Soundcloud Scraper

Extract track data, artist profiles, and search results from SoundCloud at scale. This Apify Actor uses SoundCloud's public API v2 with automatic client_id rotation — no authentication required.

Why SoundCloud Data?

SoundCloud hosts 300M+ tracks from 40M+ creators. Unlike Spotify, most content is public and uploaded by independent artists, making it the richest source for:

• Music discovery & playlist curation — find trending tracks by genre, BPM, or mood before they hit mainstream platforms
• Artist research & A&R — identify emerging artists by follower growth, play counts, and engagement ratios
• Music market analysis — track genre trends, release patterns, and engagement benchmarks across millions of tracks
• Content creation — find Creative Commons tracks for podcasts, YouTube videos, and streaming
• Academic research — analyze music metadata, waveform patterns, and listener behavior at scale
• Label scouting — discover unsigned talent with high engagement-to-follower ratios
• Competitive intelligence — monitor competitor releases, fan engagement, and genre positioning

Features

1. Search Tracks

Search SoundCloud's catalog by keywords, genres, or artist names. Returns structured data including play counts, likes, duration, artwork URLs, and more.

{
    "action": "search",
    "query": "lo-fi hip hop",
    "maxItems": 50
}

Output fields:

Field	Type	Description
id	number	SoundCloud track ID
title	string	Track title
artist	string	Artist/uploader name
artistUrl	string	Artist profile URL
url	string	Track permalink URL
plays	number	Total play count
likes	number	Total likes
reposts	number	Total reposts
comments	number	Comment count
duration	number	Duration in milliseconds
durationFormatted	string	Duration as MM:SS
genre	string	Track genre
tags	string	Track tags
imageUrl	string	High-res artwork URL (500x500)
waveformUrl	string	Waveform JSON URL
createdAt	string	Upload date (ISO 8601)
description	string	Track description (max 500 chars)
license	string	License type
downloadable	boolean	Whether downloads are enabled
streamable	boolean	Whether streaming is enabled

2. Track Details

Get comprehensive track data including waveform samples and available audio formats. Perfect for music analysis, visualization, and audio research.

{
    "action": "track",
    "url": "https://soundcloud.com/flume/never-be-like-you-feat-kai"
}

Additional output fields for track details:

Field	Type	Description
waveform.width	number	Waveform width in samples
waveform.height	number	Waveform max amplitude
waveform.samples	array	Array of amplitude values
formats	array	Available audio transcodings
formats[].preset	string	Audio preset (e.g., mp3_0_1, aac_160k)
formats[].protocol	string	Streaming protocol (hls, progressive)
formats[].mimeType	string	MIME type of the audio format

3. User Profile

Scrape artist/user profiles with follower counts, track listings, and engagement metrics. Ideal for artist discovery and competitive analysis.

{
    "action": "user",
    "url": "https://soundcloud.com/flume",
    "maxItems": 30
}

Output fields:

Field	Type	Description
id	number	SoundCloud user ID
username	string	Display username
fullName	string	Full name
url	string	Profile URL
avatarUrl	string	High-res avatar URL
city	string	City
country	string	Country code
description	string	Bio (max 500 chars)
followers	number	Follower count
following	number	Following count
tracks	number	Total track count
playlists	number	Playlist count
likes	number	Total likes given
verified	boolean	Verified status
createdAt	string	Account creation date
trackList	array	Array of track objects

Use Cases & Examples

Playlist Curation Pipeline

Build automated playlist curation by searching for tracks in a genre, filtering by engagement metrics, and sorting by recency:

{
    "action": "search",
    "query": "ambient electronic 2024",
    "maxItems": 100
}

Then filter results where plays > 10000 and likes/plays > 0.02 for high-engagement tracks.

Artist Discovery & A&R

Find emerging artists by searching for a genre and analyzing the artist profiles behind top-performing tracks:

{
    "action": "search",
    "query": "bedroom pop",
    "maxItems": 200
}

Group by artist, count appearances, and fetch profiles for artists with multiple high-performing tracks but under 10K followers.

Music Market Analysis

Track genre trends over time by running periodic searches and comparing play count distributions:

{
    "action": "search",
    "query": "drill",
    "maxItems": 200
}

Aggregate plays, likes, and comments to build engagement benchmarks per genre. Compare across genres to identify growth trends.

Waveform Analysis

Extract waveform data for audio fingerprinting, visualization, or energy analysis:

{
    "action": "track",
    "url": "https://soundcloud.com/artist/track-name"
}

The waveform.samples array contains amplitude values that represent the audio energy over time — useful for identifying drops, builds, and quiet sections.

Content Licensing Research

Find tracks available under Creative Commons or with downloads enabled:

{
    "action": "search",
    "query": "creative commons background music",
    "maxItems": 50
}

Filter results where downloadable: true or license contains "cc-" for freely usable tracks.

Competitive Monitoring

Monitor a competitor label or artist's releases and engagement:

{
    "action": "user",
    "url": "https://soundcloud.com/label-name",
    "maxItems": 50
}

Schedule periodic runs to track follower growth, new releases, and engagement trends over time.

How It Works

1. Auto-rotating client_id — The actor extracts a fresh client_id from SoundCloud's JavaScript bundles on every run. No hardcoded keys that expire.
2. Public API v2 — Uses SoundCloud's public API (api-v2.soundcloud.com) for fast, structured JSON responses. No browser rendering needed.
3. Pagination — Automatically handles pagination for search results up to your maxItems limit.
4. High-res images — Automatically upgrades artwork and avatar URLs to 500x500 resolution.

Input Schema

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
action	string	Yes	search	Action to perform: search, track, or user
query	string	For search	—	Search query (keywords, genre, artist name)
url	string	For track/user	—	Full SoundCloud URL
maxItems	integer	No	20	Maximum results (1–200)

Integrations

Connect SoundCloud Scraper to your workflow:

• Google Sheets — Export track data directly to spreadsheets for analysis
• Zapier / Make — Trigger workflows when new tracks match your criteria
• Slack — Get notifications for trending tracks in your genre
• Airtable — Build a searchable music database
• Python / Node.js — Use the Apify API client to integrate into your code

API Usage

Call the actor programmatically via the Apify API:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("YOUR_ACTOR_ID").call(run_input={
    "action": "search",
    "query": "synthwave",
    "maxItems": 50,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"{item['title']} by {item['artist']} — {item['plays']:,} plays")

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('YOUR_ACTOR_ID').call({
    action: 'search',
    query: 'synthwave',
    maxItems: 50,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach(item => {
    console.log(`${item.title} by ${item.artist} — ${item.plays.toLocaleString()} plays`);
});

Rate Limits & Best Practices

• SoundCloud's public API has rate limits. The actor respects these with automatic pagination delays.
• For large-scale scraping (1000+ items), split into multiple runs with different queries.
• Use maxItems to control costs — each result counts toward Actor.charge() billing.
• Schedule runs during off-peak hours for more reliable results.

Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-result pricing via Actor.charge():

Event	Description
search-results	Charged per search result returned
track-detail	Charged per track detail fetched
user-profile	Charged per user profile scraped

Legal & Ethical Use

This actor accesses only publicly available data through SoundCloud's public API. Users are responsible for:

• Complying with SoundCloud's Terms of Use
• Respecting copyright and intellectual property rights
• Using data in accordance with applicable data protection laws (GDPR, CCPA)
• Not using scraped data for spam, harassment, or unauthorized commercial purposes

🔒 Avoiding SoundCloud Rate Limits

SoundCloud's API enforces strict rate limits and blocks datacenter IPs. For high-volume track and user data extraction, residential proxies prevent throttling.

ThorData Residential Proxies provide 200M+ rotating residential IPs across 195 countries — ensuring smooth, uninterrupted SoundCloud scraping at any scale.

Changelog

v0.0 (Initial Release)

• Search tracks by keywords with pagination
• Track detail extraction with waveform data
• User profile scraping with track listings
• Auto-rotating client_id extraction
• High-res artwork URL upgrade