SoundCloud for VLC is a playlist plugin for VLC that parses SoundCloud URLs.
The plugin will automatically select the highest audio quality for playback.
To install the plugin, download soundcloud.lua and place it into %VLC install dir%\lua\playlist.
- Open a VLC instance.
- Paste or drag and drop a SoundCloud URL.
It seems like SoundCloud fixed their dummy client ID. You may need to sign up with your account, ask for an API key and replace all instances of YOUR_CLIENT_ID in the code with yours.
Thanks to scandinavian_ for the following StackOverflow answer describing how to fetch SoundCloud track information: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17892702/how-has-soundcloud-hidden-the-url-of-streaming-audio/17892881#17892881.