Deprecation Notice: MP3 & Opus Transcodings → Move to AAC HLS by Dec 31, 2025

[youssefhassan]

Summary:
We are upgrading SoundCloud’s streaming APIs to use AAC-based HLS transcodings. Existing MP3 and Opus formats will be deprecated.

🚀 What’s new
The streams endpoint now returns:
hls_aac_160_url
hls_aac_96_url (optional, depending on availability)

⏳ Deprecation Timeline

The following fields will be removed on November 15, 2025:
http_mp3_128_url
hls_mp3_128_url
hls_opus_64_url

preview_mp3_128_url remains available.

✅ Action Required
Update your integrations to consume hls_aac_* URLs preferring the hls_aac_160_url over hls_aac_96_url.

Test your clients with the new AAC HLS streams.

🔍 Example Response as of now

{
  "http_mp3_128_url": "https://cf-media.sndcdn.com/trackid.128.mp3?...",
  "hls_mp3_128_url": "https://cf-hls-media.sndcdn.com/playlist/trackid.128.mp3/playlist.m3u8?...",
  "hls_aac_160_url": "https://playback.media-streaming.soundcloud.cloud/trackid/aac_160k/uuid/playlist.m3u8?...",
  "hls_opus_64_url": "https://cf-hls-opus-media.sndcdn.com/playlist/uuid.64.opus/playlist.m3u8?...",
  "preview_mp3_128_url": "https://cf-preview-media.sndcdn.com/preview/0/30/trackid.128.mp3?..."
}

🔍 Example Response after Nov 15, 2025

{
  "hls_aac_160_url": "https://playback.media-streaming.soundcloud.cloud/trackid/aac_160k/uuid/playlist.m3u8?...",
  "hls_aac_96_url": "https://playback.media-streaming.soundcloud.cloud/trackid/aac_96k/uuid/playlist.m3u8?...",
  "preview_mp3_128_url": "https://cf-preview-media.sndcdn.com/preview/0/30/trackid.128.mp3?..."
}

💬 Feedback
Please test the new URLs and share feedback in this issue. Your input will help us ensure a smooth migration.

[leonardigabriele]

Hi, I'm trying to get the new HLS urls but I can't see them in the response, which contains
http_mp3_128_url
hls_mp3_128_url
hls_opus_64_url
preview_mp3_128_url

is this active already?
I am also a bit confused by the documentation of the endpoints, in the track response it is
stream_url > https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/{track_urn}/stream
in the explorer > https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/{track_urn}/streams
in the news (https://developers.soundcloud.com/blog/api-streaming-urls) > https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/{track_urn}/play

which should I use?
thank you

[m3thm4th]

@youssefhassan @anrock-sc @dziemba @remover @rahulrumalla @rahul-sc @dpreussler @dasha-kobzeva

Hello everyone. Why did you choose the AAC codec instead of Opus?

Opus is royalty free, more modern, free and open source, under active development, more efficient and better quality

From Wikipedia:

Listening tests have ranked it (Opus) higher-quality than other standard audio formats at any given bitrate until transparency is reached, including MP3, AAC, and HE-AAC.

Opus 192 is known to be trasparent, Opus 160 sounds better and is more efficient than AAC 160 (or even higher bitrates).

Opus is network-friendly, with features like packet loss concealment, making it the perfect choice for streaming applications.

In basically every discussion between audiophiles who use SoundCloud the question is always "Why not Opus?" (example)

Investing in the Opus format is a smart move. Not saying AAC should be dropped entirely, but at least replace AAC 96 (which is really pointless) with Opus (192 kbps would be great, 160 good, 128 minimum).

Will you guys consider it?

[dpreussler]

Opus was the right choice when SoundCloud started. It is very efficient and great for low latency networks.
But networks improved over the last two decades.
SoundCloud is simply moving with the industry here.
As announced we're removing progressive download to focus on proper HLS streaming. Opus is not even officially supported via HLS.
We know Opus has it's fans, it still kicks ass below 96 kbps but we're aiming for high quality music as our priorities going forward.

PS: for the api-v2 question, that API is not mean for public use. If you're using that you're probably violating terms of use as we never handed out credentials for that. Please avoid using that. And yes moving away from Opus will affect all APIs.

[obrhoff]

I'm not sure if you speak about Opus or Vorbis. Even YouTube and probably more have moved to Opus (and VP9) due to its high efficiency and being royalty-free.

[dpreussler]

We never supported Vorbis.
And Opus (which we only used for lower quality anyway) will be gone at SoundCloud soon as stated above. We appreciate the input here but it wont change the direction.
Therefore please prepare your apps to move from Opus and MP3 to AAC as thats the only codec we'll expose going forward.

[superturboryan]

Hi @youssefhassan , the response for /tracks/{track_urn}/streams doesn't currently contain the new AAC-based HLS transcoding properties mentioned above:

Has anyone been able to see the new AAC-based HLS transcodings in the response? @leonardigabriele

[dpreussler]

@superturboryan you probably testing with older tracks. We still havent retranscoded all of them

try soundcloud:tracks:972288874 to see a new one

[superturboryan]

Hi @dpreussler , thanks for the quick response.

soundcloud:tracks:972288874 also returns the same response:

Is https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/soundcloud:tracks:972288874/streams the correct URL?

[superturboryan]

I tried again with another track posted in the the last 24 hours, it's also missing the transcoding.

URN: soundcloud:tracks:2198164539

[dpreussler]

@superturboryan you are right, something seems wrong here 🤔
will keep you posted

[dpreussler]

@superturboryan can you open a separate issue for better visibility? Something is def broken here 🙏