SoundCloud API - Playback Count is smaller than actual count

Question

I am using soundcloud api through python SDK.

When I get the tracks data through 'Search', the track attribute 'playback_count' seems to be smaller than the actual count seen on the web.

How can I avoid this problem and get the actual playback_count??

(ex. this track's playback_count gives me 2700, but its actually 15k when displayed on the web https://soundcloud.com/drumandbassarena/ltj-bukem-soundcrash-mix-march-2016 )

note: this problem does not occur for comments or likes.

following is my code

##Search##
tracks = client.get('/tracks', q=querytext, created_at={'from':startdate},duration={'from':startdur},limit=200)

outputlist = []
trackinfo = {}
resultnum = 0

for t in tracks:
    trackinfo = {}
    resultnum += 1

    trackinfo["id"] = resultnum
    trackinfo["title"] =t.title
    trackinfo["username"]= t.user["username"]
    trackinfo["created_at"]= t.created_at[:-5]
    trackinfo["genre"] = t.genre
    trackinfo["plays"] = t.playback_count
    trackinfo["comments"] = t.comment_count
    trackinfo["likes"] =t.likes_count
    trackinfo["url"] = t.permalink_url

    outputlist.append(trackinfo)

Answer 1

There is an issue with the playback count being incorrect when reported via the API.

I have encountered this when getting data via the /me endpoint for activity and likes to mention a couple.

The first image shows the information returned when accessing the sound returned for the currently playing track in the soundcloud widget

Information returned via the api for the me/activities endpoint

Answer 2

Looking at the SoundCloud website, they actually call a second version of the API to populate the track list on the user page. It's similar to the documented version, but not quite the same.

If you issue a request to https://api-v2.soundcloud.com/stream/users/[userid]?limit=20&client_id=[clientid] then you'll get back a JSON object showing the same numbers you see on the web.

Since this is an undocumented version, I'm sure it'll change the next time they update their website.