I have a confession to make – I’m not really a SoundCloud fan. Until last month, my “Stream” was empty, my account abandoned and the service was not even on my radar. All of that changed when I came across this app’s website. The website was beautiful, and the teaser video won me over. I’m a sucker for thoughtfully designed, functionally beautiful apps. In a couple of seconds, it was clear Soundflake was just that. So when I found out the app was not even out yet and that there was no ETA, I decided to mail the developer, asking access to a beta version. Couple of hours later, I got it. I listen to podcasts via Pocket Casts, use Spotify to stream music and the stock music app to play downloaded songs locally. There really wasn’t a place for SoundCloud in my life. But after installing Soundflake ($2.99), I’ve found two legitimate use cases for SoundCloud – cover songs (turns out there is no upper limit on how many “Get Lucky” covers I can love) and DJ mixes. Soundflake got me using a service I thought I had no need for. Is there a higher praise for an app?
Soundflake
Climbing down from my floating castle, let me tell you more about the app. It is basically the SoundCloud client you, the avid SoundCloud user have always wanted. The app lets you do things that would make the official SoundCloud app red with jealousy. The app uses iOS 7’s translucent layers quite beautifully. The homescreen of the app is the SoundCloud Stream, where you’ll find new songs, and activity from all the users you follow.
Now Playing
The Now Playing screen is a mix of the default music player with SoundCloud features like Likes and the signature waveform progress bar already built-in. Swipe the album art for the next or previous song. Looking for options? tap the album art. Another feature that Soundflake developers are pretty proud of is called Up next. Tap the playlist icon from the top right corner to get to your play queue. From here you can drag songs and rearrange them. There’s also a mini player built-in so no matter where you are in the app, lost deep inside an artist’s profile, you’ll still have access to the playing music.
The Options Menu
Long press on any song or playlist and up pops the options menu. This is how most of my playback interaction went down. There’s nothing fancy about this menu, it looks like a normal iOS 7 options menu, but it makes it easy to add any song to a playlist, play it now, play next or add to ‘Up next’. You can also save a song for offline playback and share it on social networks right from here.
Begin Where You Left Off
SoundCloud has some of the best DJ/trance mixes/sets available online. Most of them are an hour long. You’re of course not going to listen to a whole set in one sitting, be it streaming online or from your offline copy. Soundflake knows when you are listening to a long DJ set and remembers where you left it off. So, when you come back to it, the app will ask if you want to resume or start from the beginning. Neat, eh?
Better
The whole point of Soundflake is that it is better than any other SoundCloud app and probably better than other music streaming apps as well. Soundflake offers features like offline playback, quick resume, playlist support and the ability to quickly edit your play queue. In a nutshell, it has everything a SoundCloud user would deeply adore. Not to mention the gorgeous UI. Listen to SoundCloud on the go? Get this app. Don’t? Well, give it a try, you might just start now. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
