Polishing Your Presentation
Focus on putting up quality music. First things first—if you want people to get on board with what you do, you have to give them something worth paying attention to. Don’t just throw up a new track as soon as you finish recording it. Take some time to make sure that what you’ve worked on sounds original and distinctive. As a musician, your first priority should be constantly improving your craft. Placing an emphasis on tight, professional mixing can help your tracks stand out from the millions of others out there. Remember, quality trumps quantity. It’s not a race to see who can stack up the most tracks in the shortest amount of time.
Spruce up your bio. Open with a brief, engaging introduction to greet visitors to your page and let them know who you are and what they can expect from your music. Your bio will usually be one of the first things new listeners will see, so it's important that it be well-written and engaging. An intriguing bio might say something like "A good song is like a conversation. For thirteen years, my guitar has been taking to me, and I've listened closely. The result is a white-hot slug of low-country rhythm and blues that strums like David Allan Coe, croons like Roy Orbison, and burns like a swig of bootleg shine straight out of granddaddy's fruit cellar." Try not to ramble on at length. There's no need to cover every detail of your life. Keeping it short and sweet will often make more of an impression.
Upload a high quality profile picture. Your user image should serve as a visual representation of you or some aspect of your style. It could be anything from a simple photograph to a funky symbol to the artwork of your latest release. Be sure to select high-resolution images so your profile will appear more professional at a glance. Show a little character by putting up an action shot of your playing, or use an original logo to create clear branding for your bands or conceptual project. For the cleanest-looking display, SoundCloud recommends that users choose an image that’s a square 1000x1000 pixels.
Create original artwork to accompany your tracks. No new release is complete without album art. Even if you’re just remixing a previous single or dropping a one-off track for fun, giving your followers something to look at as well as listen to will help them form a stronger connection to your music. Scour the internet for eye-catching images that you can slap your logo on, or design your own original artwork using traditional art tools or a computer illustrator program. Reposition or zoom in on your album art while uploading to highlight the most eye-catching parts.
Write out a detailed description for each track. This is your chance to tell users the story behind your music. You can use your song descriptions to explain your creative process, share interesting background info, or provide a list of the specific equipment you used to produce your signature sound. All these elements will help paint a more complete picture of you as an artist. Your song descriptions can also be a good place to acknowledge other musicians you’ve collaborated with, or who have helped inspire and shape your sound. Round out your descriptions with bonus content like lyrics or instrument tabs to get your listeners singing along.
Taking Advantage of Basic SoundCloud Features
Interact with other SoundCloud users. Always be on the prowl for new profiles to follow. When you come across an artist that grabs your attention, like, repost, or comment on a few of their songs. Chances are, they’ll appreciate the recognition and be motivated to take a closer look at your music in return. Don’t blindly give out follows in hopes of being followed back. Not only is it lazy and impersonal, it can make you look desperate for attention. Being complimentary of other artists has the added benefit of making you seem friendly, which can help you win fans.
Take part in collaborations to expand your audience. Get in touch with artists that have a similar sound ask if they would be interested in working together. Collaborations can be a great way to make some truly special music with the power to reach twice the number of listeners. It also gives you an opportunity to do a little cross-promotion in the process. Include a link to your partner’s profile when you publish your collaborations to make sure you both get your due credit and exposure.
Use tags to attract more listeners. Anytime you release a new song, tag it with as many relevant descriptive terms as you can think of. When a curious listener clicks one of those tags, your song will show up in the results. Some of the most far-reaching tags you can use include your artist name, the track title, the musical genre, and the names of artists or record labels that put out similar music. You can also use your tags to describe the mood of the song, or even the instruments or equipment used to record it. A targeted tag list might look something like this: “#HibachiBeats #TwistOfFate #EDM #Electronic #ProgressiveHouse #DeadMau5 #MinistryOfSound #BigBeatRecords.”
Invite listeners to share your music in your song descriptions. Sometimes, getting what you want is as simple as being willing to ask. Add a closing line to your bio or song descriptions saying something like “If you like what you hear, be sure to like, follow, and repost!” Your listeners will be more likely to fulfill your request if you’re explicit about it. Put a clickable hyperlink to your profile or a particular track somewhere in plain sight to make it easy for users to copy and paste elsewhere. Don’t forget to thank your longtime subscribers and new listeners alike for their continued interest and support. Common courtesy goes a long way in building a following.
Make your tracks available for download. To enable downloading, just go to the permissions tab on any of your posted tracks and check the “Enable Downloads” bubble. Other users will then be able to save your songs to their device of choice and play them whenever they want. The more places your music goes, the more potential followers you stand to gain. Standard users are entitled 100 free downloads per track. Those with Pro accounts get 1,000, and Pro Unlimited users enjoy unlimited downloads on their entire library.
Upgrade to a Pro account. Shelling out a few extra bucks to pro status will put a selection of statistics tools at your disposal, making it easier to track your plays, likes, and follows over time. It also gives you access to exclusive features like Spotlight, which allows artists to display some of their best music at the top of their profile for all to see. If you’re really interested in having more control, consider going one step further with a Pro Unlimited account. The advanced stats options makes it possible to see where your listeners are located geographically, as well as where is your songs are being reposted around the web. A SoundCloud Pro account will only run you $7 a month, while choosing the more powerful Pro Unlimited plan nudges the price up to $15.
Increasing Your Exposure on Other Platforms
Promote your SoundCloud profile on social media. Create separate artist accounts on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and update them regularly. There, you can drop links to new songs, post about exciting projects you’ve got in the works, and interact with your fans and followers directly. Social media is without a doubt the single best way to market yourself and your music online. Invite your friends to share your posts on their own profiles. The more ears your music reaches, the larger your network or potential followers will grow. Be sure to link your social media accounts to your SoundCloud profile, as well.
Submit your work to music blogs. Run a search for blogs that are on the lookout for new music. Being featured on a popular site just one time can send your number of followers skyrocketing. Not only that, you’ll enjoy added credibility as an artist since your work comes backed by the blog’s reputation. Focus on blogs that feature music from your preferred genre. Small niche blogs, while they don’t command as wide an audience, are often more willing to post material from lesser known artists. Include a short message along with your submission explaining who you are and why you’re writing: “A friend recently told me about your blog and mentioned that you feature experimental metal music. I just put the finishing touches on a post-metal/drone track that I think would fit in perfectly with the rest of your content. I’ve included a link at the bottom of this email. Let me know what you think!”
Be active on internet groups and forums. Get involved in discussions with like-minded creators and fans with whom you can share your passion for music. Since listening is a hobby for these people, you won’t have to twist any arms to get them to check out your work. Forums and internet groups are some of the best places to get honest feedback from someone with an experienced ear. Vinyl Collective, Okayplayer, and Drowned in Sound are among the busiest music forums on the web. Many of these boards feature subforums set up specifically for up-and-coming artists to share and discuss their music.
Making Use of Other Helpful Resources
Take out ad space. A sponsored ad on Facebook, Instagram, or another high-profile promotional platform can be a rewarding investment for those with a little money to spend. Ads typically only cost a few dollars a day, and have the potential to draw hundreds of eyes to your SoundCloud profile. This may be just the boost you need if you’ve seen a slowdown in your number of new followers. Most social media platforms offer adjustable pricing plans that allow users to decide how much they want to spend on an ad, as well as where and how their content will be displayed. One of the biggest advantages of web-based advertising is that it ensures that your ads are being seen the kind of people who are likely to be interested in them.
Set up a follow-to-download gateway for your channel. Ordinarily, any registered SoundCloud user can access the music on your profile for free. By creating a follow-to-download gateway, curious listeners will have to follow your page in order to receive an exclusive download link. It’s essentially a guarantee that everyone downloading is a subscriber. Sites like TuneBoost or SoundCloudfollowers.org make it easy to add a follow-to-download gateway to your profile. Employing a follow-to-download gateway can be a useful trick for racking up followers if you’re already somewhat established, but if your visitors have never heard of you, they may decide that it’s not worth the extra effort.
Pay for likes and followers. If you’re desperate to kickstart your music career and need a little momentum to get you going, consider trading cash for praise. There are whole companies that specialize in providing likes, follows, and other social signals to aspiring musicians as a way to help them build a buzz. A purchase of as little as $2 can get you up to 1,000 plays, as well as additional perks such as likes and reposts. Hiring one of these services may not be the most honest approach, but it can be effective if you haven’t had much luck with other options. Keep in mind that a suspiciously high number of followers or plays with few likes or comments may look fishy to more discerning listeners.
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