I know your music means a lot to you.You’ve finally published a track or an album. Now you want people to hear it.Publicity is the surest way to become known. After all, sharing your music with the world is the entire point of why you became a musician. You love your music, but it’s important to you that others love it too, right?Exposing your music to the world is only the first part. Unless you have an agent, it’s up to you to promote that music and get more plays on SoundCloud.I’m going to show you 12 ways to do this. Admittedly, 11 out of the 12 require some effort. Some require a lot more than others. But ultimately it’ll be worth it. So let’s begin.
1. Network with Other SoundCloud Artists
Musicians love music. You can’t solely focus on your own music if you want to create exposure for your own.
There are other artists out there making similar music to yours — or at least music within the same genre as yours. Find these musicians and give them props for what they’re doing.
By networking with others, you own music will start to get plays — even if it’s just from other artists that you’ve connected with. As you probably know, plays beget plays on SoundCloud, so this exposure can only be good for you.
So here’s your game plan:
- Find three or four musicians that are not that popular yet, but who plays the same kind of music you enjoy.
- Connect with these musicians on SoundCloud and social media. Play their music, comment on their new posts and follow their progress.
- Without pushing your luck, look for opportunities to share your own music within comments or when/if someone asks you to.
- Participate in music discussions and don’t hesitate to share info about yourself and your musical journey.
If you do this consistently each day, you will soon become visible to artists you follow as well as the people who follow them. These are SoundCloud followers who already like your kind of music, so it’s only a matter of time before they start exploring your tracks and searching for you on SoundCloud.
2. Use Facebook to Promote a Track
Facebook is your power tool for sharing music!
Users get hooked on great music while scrolling through their feed. If you have a lot of friends on Facebook already, it’s time to start creating a musician page and turn those friends into fans.
A musician or band page on Facebook will allow you to share your tracks as you create them. you can then re-share your posts from the musician page onto your personal profile, and get clicks from your friends.
Ultimately you want to grow your Facebook fan page a lot further than your group of friends. The quickest way to do this is through Facebook advertising. It’s fast, it’s cheap and it’s targeted at the right people.
When you create a Facebook ad, you’re basically promoting a post. In this case, that post is a track on SoundCloud. You can target your ad to reach people who are already following similar music genres to your own.
It won’t be long before the likes start piling up. As they do, you’ll get more plays on SoundCloud. These plays will eventually generate more visibility on SoundCloud itself, exposing your music to more users.
3. Join and Interact on Subreddits
To grow your fanbase you must create fan pages. A great place to this is on Reddit. You can post your music on subreddits that link to your website and of course link to SoundCloud.
Reddit has an excellent initiative that allows new artists to post original music. The rule goes that any music posted on a Saturday must either be a new release, completely original or something you yourself have created.
Tap into this initiative by posting your new creation on a subreddit any time during a Saturday. Reddit becomes a go-to for music lovers who are searching for original music — just like yours!
Reddit and SoundCloud work hand in hand to create publicity for new artists like you. The two platforms come together nicely on Reddit as you can see below:
Original music feeds this page on a weekly basis, so visit Reddit’s SoundCloud section now and get started on building your fan base.
If you have a budget for promoting your music, consider purchasing Reddit’s sponsored links. By doing so Reddit will increase the visibility of your music and you’ll get more plays on SoundCloud.
4. Leverage YouTube and Facebook for More Exposure
We’ve already discussed Facebook exposure for your music, I know. But there’s another powerful way to leverage Facebook and that’s through YouTube.
In many ways, YouTube is more of a social platform than any other. Why? Because studies show that videos get more shares, comments, and likes than any other form of online content.
What does this mean for you?
Yep, you guessed it; MUSIC VIDEO!
I know it sounds daunting, expensive and time-consuming. But creating a music video for that new track you just created will take your SoundCloud exposure to the next level!
YouTube is the base where your music video will be hosted. Facebook will be the tool you use to give that music video exposure. The two make a potent combination if utilized properly.
Drum & Bass and Dance Music artists often create plain videos that are nothing more than slideshows of beautiful art, gorgeous girls or landscapes. These can seem tacky and cheap, but they do work well with long mixes that exceed 15 minutes.
If you don’t have the budget to create an amazing video, use your imagination and come up with some other ideas. Here’s some inspiration to get you started:
- Animate a video instead of filming one. Animation costs less and there are countless graphic design students out there who would jump at the chance to make a video for you at a reasonable price.
- Outsource your video creation to a freelancing platform like UpWork or Fiverr. You can find competitive rates and great quality from video animators in third world countries.
- Learn to create your own videos at home. It’s cheap, fun and if you do it often enough you’ll get better at it with time.
Remember to always link your YouTube videos and your Facebook posts to your SoundCloud profile. The point here is to get people onto SoundCloud so your plays can gain momentum.
5. Buy SoundCloud Plays for Your Own Account
You can Buy Real Soundcloud Plays of your own music. This costs much less than other advertising strategies and it immediately increases your visibility on SoundCloud because the algorithm works on popularity. The more you (or others buy), the more your music gets seen by fans who follow your genre.
Buying SoundCloud plays is not a long-term strategy, but it’s a valid way to get the ball rolling. If you are desperate to get started, it’s an option worth considering.
6. Promote Your Music on Twitter
What are you trying to say with your music? Music has a strong cultural element. You can tap into that by creating a following on Twitter and associating it with your music.
If you follow other artists you already know how effective this can be. Fans want to get inside the heads of their favorite musicians and love to hear from them. Even your mildest fans will enjoy a tweet about your creative process or a recent collaboration.
7. How to Get More SoundCloud Plays Through Blogging
Be honest. you’ve neglected to blog about your latest track, haven’t you? It’s one of those tasks that seem tedious, but it’s actually a lot of fun and highly effective.
The best part is you don’t have to blog specifically about your music. You only need to refer to it every so often and include links to your SoundCloud profile, album pages or tracks. Topics you could cover are:
- How to get started in the industry
- Music culture as it pertains to your genre
- Music reviews within genres similar to yours
- Walkthroughs on how to use each music platform to promote music (like this one)
- Artist biographies
Use your blogs to include links to your music videos, tracks, and other sites that host your music. Create an online bubble that continually generates information and makes it easy for fans to find you.
8. Create Amazing Album Art
How many tracks do you see on SoundCloud that have no thumbnails attached to them? These tracks get neglected and passed by easily.
Artwork helps catch the attention of SoundCloud followers & fans. It makes them look twice before scrolling further. When you have a great design attached to your albums & tracks, it helps your music stand out from the rest.
Be unique. Be creative. Get a design concept going for your album. Album art can be created by you or by someone else. Make art a part of your musical journey and help people relate to your music on a deeper level.
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