SoundCloud First Fans: Under the Hood

Important: This is an in-person meetup in London.

Here at SoundCloud, we’re committed to getting your music heard. Last year, nearly 45.6 million tracks across music streaming services received zero plays. With hundreds of thousands of tracks being uploaded daily, the “zero plays” problem isn’t easy to solve. To give artists an opportunity to be heard, we introduced First Fans, a recommendation algorithm that helps subscribers get new uploads in front of new listeners who enjoy similar music during the critical period immediately after release. Since the launch of First Fans, more than 3.5 million tracks have been analyzed and recommended to potential new fans. And, the average Next Pro subscribed artist saw a whopping 400% increase in listens. Join us as we deep dive into the technology behind this initiative, highlighting:

• Product Challenges: Identifying the various product challenges and the solutions behind them.
• Adapting System Architecture: Evolving system architecture based on changing requirements.
• Infrastructure Decisions: Decision-making behind picking the right infrastructure at different stages of development.
• Vision into the Future: Insights into improvements and potential avenues going forward!

Speakers: Vignesh Badrinath Krishna and Nikolai Tatarinov, Recommendation team Engineers.
Location: The Gallery at Tileyard London, 5 Tileyard Rd, London N7 9AH, United Kingdom
Schedule:
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm: First Fans Presentation
7:00 pm to 7:30 pm: Networking