How To Get Noticed On SoundCloud
How to get discovered on soundcloud
When you get more and more people to start noticing you on SoundCloud for your music, the more you increase your chances of becoming the next best-established artist.
Here are a few tips you can use to encourage more people to start listening to you and start to buy SoundCloud plays.
Spend Enough Time Writing An Interesting Bio That Will Draw People in
When visitors arrive on your SoundCloud profile, the first thing they will see is your bio. This is an important part of any profile and you need to make sure you have completed it. It also forms a vital part of SoundCloud marketing. This offers you an ample opportunity to let people that might have an interest in your music, know more about you.
Filling in a bio is the perfect way to let visitors in on information about what you actually do and more about you. You are also able to add in additional information like your location, your music type, the reasons why you have become a musician, and where you are hoping your career and music will progress to. This is information that can help you to develop a stronger connection to your fans.
Boost Up Your Social Media Accounts
When you are creating your SoundCloud page, include any links to your existing social-media profiles. This is an easy and wise way to maximize your followers. For example, you can provide a link to both your Facebook and Twitter pages which means your fans are always updated when it comes to your music. You could also provide links to a website if you have one and a place where followers are able to sign-up for your own dedicated newsletter.
When you make it an easy task for people to start following you, the more you increase the likelihood of building relationships that are long-lasting with fans. Do not allow them to slip away before asking them to subscribe to mailing lists or to follow you over other social media platforms. If you do not take advantage of this, you might not see these visitors again once they have left your SoundCloud page.
Your Songs Need Accurate Descriptions And Should Include Relevant Tags
When you write a description for each song, ensure these are relevant while including the type of keywords that potential fans would be searching for when they have an interest in your genre of music. For example, you should be including the genre name which makes it easier to connect with the people that have an interest in this music type. When you choose tags, include any other information that is relevant which will make it even easier for fans to find you and your music.
If you would like, you have the choice to use your own created tags instead of the ones that they are suggesting. For example, if your song is acoustic, make sure you have added in an acoustic tag. In this way, even when a person is not interested in the pop tracks you have released, they may just be interested in listening to the acoustic version. This is the ideal method to easily increase your reach which also allows for connections with different types of audiences.
Make Use Of Album Art To Promote And Enhance Your Profile
Posting artwork from any of your albums helps your profile to really stand out. When possible only use extremely high-quality images. If you use blurry photographs that have nothing to do your music, this may give people a bad impression about you and your music. In many cases, it is the artwork that will draw visitors in an get them to start listening to one or more of your tracks. It may even be in your best interests to hire a photographer or professional artist to assist you with creating the art for your album so that it gets noticed.
Make It Simple For People To Buy Your Music
You need to include one or more links so that people are able to buy your music. For instance, when you sell songs through iTunes, Spotify, or CD Baby, you are able to add the link that will appear as soon as someone starts listening to one of your songs. These links make it much easier for visitors to buy a track directly from you. If you have songs that can be downloaded for free, you should also include the links where your visitors are able to access them.
Another good idea that is worthwhile considering is to allow visitors to download one of your songs for free provided they follow you or give you likes. This is an easy way to start building up your following and getting more people to listen to your music. The best part about this approach is that when more and more people start listening to your music, the more likely people will start to buy your tracks and music. Think about different ways you can take advantage of by giving away your music while at the same time collecting contact information about your fans or getting more of these fans to like or follow you.
Tagging for success
How can new fans find your music? Well, one of the best ways is to tag your music.
Tagging makes you discoverable when a listener is searching SoundCloud.
The better your tags, the easier you are to find.
The best way to tag is to be honest. If you made a drum & bass track, then set the main genre to Drum & Bass. Add moods and a location to your tags as well. It all helps.
Stick to one main genre to keep things clear. Adding a bunch of genres won’t make your track any more findable.
The more concise and accurate your tags are, the more easily your music will get discovered by the listeners that wanna hear it most.
Hot Tip: Tag and link to your collaborators SoundCloud in the track description. Use an ‘@’ before their SoundCloud name to link their profile. It’s great for cross-promotion and telling the story of your process.
Add a ‘Buy’ Link
Getting listens and likes is nice. But likes and listens won’t buy you that new mic you’ve been eyeing.
Luckily SoundCloud lets you add a ‘Buy’ link to your track upload. Just click on the ‘Metadata’ tab when you’re uploading.
Add the right links: Buy on iTunes, Beatport, Juno, Bandcamp or whatever else you use to sell your music online.
Hot Tip: If you have a pro account you can change the button text to anything you want.
Change it to Stream on Spotify and link to get some extra streaming juice. Or write ‘Donate’ and link to a Patreon or a PayPal. You’ll be surprised how many super-fans out there will support your music.
Tell A Story With Your Waveform
SoundCloud allows fans to comment on your waveform. But y’know who else should be commenting on the waveform? YOU!
Use the waveform comments to tell your fans and community about your process. Be transparent about how you made your track. Ask for feedback and mention specific sections.
For example: If you’re not sure about a section of your track, comment on the waveform where the part starts.
Something like: “Not sure about the bass here. Let me know what you think” is the perfect play for getting feedback from your community.
You don’t have to be completely done a track to publish it either. Publish drafts, get feedback, and make your music better.
Art Matters
Album art matters. Especially on SoundCloud.
If your track gets embedded on a blog your artwork will be there. If you share your track to Facebook your album art goes there too.
Your album art or track artwork represents your music no matter where it goes. So it’s mega important.
Before anyone hits play the artwork attached to your track has to stand out. So make it count and choose something that represents your music and you.
Your album art or track artwork represents your music no matter where it goes.
Your album art or track artwork represents your music no matter where it goes.
For best results always use a JPG or a PNG that’s at least 800 x 800 pixels.
Hot Tip: Album art is a perfect reason to invest a bit of money into your project. If you can’t make the image you want yourself, then hire a designer or photographer that fits your budget.
Private Means Pro
SoundCloud lets you share private links to your tracks.
It’s great for sharing unfinished tracks with collaborators, sending demos to labels or blogs, or contacting other outlets like radio stations with exclusives.
Sharing a private link gives your music the personal touch and a sense of exclusivity that is great for reaching out to tastemakers.
Sharing a private link gives your music the personal touch and a sense of exclusivity that is great for reaching out to tastemakers.
It’s super easy to do. Just upload a track and set it to private. Save it and go to your profile. Click the track you want to share privately and hit the ‘share’ button below the waveform.
you’ll see a private share URL that is unique to your track! You can even make a whole playlist private if you wanna share your entire new album.
Plus, you can reset the the private link at any time to make your private links time sensitive.
Publishing is just the first step
Your track is finally done. You worked long and hard on it. You’re finally happy with how it sounds and you think it’s ready for the world.
So you click share and sit back waiting for those plays. It’s a hit! The track gets some nice buzz and people seem to be liking it!
But a couple days later you realize that your song needs a minor tweak…
Maybe someone you admire commented and told you a hot tip on how to boost the bass.
Or maybe you mastered it and you want the better version on your SoundCloud. But if you take it down, you’ll lose all those plays, likes and important feedback…
Change the Audio without losing Comments, likes and plays
Don’t fret. With a Pro subscription on SoundCloud you can swap out the audio on any SoundCloud upload at any time.
And the best part? You don’t lose all those plays, likes and comments from your fans.
It’s perfect for sharing unfinished songs to get feedback. Tweak your track based on the critiques and re-upload any time.
Hitting share doesn’t have to be final. Swap the audio and make sharing part of your production process.
Sharing means Caring
Don’t just post your own music. Re-post artists that you’re excited about or songs and mixes that you can’t stop listening to.
Sharing other artists and helping your audience discover new music builds trust and authority and is a really humble move. If you hear something, say something!
If you hear something, say something!
You SoundCloud is a community. So support it by sharing other artists in your feed. If you share other artist’s music there’s a better chance they’ll share yours!
Reposting another artist’s music is a great first step to starting a relationship as well. Relationships that lead to gigs, collaborations and helpful partnerships. All that good community stuff. So build the community you want to be a part of.
So build the community you want to be a part of.
Across the Universe
Sharing your new tracks to your SoundCloud community is great. But why stop there? Put your tracks out into the world!
Put your tracks out into the world!
Share them to all your promotion platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Once you upload a track share it to all your platforms under the ‘Share’ tab.
You can also auto-post your tracks to all your social platforms automatically by linking your accounts. Just head over to your Account Settings to manage your Connections.
Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are all connectable for auto-posting. Connect your accounts and get your tracks into all those ears!
Maintain Your Motion
SoundCloud is a tool. You have to use it right to make it work.
These tips will help you get the most out of your SoundCloud and make it work for you wherever you’re sharing your music.
