This article supplied by SC SuperFans – Soundcloud Promotion Done Right!
SoundCloud is the most popular site for up-and-coming musicians to promote their music. Due to its popularity, getting your music heard can be tricky. You’re competing with millions of other creators, not just in your genre but in many others. But there are also 76 million monthly users, so there are clearly plenty of people willing to listen.
Getting people to listen to your music is great, but it’s even better when they engage with the song and/or your page. This should be your ultimate goal when promoting your music in 2018 — get more likes, reposts and comments on your songs. When you do this correctly, you will organically grow your number of Soundcloud followers that will engage with (and therefore help promote) all your future releases.
So let’s take a look at these 16 tips to make your music go further on SoundCloud in 2018.
1. Create a Promotional Strategy
Before you read any of the tips below, you should think about creating a strategy for your promotion on SoundCloud. There are some very good reasons to do this, instead of taking a random approach to promoting your music. Simply put, being organized will work to your advantage. When you create a plan, you know why you’re doing every task and what you hope to get out of it. To start making a strategy that will work for you, you should choose your goals. You know your general goal is to get your music noticed, but you can pick more specific goals, like how many followers or plays you want. You can then start to make a plan for how you’re going to meet those goals.
2. Cozy Up to Promo Channels
Promotional channels on SoundCloud are there to promote people’s music. Obviously, they can be extremely helpful to someone who is trying to boost their reputation. Of course, everyone wants to get noticed by the promo channels that have the power to reach thousands of followers. So how do you get them to pay attention to you? Being engaged will help you to get noticed because you’ll stand out from others who don’t make the effort. Many channels allow you to submit demos, but by engaging with them using in-depth comments and reposting, they’re more likely to recognize you.
Do NOT spam these promo channels. In fact, don’t spam anyone at all on Soundcloud. Spamming people your with your music may have worked in the early MySpace days, but it has been a totally defunct strategy for years and will hurt your promotion efforts more than it’ll help. No spamming!
3. Join Repost Chains
A ‘Repost Chain’ is when producers agree to repost each other’s tracks. It’s a mutually beneficial way for everyone to get their stuff out and share the power of their fans. If you want to try and join some repost chains, you might already know some people who would be willing to team up with you. You can also do a google search for repost chains and see if you can find any that might be useful for you to join. However, make sure you’re cautious with repost chains. It can get annoying for your fans if you’re constantly reposting tracks that they’re not interested in.
4. Tag Your Musically Correctly
Tags are very useful for helping people to find your music. If they like a specific type of music and search for it, your tracks can come up when they’re searching. If you want to have more success with tagging, try to be more specific when you choose tags. You can choose a more general genre when you label your music, but the tags allow you to use narrower terms. Genres like pop or hip-hop can be pretty vague, when there can be a huge variety of different styles within those categories.
5. Other Musicians Could Be Your Biggest Fans
There are 10 million people posting on SoundCloud, and they all want to promote their own tracks. However, many are also keen to discover new music themselves. They’re music lovers and are always looking for something interesting to listen to. They also recognize that working with other artists is a great way to promote their music. Musicians love to help out other musicians, so you should view others on the site as your colleagues and not your rivals. Look for the people who openly express support for other artists and discuss their music. Find music similar to yours and check out who is leaving thoughtful, in-depth comments to see who you should engage with.
6. Put Playlists Together
You don’t have new music to put out all the time. But you also don’t want to leave your fans without any new content for too long or they could forget about you. If you want to keep everyone engaged, posting a playlist can be a great idea. There are lots of different playlists that you can put together. Create one that has your latest track at the top or group your tracks into different categories. For example, you might want to create a playlist of your collaborations with other artists or of all the free downloads that you have to offer.
7. Use SoundCloud Data
This isn’t so much a promotional method as it is a way to improve your promotion. By drilling into the data of how many people engage with your music, you can see what works for you and what doesn’t. A basic account on SoundCloud doesn’t give you the information you need, but you can get it by signing up for a Pro account. As well as giving you insights into your SoundCloud activity, you also get more uploads. So you’ll be able to share more of your music, which will help you to keep promoting it without spamming people with the same stuff again and again.
8. Buy SoundCloud Promotion
If you’ve got some money to spare, paying for promotion of your music can be really effective. You don’t have to have a lot of money, and you don’t have to buy fake plays, likes and reposts. Choose the right service, and they will drive real and targeted traffic toward your music. You’ll get more attention, and it will all be genuine. Your music will be promoted using advertising networks so that people who are really interested in your music can find it more easily. You could get thousands more likes, plays and reposts for only a small amount of money. You don’t need to pay for promotion too often, either. It can give you a boost when you really need it.
9. Join SoundCloud Groups
Joining groups on SoundCloud is a useful way of being more engaged on the platform. The more engaged you are, the more other musicians and fans will notice you. Groups give you a great place to connect with people. Some of the best to choose are those that are based around a particular region or genre. Look for groups of musicians in your city or that fit the kind of music that you’re making. You’ll find both fans and other musicians in these groups. Remember that if you’re connecting with other musicians, you need to offer them something too. Don’t just expect a one-sided relationship where they help you out, and you don’t do anything for them.
10. Engage on Other Platforms
Staying within SoundCloud alone can make it more difficult to engage with the right people. Your fans can be found elsewhere, and they’re still willing to click on a SoundCloud link to listen to your music. People who discover you on SoundCloud can also benefit from following you on various social media channels. Before you decide to use every social media platform available, remember that it’s probably not useful to be on all of them. You don’t have time to manage five different channels, and your fans probably aren’t using them all anyway. Find out which ones are best for reaching your fans, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram.
You can use these other platforms in a variety of ways. You can share SoundCloud links to promote your music and your profile. You can also use social media to improve general engagement. Ask questions, create polls and quizzes, chat to your fans and do fun things. This is a good way to make sure you come across as a person, and people love to engage with the people who make the music they like. You can add links to your social media pages and mailing list from your SoundCloud profile too.
11. Add Buy Links to Your Music
SoundCloud makes it easy to promote your purchase links by allowing you to add a “buy” link to your tracks. When you upload your track, click the Metadata tab to include links to iTunes, Bandcamp and other places where you sell your music online.
It is my personal belief that new artists with no established fan-base should NOT try and ‘sell’ their music in the beginning. Instead, I would like to see these artists take advantage of fangate systems, such as Hypeddit, TheArtistUnion, ToneDen, etc.
12. Leave Comments on Track Waveforms
Being able to leave comments at different points in your track is great for your fans. They can say what they want at the right time, so they don’t have to try and point out which specific bit they’re referring to. But it’s also a useful function for you, allowing you to engage with people more. You can ask for feedback, comment on certain sections and show how your process works. You could even public works in progress so that people feel like they can contribute to how your music comes together.
13. Get Some Good Art Uploaded
Even though SoundCloud is all about the music, it’s not the only thing that matters when you promote on the site. You want to convince people to press play, and the right artwork can help you do that. The artwork you use makes your tracks more attractive, and it helps you to get noticed when you share links outside of SoundCloud too, in places like Facebook or your blog. There are some tools that you can use to create your own artwork, such as Canva, which you can use to create free graphics. However, if you want something that looks really good, it’s worth paying a professional (or finding a friend who owes you a favor).
14. Use ‘First On SoundCloud’
SoundCloud launched a campaign in March 2018 called First On SoundCloud. It highlights artists who got their start on SoundCloud and also gives creators across SoundCloud the chance to have their work highlighted. Use the hashtag #SCFirst to have a chance at being promoted by SoundCloud. SoundCloud might choose to feature you on a playlist, on their social media, in their newsletters or blog posts. They might also choose you for fast-track consideration for monetization in SoundCloud Premier and partnership opportunities. This a great chance to get noticed by the bigwigs at SoundCloud and get noticed much quicker. It’s worth giving some thought to how you’re going to make use of the #SCFirst tag.
15. Use Previews as Teasers
Getting people excited about something new is a good way to create a buzz. Instead of just releasing a new track when it’s ready, let people know that it’s coming. You can share a short snippet of what’s to come so that people take interest and anticipate hearing what you’ve been working on. Start talking about something new a few weeks before you’re ready to let it drop. The proper preview feature is only available to Premium Partners and has an option to upgrade and hear the full version. However, you can choose to fade out your music at a key point or upload a short preview without that. Previews are good if you’re already building a solid following, but not so good for beginners.
16. Name Your Tracks Appropriately
What’s in a name? A lot when you’re trying to get your music noticed on SoundCloud. Naming your tracks well can make a big difference when you release your music. If you’re premiering a track on SoundCloud, point out that it’s a premiere in the title, so your fans know they’re the first to hear it. If it’s a preview, let everyone know, so they know they’re getting a sneak peek. You could also include things like where a live track was recorded.
It takes work to get noticed on SoundCloud, but it’s worth it to get recognition for your music.
Start creating a strategy for promotion now to get better results!