You have just finished another track. Time to share it with the world on Soundcloud! Hopefully this one will get more exposure than your last creation. So you put your hard work into the cloud and hit “Upload.” Now what? Do you share it once on Facebook and hope for the best?
Most people who are unsuccessful at creating hype about their music are taking a passive approach to its spread. Even if you create the next best thing, it won’t become a hit if only a handful of people listen to it. With more than 10 million creators uploading music to Soundcloud every year, how will you make your track stand out among the rest?
We have taken a look at dozens of Soundcloud profiles–people who have made it to the top, those who have gotten nowhere, and everything in between. Based on our findings, we came up with the five best methods to promote your new track on Soundcloud.
All too often we see great music artists create terrible album art. Some artists don’t see album art as important, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. These days, our social media feeds are so full of relevant content, it is critical to make a powerful first impression to stand out among the rest.
As of now, that first impression is always visual. Consciously or unconsciously, people tend to associate an track’s album art with the quality of the track before they even listen to it. Often times if someone does not like the art, they won’t even listen to the track. Even if they do listen to the track, their perception of its quality is affected by what they think of the album art.
Can’t make your own album art or don’t know anyone who can? Check out online marketplaces like fiverr or 99designs to work with someone who can create a masterpiece to compliment your unique efforts.
If you need a simple way to reach outside of your immediate social network, tagging is essential. Adding relevant tags to your tracks allows people to organically discover your content.
The first step to use tags effectively is to know your track’s personality and create tags that connect your track to what your audience is looking for. For example, if you create new track that you think is a good fit for the “deep house” genre, you’d include tags such as #housemusic and #deephouse. This way, your track will be more likely to reach people who will like, comment and repost it. One high-quality listener such as this is more valuable than dozens of people who only listen then move on.
The Somiibo SoundCloud Promotion Bot Module makes use of tags in this way to promote your track to fans interested in your specific genre of music.
One way to engage your fans is to ask to hear their voice in your waveform comments. On most social media sites, it is taboo to comment upon your own post without some previous engagement from another person. This is not the case in SoundCloud waveform comments.
Share stories about the track. Tell your listeners what inspired a certain part of a track or share your favorite part. This openness will generate a more intimate relationship with your fanbase.
You can also create calls for engagement in the waveform comments. You can ask things like: “What do you think about this bass drop?” or “Do you feel like dancing right now?” This strategy will begin discussions among your fans about your music.
Soundcloud is not only a place to upload and listen to music. It is also a social place to share thoughts and feeling about this music. Don’t miss out on this precious opportunity to connect with your fans.
Repost channels are a great way to share your music with large groups of people who love the genre. Repost channels and networks broaden an artist’s reach by placing their content in front of thousands of listeners for little to no upfront cost.
A simple search of your track’s genre followed by the words “repost network” or “repost channel” will show you some of the best channels for your genre. You can then follow the directions in their bio to get your track supported or find more related networks, also contained within their bio. Two great examples of repost networks are EDM Repost and Trending Network Repost.
Hiring a marketing company always sounds expensive, but this is not always the case for all SoundCloud marketing companies. These companies focus on boosting your numbers. When a potential listener sees a track that has low numbers of plays, likes, comments, and reposts, they are much more likely to skip right over it. With boosted numbers, your track is kickstarted to attract quality listeners who are more likely to further increase these numbers organically.
These companies offer a large number of services, ranging from buying plays for cheap to buying your way onto music blogs. For example, Devumi will get you 5,000 plays for just $12. Other companies like Juss Russ Digital Marketing will put your track in front of influencers who may spread it among their extensive networks of music mavens.
In the end, SoundCloud is a tool. It’s up to you to figure out its complexities to make it work how you want it to. It is not easy, and will often take some trial and error before you become successful with it. Fortunately, there is a solution to avoid this extra work. Somiibo will take care of the difficult and tedious work, allowing you to focus on what you love: making music.