SoundCloud deploys custom AWS Fargate pipeline for 150M audio assets

This architectural shift highlights a critical pivot for specialized streaming platforms toward high-control, cloud-native infrastructure. By building a custom orchestrator in Go rather than using off-the-shelf serverless components, SoundCloud reduced long-term vendor dependency while solving for a massive, 150-million-track library. The move to HLS/fMP4 standardizes delivery across mobile and web, reflecting a broader industry trend toward container-based efficiencies that lower CDN multiplicity costs. For engineers, this confirms that for high-volume, variable workloads, custom orchestration on managed compute often beats rigid SaaS solutions. Watch for whether this architecture enables SoundCloud to integrate more advanced, per-track AI metadata or spatial audio features in late 2026.

The SoundCloud modernization arrives amid a significant overhaul of its technical stack to support a creator-dense ecosystem. Per official SoundCloud engineering notes from June 2026, the company recently upgraded its primary AAC encoder to Fraunhofer’s libfdk_aac. This change introduced a purposeful high-frequency rolloff at 17 kHz to prioritize bitrate allocation for the more audible midrange, a move that sparked technical debate among audiophiles but which the platform defended as a necessity for modern mobile delivery efficiency. This follows the company's September 2025 announcement that it would deprecate progressive HTTP and HLS MP3 formats by the end of that year, forcing third-party developers to migrate to the new AAC-based HLS streams.

Market data underscores the scale challenges and opportunities this new pipeline must support. According to reports from Chartlex and Business of Apps in mid-2026, SoundCloud hosts more than 375 million total tracks—significantly more than the 150 million reference from 2021 cited during the StreamTV presentation—and serves 76 million monthly active listeners. The platform has increasingly pivoted toward its 'Artist Pro' monetization and 'fan-powered royalties' model, which per music industry data in early 2026, pays higher effective rates than mainstream rivals for niche, engaged fanbases. The infrastructure shift to AWS Fargate is designed to provide the headroom needed for these creator-led growth segments without the prohibitive costs of managing legacy monoliths.