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SoundCloud launched in 2007, and its orange square with a white cloud, half of it drawn as an audio waveform, became one of the most recognisable icons on music fans' phones. In mid-May 2023 users noticed that the orange had turned black on the website, the apps and social media. The cloud stayed the same.

There was no announcement and no official explanation. Distractify reported that the company had made no statement, and the Spanish site Zeta Life noted that the change arrived without fanfare, shortly after shifts in the company's management.

Reaction was loud. On TikTok users called the orange too iconic to change and said part of their childhood had died; many joked that SoundCloud was in its emo phase. Others read it as a style statement: one user said SoundCloud was leaving its kandi kid era for its techno snob era, and ARC Music Festival tweeted reject modernity, embrace tradition. Rap fans linked the black look to Playboi Carti's Opium label, and SoundCloud joined in, tweeting that the new logo was so opium and, in another post, asking what people thought of its new look because it was getting self-conscious.

The black did not replace the orange for good. SoundCloud later let users choose their app icon, and both the classic orange and the black version remain options, alongside paid designs like chrome and leopard print for subscribers.

As a brand move it is odd: the orange was the asset, and the company never said why it hid it. As a stunt it worked. Turning a colour change into a week of memes, then selling icon choice as a feature, shows a platform that understands its audience better than its logo strategy.