
- App lacks basic controls and can only play a single song at a time2017-07-06
- Songs stutter and pause intermittently, like buffering, even in the only open tab2017-03-24
- App is practically unusable on Android, likely due to memory use2017-03-24
- Pushes users to download an app instead of simply browsing the website2016-09-20
- Listening to the podcast through a mobile browser would be a nightmare2016-08-31
- Removed info tab; hard to keep listening to similar content without returning to home page2016-08-18
- Paused track resets or is lost, with no history or queue to find what was playing2016-08-18
- Users accidentally skip songs when swiping too much2016-08-18
- Followed artists appear somewhere in the feed, hard to find; history forgotten after signing up2016-08-18
- Search autocomplete suggests popular results instead of the user's friends, so finding people is frustrating2016-08-18
- Can't see a list of recent searches or recently played songs2016-08-17
- Mobile app is broken and feels unsuited for interacting with fans2016-08-17
- Takes three extra taps to reach reposted tracks; stream shows fewer songs at once2016-08-17
- Saved tracks hidden deep in app; player hides on-screen clock; notifications unclear2016-08-17
- Playback resets to track start and loses what was playing after a short pause2016-08-17