If your answer to these questions is yes, then you must have heard of Soundcloud. It’s the biggest audio platform in the world that gathers artists, listeners, and creators.
If you are a new or struggling artist on Soundcloud, these tips will help you build and grow your career:
1. Get familiar with this platform
What does Soundcloud offer? Who uses Soundcloud?
To be able to use the platform accordingly, you first need to know all the possibilities it offers. And you can’t do that unless you try it as a customer first. Check out as many artists’ music as possible, see how they structure their playlist. Who knows, you might even find an artist or a song that inspires you to create your next hit!
Soundcloud provides all the essential tools and resources to create and promote music. What’s even more exciting is that there are music managers, musicians, influencers, label representatives, radio hosts, and many other influential people on this platform. Making a connection with them opens a new door full of opportunities.
2. Spend some time setting up your profile.
Since your name, bio, and profile picture are one of the first things people find out about you, be creative, and make them appealing and interesting. Don’t make your name too complicated because you want your potential followers to be able to find you easily.
Remember that you need bios to make an impression and introduce you as an artist.
Don’t forget to focus on what you do music-wise and make a list of all your music accomplishments. Basically, all you have to write about is music. Don’t forget to list your contact information, as well!
3. Quality of music
Even if you have the most creative profile picture or bio, you can’t stand out from millions of people if you don’t offer high-quality music.
Sound quality matters.
People who spend hours searching through millions of artists to find the music that they like obviously expect to listen to complete, properly recorded, and mixed songs. Even if your music is modern and trendy, you can’t expect your community to receive it well if its sound quality is low.
4. Find out what music people enjoy
When you are trying to establish yourself as an artist, it’s a good idea to focus on the type of music that people enjoy and are currently popular. It will help you get noticed. Once you gain a fair amount of followers, you can start sharing music that you are passionate about.
5. Consistency
Soundcloud is considered to be a social network for music because it enables communicating and interacting with your fans, other artists, etc.
Being active is a key for success on Soundcloud
Just like on any other social platform because, in this case, the lifespan of a song isn’t that long. Even if you provide high-quality music, people aren’t going to remember you for just one song. It takes several songs for people to get interested in an artist. You aren’t going to say that someone is your favorite artist after listening to their one song, are you?
6. Set up a download gate
If you don’t think that the tips and tricks mentioned above are enough, get ready to have your mind blown! Using a download gate is an effective way for your followers to download your music while promoting it at the same time. You’re thinking that in 2020 not many people download music to listen to it because they can simply stream it and put it in the playlist, right?
Well, that’s true, but amateur and professional DJs download dozen of songs every day. Once you set up a download gate for your track, when someone downloads your song they aren’t charged with money, but with SoundCloud follow, repost, or a comment. It will either get them to check out more of your tracks or get you noticed by others.
7. Using other social medias
You can’t be popular in the 21st century without using social media to promote yourself. Your accounts on other social platforms, such as Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, don’t have to be about your music. Even if your followers on those platforms are your family members and friends, they are very likely to support you. Support from them could be crucial to your Soundcloud growth at the beginning.
Also, you can use your accounts on different social media platforms to let your followers know that you uploaded a new track, encourage them to check it out, and comment.
8. Interact with people
Your goal is to get noticed by people and increase the engagement on your profile.
What is a better way to do that than interacting with them? The first step is following other artists’ music pages. If you like their tracks or remixes, write positive comments. Once you have connected with them, ask them to give you feedback on your tracks. You never know they might return the favor, come to your page and listen to your tunes for a change.
Keep in mind that everyone who comments on your tracks might be a potential follower and fan, as well as a customer. So, try to respond to comments as much as possible and keep the conversation going. This kind of activity on your track will maximize the exposure.
9. Host a podcast
A short-term podcast is an effective way to invite people into your life and let them know a little bit about you. Music might be even more engaging when you put the face on the artist who has created it. So, if you feel particularly chatty and creative, host a short-term podcast. You can use this chance to talk about your music, share your thoughts and experience, and discuss any other topic that you think will interest your followers. Don’t forget to ask your listeners some questions and make them know that their opinion and feedback matter to you!
10. Upgrade to Soundcloud Pro
Once you gain a set amount of followers and decide to invest more time and a bit of money in this career path, it’s time to upgrade to Soundcloud Pro. It enables you to upload more music, but the biggest advantage of Soundcloud Pro is analytical information and some deep insights. You can find out where and when people listen to your music, and it can help you create a better marketing strategy for promoting your songs.
11. Do remixes and mashups
Having original content on this platform isn’t the only way to gain popularity. Some famous artists, such as Kygo and Finnebassen have started out by uploading remixes of popular songs. If you choose a song wisely, you have a chance to maximize your reach on Soundcloud.
12. Genre tags
Genre tags determine your listers’ expectations and, on the other hand, help people who are looking for a specific type of music.
Choose the genre tags wisely!
You can never use too many tags. In fact, it’s recommended to use as many as possible, but they have to be relevant to your track. Using irrelevant tags can mislead and dissatisfy potential listeners. So, use correct genre tags and relevant track tags, too.
13. Get real plays
Since the competition on Soundcloud is so high, becoming popular on this platform is quite challenging. That’s why some people buy SoundCloud plays or followers. It’s worth it because it can attract a lot of attention. Instead of starting with zero play on your track, you can start with a few thousand. The chances of potential followers listening to your song because it already has thousands of plays and looks popular is quite high. In addition to this, the more popular your track looks, the more it encourages other people to interact with you-follow and comment.
14. Use email to communicate
While the younger generation considers email to be an old-fashioned way to communicate, people still use it for work purposes.
Everyone has an email!
You can use it to promote your new tracks by sending them to anyone you think might be interested in your music. What you need to remember while writing an email is to make it short
because the longer it is, the more likely it is that a potential fan will skip it and won’t read it. Also, be nice and don’t treat them like another +1 in your followings; people don’t like that.
You can count on email networking for maximizing your exposure.
15. Be patient
This advice doesn’t only apply to Soundcloud but almost everything in life. It sounds quite simple, but sometimes people forget that fame doesn’t come overnight and that they have to work for it. When you invest so much time in something, it can be quite frustrating that your Soundcloud following isn’t increased immediately.
Don’t give up!
Your fame is just around the corner!
You will be able to build an engaged community; it just takes time.
These tips and tricks will help you gain popularity on Soundcloud. While they work effectively separately, using them simultaneously will raise your chances of gaining an immense amount of followers and fans.
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