December 22, 2011 5 Easy SoundCloud Music Promotion Tips
SoundCloud continues to be a terrific location for music promotion. Taking advantage of SoundCloud’s growing community of music lovers should be a strategic practice of all musicians, big and small. Sharing tracks, creating sets, and interacting with other users are all essential parts of good SoundCloud promotion. Add to that commenting, following and group joining, and SoundCloud becomes the online pulse of social music.
Looking at the current success of Skrillex and his presence on SoundCloud, you can’t help but get excited about the potential for music discovery that SoundCloud offers. To help gain the most out of SoundCloud and reach the widest audience possible, I’ve put together some tips and ideas that any musician can easily implement. I call them my 5 Super-Social Easily-Implemented Just-Do-It-Already SoundCloud-Tips.
Tip 1: Share
Sharing your SoundCloud tracks is very important. In today’s age of social networking this should not come as a surprise. In fact, this should be second nature by now. When you release a new track or a new set, always remember to share it on Facebook, send out some tweets, embed a HTML5 player on your site, post the music on Tumblr, share the track with SoundCloud users who are not following you already, and send some old-fashioned emails. SoundCloud even lets you connects various networks in their Settings area to assist in this process. Make sure you use it.
Tip 2: Be Free
Everyone likes free stuff, including free SoundCloud downloads. Don’t be afraid to release tracks for free every so often. Many people have grown up not even paying for music anymore. And although that can be detrimental to the starving artist, letting a track go for free can have it benefits. Free downloads have a certain type of virality. When the right fans get their hands on them they can spread across the world at a much faster rate than paid tracks. Use free downloads to produce a larger fan base. With a larger fan base, you have a greater chance of selling more music.
Tip 3: Join Groups
Joining groups that are befitting to your musical tastes is both fun and rewarding. When you decide to join a group or submit your tracks, remember to think outside the “dropbox.” Submitting tracks to groups that reflect your genre of music is important, but don’t forget about location based groups. Targeting SoundCloud groups in your city and state is one technique that many musicians neglect. These groups can help to build a grassroots type audience and provide many opportunities for future gigs. Join only the groups that make the most sense.
Tip 4: Comment
If you’ve ever had someone comment on one of your tracks then you know the excitement that it generates. Provide that same type of excitement for others. Comment on the SoundCloud tracks of other users in a constructive and sincere way. By taking the time to applaud another artist and extend your support, you are also creating an opportunity to get yourself noticed. I know this may sound self-serving, but that’s because it is. We’re talking about SoundCloud promotion. Promoting your music is always self-serving. But this does not mean that you should make insincere comments. It does not mean ignore what’s happening within the track to blatantly write something about yourself. People most definitely notice when you comment on things. Make sure you’re using the right, constructive words.
Tip 5: Follow
Do not hesitate to follow and/or follow back. This is perhaps the most obvious of all 5 Super-Social Easily-Implemented Just-Do-It-Already SoundCloud-Tips. Why? Because following is a recurring action. If another user sees you’re following them, guess what, it’s very likely that they’ll not only follow you back, but also check out your tracks. This leads to more exposure. Maybe they’ll happen to love your latest release, download it because you let it go for free, share it around their network, and bring you more fans. A scenario similar to this is not unrealistic.
And so there you have it, my 5 Super-Social Easily-Implemented Just-Do-It-Already SoundCloud-Tips. These tips are nearly effortless and can greatly increase your SoundCloud promotion. Be sure to leave me some feedback in the comments section below. Add a sixth tip, share an awesome SoundCloud experience, or just plug your profile page. Catch you later.
This post was contributed by Konnie Mack of MackAndBrown.com | Music and Tech Blog covering the stories affecting your lifestyle.
Reader Comments (37)
You can also list your upcoming Gigs on Soundcloud with GigaTools -> http://www.gigatools.com
Nice tips! We're gonna share your post with our indie musicians/bands friends! thank for that!
another exceptional soundcloud tool that i have used is http://emailunlock.com/ -- so great!
You guys should also check out www.viinyl.com (disclosure: i'm the founder)
SoundCloud + Viinyl = A sexy twist on digital music promotion & distribution.
We make it super easy to turn each SoundCloud track into an interactive promotional site made to seduce fans.
Check it out: http://soundcloud.com/apps/viinyl
These tips are really beneficial for all musicians since these tips plays important role in the success of their music album.Thanks for sharing such a wonderful information.
great article!
Also the tipps in the comments (Gigatools and Emailunlock) were great! I was looking for something like Emailunlock for long time!
Do you know about more good tools that can connect with soundcloud? Is there maybee something like a well working mp3-shop system using the soundcloud files?
cheers
Josia
Sound cloud is the best way to promote your music and it could help to better promote your music and help to reach all over the world
I think these tips are simple and very effective for the music promotion purpose. If are promoting your music album through sound cloud then you must have follow these tips. Sound cloud music promotion is a wonderful and latest technique for the success of music album
So if the task is to bother everyone with your soundcloud page, here is mine:
http://soundcloud.com/marvinbalzer
soundcloud.com/stijnbrink
1 i follow you
2 you follow me
Very good post. Simple, straight and effective. Thanks.
sfts
Great post. I think SoundCloud is one of the social media tools that is great for musicians. I'm still trying to learn it and I definitely understand it a little better because of this article. I would love to post this on my site musicians-journey.com.
Please let me know if that's ok. Peace - Emilio
lmao. its simple and self explanatory but really works. :)
You just summarized the official tips...
http://soundcloud.com/101/community-building
You can also leave those to the expert and make sure you'll boost your audience.
And get your music video seen by millions.
These are some great basic tips, however not even close to encompassing all the great things that you can do with Soundcloud.
I run a record label and management agency and have just finished a 100+ page book about Soundcloud. To my knowledge it's the most comprehensive guide out there.
I'd recommend you check it out if you're a musician or active in the industry any other way. Find it at www.soundcloudguide.com.
Cheers,
Budi
Great tips! Another great way to help build your fan base is to collaborate with other artists.
Great tips, now could you guys listen to mine?:)
The best way to promote your tracks is to be an active member of soundcloud.
Listen to tracks
Like other tracks
Repost other tracks
Follow other users
Comment on other tracks.
Get engaged with other users, the karma will come back to you 10 fold.
The new messaging system on soundcloud is awesome too, as you can include multiple tracks! Great way to get your latest works out to the people.
Sharing to groups is great too. A little tip, if you unshare and reshare your track everyday, it goes back to the top of the list in the group!
You can do all this manually, but I use a program call soundcloud manager. Fully recommend it, am still finding new features and I have had it for over 6 months!!!!!!1 http://soundcloudmanager.com
awesome tips, I am using http://soundcloudmanager.com/, do you have any advice on how to get the most out of it?
make that 6 tips.
here's something to add to your article
http://www.cloudkillers.com/?aff=25109
it's a FREE promotion site that works on top of soundcloud.
instead of rarely getting any love back while commenting on other people's stuff on soundcloud.. this will earn you points and luck while you comment and those will get you comments back...
so people here your stuff, if it's good they like it, follow you, rate you on fiercebark which is a top list that works with the site (people have been signed from this- you can use a high ranking like #1 for the rewards section of an EPK or portfolio)
there's all sorts of perks like that.
Professionals bump heads with beginners in the chat so you can get tons of great advice with everything from music business to music theory to dj'ing, sampling, daw issues, etc.
The link I shared will get you some bonus points for signing up off of it to start you out :)
Thanks for good tips
Thanks for the tips! Another good tool is Reddit, specifically "We Are the Music Makers" sub-reddit. Here's a song I'm helping promote (not my own), that got over 600 legit listens in less than a week, mainly thanks to "We Are The Music Makers" sub-Reddit. Please give it a listen and comment! What genre would you call it? How does it make you feel? Would you go see this music live? Any questions on how the track was created? Comment please! https://soundcloud.com/dexterfairweather/vacation
Hey i always find it hard to not spam people when sharing my sounds
Http://www.soundcloud.com/mevolent
i make indie house with my open personal feel. I'd love any sort of feedback because im finding it very hard to build an audience.
Very great tip and very effective when promoting your music all over the world soundcloud really helps.
Www.soundcloud.com/arnerd
Check out my sounds ;) techhouse with a twist :)
You should proof-read your articles before you publish. The bad grammar costs you credibility.
That's my Soundcloud if anyone is interested
soundcloud.com/basslight/
https://soundcloud.com/lilsmusic check out my latest release
https://soundcloud.com/amattik
check me out making indie abstract fun tracks
Check this guy out! - He need more listeners!'
https://soundcloud.com/christian_moufflet/august-mixtape-2014
Great tips & some of them I do...always good to get such a positive reminder!!
I'm Blogging Unsigned Artists / New Music on my website detn8mc.com
Be featured on Massive ExT Radio and Blogged on my site.
contact me, follow my twitter @detn8
Follow my www.soundcloud/detn8mc
Great tips. Often just having a solid consistent promotion plan will spike your plays more quickly than anything else
I’m grateful to have come across your site easily. It has helped me very much. This is the extreme way one can easily persuade the users to promote their music through soundcloud plays.
You guys are simply great and you must upload more articles that would help us to gather more and more knowledge about the soundcloud downloads. I like the way the articles are framed and written.
I admire your post!
Thank you for sharing such informative post about Soundcloud promotion.
Keep sharing.
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