SoundCloud Quietly Shrinks Bitrates by 50%

Without making a peep, online streaming platform SoundCloud swapped out 128kbps for 64kbps bitrates and changed its codec from MP3 to Opus.

Even though Opus insists that their product is superior to a passé MP3 codec, when paired with 64kbps bitrates, you’re looking at the “world’s largest music and audio platform” having a subpar product. SoundCloud keeps digging themselves further and further into one big black hole.

After multiple allegations of reduced sound quality, SoundCloud representatives finally responded:

“SoundCloud has not altered its approach to audio quality. We have been using the Opus codec (among others) since 2016, and we regularly test different combinations of encoding and streaming to offer listeners a quality experience on any device. Furthermore, we store all content from creators at its originally uploaded quality level so we can continually adapt to advances in encoding and playback.”