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SoundCloud for iPhone gets a beautiful complete overhaul

If you've never explored SoundCloud today would be a great time to start. The groundbreaking music sharing service has been exploding in popularity with independent artists over the last few years thanks to its powerful discovery and sharing tools. Today the service's iOS app has received a complete overhaul, making it one of the most beautiful, and functional music apps available.

Users will immediately notice the visual experience has been dramatically improved. Soundcloud's new design is beautiful, with a focus on album art that many music apps ignore. Along with this facelift the controls have been optimized for mobile. During playback tapping anywhere will play or pause a song, while swiping will skip tracks for you. To skip ahead in a track simply slide your finger along the wave form. It's simple, and the large wave form graphics makes finding the exact moment your looking for in a song easy.

Soundcloud's navigation menus have also gotten a fresh coat of paint. The new home screen is focused on music discovery, allowing users to search through trending artists, tracks, and genres. Each artist's page shows their full profile, from tracks to other artists they've liked. Nothing is hidden behind sub menus that force you to know where to look to discover new music.

Any tracks or playlists you've personally liked are stored under the "You" tab making easier than ever to quickly find the song you want. Finally the app's search has been improved to add the ability to play a track directly from the search page rather than having to jump back and forth between sections of the app.

Sadly the update has removed the app's ability to record and post audio directly from your phone, but it's a minor inconvenience in the long run. Soundcloud does recommend that you read this tutorial before you download the new app if you currently have audio recordings you haven't uploaded yet.

You can download Soundcloud for iOS for free right now in the iTunes store.