How To Get A Lot Of Plays On Soundcloud Free
How To Get More Plays on SoundCloud: 5 Legit Strategies …
As an artist, you are responsible for promoting your own music. So how do you promote yourself to get more plays on SoundCloud?
Here are 5 rock-solid SoundCloud promotion strategies that are relevant for the music industry in 2021. Here’s a snapshot of what you’ll learn:
The truth about SoundCloud and promotionOne thing you need to get right before you start promoting yourselfHow to leverage existing audiences to maximize your plays
By following these strategies, you can increase the number of plays you’ll get on SoundCloud, as well as followers and likes. Let’s go!
Check out our FREE eBook – 10 Tips For Promoting Your Music on a Budget. Nail your social media strategy Give your music the best chance of success Find your ideal audience online
A Brief Note
SoundCloud has made changes within the last few years where the home page is no longer your stream. This means that people who follow you aren’t always going to be finding your music when it comes out.
Spotify is a much more popular option these days for listening to music, and it allows you to reach a wider audience.
Including key services like Spotify and Apple Music in 2021 is crucial in unlocking the full power of promotion and marketing.
Apart from that, here are 5 strategies that will get you more plays on Soundcloud:
Make great music firstLeverage existing audiences on the platformUse email for networking and promotionGet into repost chainsMake your music discoverable
Strategy 1: Make (Actually) Great Music
While it is possible to promote crap music, it never survives the ultimate test: the opinion of the audience.
No matter how much PR or marketing you give a track, if it’s really average, then nobody wants to listen, and you won’t get plays.
Never forget this golden rule of music promotion – your music is the marketing. You don’t just market music, it’s inherently linked to the promotion process.
One of my earlier tracks, ‘Carpark Anxiety’, has only gotten 900 plays in 3 years, even though I sent it to a lot of people. Why? Nobody wanted to share it, because it’s very average.
People don’t buy a vacuum cleaner if they don’t want one, so people won’t listen to music if they don’t like it. This is especially true on Soundcloud, where the barrier of entry is so low that a lot of horrible music gets uploaded, meaning listeners have more to sift through.
I’ve found over time that artists and producers (especially those who want a career) tend to overestimate the quality of their music. I did in the early days, and you can go and listen to my really old music and hear the improvement over time.
One of my newer drum & bass tracks, a bootleg of Porter Robinson’s Get Your Wish, got a lot of plays and was shared a lot more, because this track is much higher quality than my old stuff.
But this begs the question – should I upload my music if it’s not 100% there yet? This is arguable, but on a platform like SoundCloud, the stakes are much lower, with removing tracks being just a click away.
Plus, you’re likely to get valuable feedback from the public if you ask for it, allowing you to gauge what will and won’t work.
So while promoting music online is important, getting feedback and taking that into the studio will prove to be a much more valuable use of time.
So how do I make my music ‘better’? That’s another topic entirely, and that’s also why we have courses like EDM Foundations and Songwriting for Producers.
But a few pointers:
Make sure your core musical ideas are solid – production, mixing and mastering won’t matter otherwiseGet feedback from listeners, tastemakers and other artistsBe patient and keep making a large volume of music
Strategy 2: Leverage Existing Audiences
This might be confusing to say, but it’s true.
There are people who are always going to be better at marketing music than you. So don’t reinvent the wheel, use these people to your advantage.
People dedicate their lives to finding and sharing music to audiences that love it, so you.
Find channels on Soundcloud that can share your music to larger numbers of people than you ever could. This could come in the form of
Repost channelsOther artists with bigger followingsPromotional channelsLabels/collectivesPlaylisters
Don’t ignore offsite audiences as well. Just because they don’t have larger audiences on SoundCloud, doesn’t mean a blog or YouTube channel can’t send lots of plays your way.
Make sure to utilize:
BlogsHype MachineYouTube ChannelsSpotify PlaylistsInfluencers (e. g. vloggers, Instagram accounts)Radio stations (some play directly off SoundCloud! )
The key here is to find channels that are a good fit for your music. Don’t go messaging someone just because they have a lot of followers. They are already looking for very specific kinds of music for their tastes.
So play a few of their previous uploads/shares and make a decision. Don’t be too scared if your music isn’t exactly the same as what’s already there, but if it’s too different, it’ll likely get a pass.
Once you know who to send music to, then you need to figure out how.
Strategy 3: Email is still King
How do you send a message:
that you know the recipient will getthat goes to a place they check very oftenthat is simple and clearusing something everyone hasthat doesn’t rely on a platform that could be gone soon
The answer? Email. It’s old, but it’s still the best. How does this relate back to SoundCloud you might ask?
Email for Networking
Everyone has an email. Artists. Labels. Promo channels. Repost channels. Avid music fans. And you can communicate with them through this channel, no matter if they have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or not.
I got my biggest play numbers out of email networking, including a top placement on one of Majestic Casual’s weekly playlists on Soundcloud. In this case, it was a form that sends them an email, but the point still stands.
Here’s an example of me emailing my track to someone for a YouTube upload, and look at the difference in response time.
The first email I sent.
The response time.
I got a response in less than 24 hours!
Granted, this won’t usually be the case for huge names in the industry, but email networking works.
Not to say that you can’t use avenues like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Those channels are great but always try email first. And use the Hubspot extension to track email opens, you’ll thank me later.
To make this easier, you’ll want to be making a list of emails of relevant people you can send your music to. Just use Google Sheets or Excel.
I personally use a software called Notion (has database functionality) to track YouTube channels, Soundcloud pages, labels and more. I’ve blanked out the emails for privacy.
A few tips & tricks about sending emails:
Be concise – the recipient is likely already time-poor, so get to the them a SoundCloud link – it’s the easiest to listen to, and you can make it conversational – don’t just send a link, actually treat the person on the other end like a human, and you’ll get treated like one rsonalise messages – CC’ing a large list never works, and it often annoys people, especially if people ‘Reply All’. Send one message at a time and once again, treat them like a up – not everybody is in a position to do something the first time around. Follow up in a week or two (depending on the person) if they haven’t replied.
If you want more promo email etiquette tips, check out this list from an industry professional.
Building a List
With the decline of plays on SoundCloud (due to the lower visibility of the ‘Stream’), it’s important your core audience still gets to hear your music when it’s released, and what better way to this than email marketing?
ToneDen offers free download gates that you can use to gather emails.
If you’re familiar with download gates like ToneDen and The Artist Union, perhaps start using them to gather people’s email addresses. If you’re a Bandcamp user, you can grab email addresses on checkout too. That way, you can build a list to send your music to next time you have something to release!
Once you’ve got a list, you need to find a email marketing service. Symphonic Distribution compiled a list of the best email marketing platforms for musicians, so make sure to give that a read.
Strategy 4: Repost Chains
This is one of the most useful tools on SoundCloud and is an effective way to garner the force of multiple accounts in a simple, automated way.
You can tell when the repost chain kicked in on my latest track.
In essence, a repost chain is simply a group of people who automatically repost a track, each at a timed interval, to maximise exposure. A service like SCPlanner allows you to do this effortlessly.
Just get a few music buddies in a chain and one person submits new tracks to the chain. As each of you gains followers, you multiply the reach each time.
There are a few ways you can join or create a repost chain:
Producer friends – get your inner circle together and signup to a repost chain. That way you get a guaranteed baseline of exposure every time you upload a chains – a lot of people on Facebook groups etc. are looking for accounts to join repost chains, because the bigger it gets, the more valuable. The only caveat is usually you need at least a certain number of followers to join these (e. 5000+ followers only)Random chains – if you just need exposure, try Googling ‘repost chain’ and you’ll see a bunch of results for submissions to certain chains. Some of these require payment, be wary. Also, these aren’t necessarily an effective way to gain promotion, as you could get a lot of plays that don’t mean much. So be selective.
Sounds good, right? Hold up, there are a few things to consider before joining a chain.
Firstly, make sure you’re okay with reposting the music in that chain. Does it fit with your brand, or will it annoy your followers? Even though the numbers can be appealing, hold off if you think it’ll damage your brand.
Also, some people have a problem with repost chains because it ‘abuses the repost feature’, so have a think if this works for you or not. Personally, I think it’s fine as long as you repost music you like.
Strategy 5: Make Your Music Discoverable
Now that the ‘Discover’ tab exists on Soundcloud, the aim is to get your music featured on this new avenue of discovery.
The best way to do that is metadata. Tell Soundcloud what your music is, and give it the best chance on the platform.
There are a few key ways to do this:
Correct Genre tagsRelevant track tagsName your track appropriatelyUtilize the descriptionGet other engagement (likes, comments etc. )
You might be wondering why I’ve bolded ‘Correct Genre tags’, and that’s because it’s probably one of the most important factors in SoundCloud deciding where your music will be placed.
You can see one of San Holo’s latest tracks is tagged as ‘Electronic’, which is one of the default options when creating your track. Soundcloud likes this because it knows who to show the track to.
Beyond that, the more metadata SoundCloud has, the more opportunities it can give that track on the platform, not only with ‘Discover’ but also with the ‘Charts’ feature, especially when it gets more plays.
Relevant metadata goes beyond the platform into other services like Google, meaning your music will come up in search results too.
Why?
Because Google reads text, not your mind, and if it can see who you are and what your music’s called, it’ll help your chances of showing up. Pretty neat.
Bonus Tip: Don’t Buy Plays
Everyone wants to take the easy road, right? But oftentimes it’s simply not worth it.
For a few thousand extra plays in the short term, you can damage your career, risk your account getting shut down, or simply lose the trust of your true fans. Plus, it’s against SoundCloud’s Terms of Use.
I had to mention this here because it’s often something people consider when they’re looking to up their Soundcloud game. The same can be said for likes and followers, and other platforms too. These stats are fake and don’t provide organic growth.
The Bigger Picture
Like I already said, marketing and promoting your music should go beyond SoundCloud.
Plays aren’t the only thing to consider either.
Yet it’s hard to promote your music well without a lot of money.
That’s why we made our guide about promoting your music on a budget. You can grab it free below:
If you have questions about marketing and promoting your music, let me know at [email protected] – I’d be happy to answer.
Want more promotion and marketing tips? Check out 15 more here.
Reporting fake activity – SoundCloud Help Center
At SoundCloud, we believe in building a strong community on the site, with deep connections to other users. To keep the community genuine, it is in breach of our Terms of Use to use any service or tool that promises to boost your account’s popularity (e. g. increasing your followers, likes or plays). We work hard to fight against fake accounts and fake activity on our platform, regularly removing it when it is detected.
Reporting fake activity on your account or tracks
If you’ve noticed an unexpected, sudden increase in activity on your account, this can sometimes be explained by fake accounts on the platform. These accounts follow, play, like and repost sounds across the community in order to appear human. Our Trust and Safety engineers work hard to detect fake accounts on the platform, but cannot always remove them before they have the chance to make actions on the site. Please let us know the following details through the contact button at the bottom of this article:
Date you noticed this unusual increase in activity
An example of one of the accounts you suspect to be fake
We will use this information to review your account, and with the help of our Trust and Safety Team, remove any fake accounts that we find. Please bear in mind this review may take some time to complete. For now, we recommend that you block and report any account you suspect to be fake. You can do this using our block feature. Please note that you must be on a computer and using the latest version of SoundCloud to use this feature.
Reporting fake activity on someone else’s account or tracks
Please be assured that we share your concerns and frustrations with fake accounts and activity on SoundCloud. It could be that someone paid to boost the popularity of this account, or that it was mistakenly subject to fake activity intended for another account. You can report any account you suspect to be fake to us by using the “Block and Report” function on-site (you must be using the latest version of SoundCloud to do this). We will then review all accounts reported to us, and remove any accounts determined to be spam. We work hard to combat fake activity on the platform, we hope these efforts reduce such occurrences where an account is trying to manipulate their own, or another person’s, popularity on the platform.
Still need help? File a ticket.
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How to go Viral on SoundCloud in 2020 (In Terms of Music Marketing)
The effect of having a page on SoundCloud that is viral can be everlasting; it can mark the beginning of a turn-around for you. However, having a viral page on SoundCloud does not stand and end with having an Interesting track, or creating a podcast that will grab a listeners’ attention.
Before you can get a considerable degree of popularity on the platform, you need to ensure that your content is worthy of trending. You should also ensure that your SoundCloud page is well polished to attract diverse types of audiences. Lots of people know you can buy Soundcloud plays if you want to go viral, because it works with the right music. However, you have to be safe and use our list of the best sites to buy SoundCloud plays and have good music as well. If you ensure that your content is well polished and you invest the right amount of time and energy into making your music perfect and famous, then you’ll be well known by users in and out of SoundCloud.
Creating a Page on SoundCloud
1. Pick a Unique Username, and select a custom URL for your account
Your Username on SoundCloud should be easy to search for, at the same time, and clean. If your Username should have spacing and punctuations, then you can be sure that those looking for you will have a hard time remembering your Username. Also, you should make sure that your Username on SoundCloud is brief as possible; this way, people will quickly type in your Username into the search box.
For example, if your name is divine, then the smart thing is to make sure that your SoundCloud URL has “Divine. ” If you want to edit your URL or your Username, then you can do that by tapping on “Edit, ” you will see this button under the Profile header of your page on SoundCloud.
2. Ensure that your avatar is original and memorable
The avatar you select should be easy to memorize, reasonable, and very clear. Avoid downloading pictures from the internet. Also, ensure that your avatar is something that relates to your track and podcast. Your avatar will contribute to your symbol on SoundCloud.
An example of the right avatar to use is your name, a picture of you, or the name of your track/podcast/album.
3. Your header should reflect the content of your track and the personality of the artist.
For example, if you release funky music, then your header should also be funky. If your music is the happy type, your header should reflect that type of music. If you’re a popular figure, your header can be your picture.
You can change your header if you want. To do this, go to your profile on SoundCloud, then tap on “Change Header” at the top of your screen.
4. Put your Story on your SoundCloud page
If you write your Story on your SoundCloud page, it can help people going through your bio to understand what your music is about; thus helping to foster a deeper connection with those who listen to your track on SoundCloud. People will relate to your music better if they understand the reason behind your song.
Build Your Viral SoundCloud Fanbase
1. Always share your SoundCloud URL
Publicize your SoundCloud URL to everyone on your social media profile. Inform your friends and family to post your URL; this way, it will help to increase your popularity among the friends of your friends.
If you have a website, it is an excellent idea to display the link to your site on that website, that way, those who visit your website will feel the need to listen to the content of your track.
2. Identify your target audience
Identify where your target audience is, find their preferred online communities and websites then build a presence there; this way, you’ll be connecting with those your music suits. Also, hanging around your target audience will help you know what they dislike and like, you will also have an idea of what they love to hear.
Are your target audience the type that love to visit the club, or they stay at home to listen to music; this knowledge will help you to understand them better so that you can tailor your content appropriately.
3. Add comments to your tracks
Except you’re the type who doesn’t care about the opinion of others, but you should especially if that opinion is coming from a category of people in your target audience.
The feedback will also help you to connect with your fans at a deeper level.
4. Post new contents consistently
When you start having a solid fan base on SoundCloud, your fans will begin to expect new content from you, and you have to meet up with this expectation by posting quality content. If you delay releasing new content, your fans may lose enthusiasm for your audio.
5. Regularly interact with your artists and fans on social media
It would help if you always interact with your fans and others in the same niche as you. Communicating with your fans will help you know how to tailor your content for your audience. And your engagement with others in the same niche as you will help you to tap into their experience so that you can avoid their mistakes.
Irrespective of some of your fans react to your music, don’t yell at them and ensure you don’t sound rude.
6. Get influencers in your line to play your music
Speak with influencers such as YouTubers, talk-show hosts, music producers, etc. If you get them to post and talk about your music on public platforms, it will give you more relevance and popularity.
Note: If influencers have negative comments about your music, it can harm your music career; as such, avoid any situation where they’ll describe your content as a bad one.
Date: February 9, 2020 / Categories: Marketing, / Author: E O
Frequently Asked Questions about how to get a lot of plays on soundcloud free
Can you get fake plays on SoundCloud?
If you’ve noticed an unexpected, sudden increase in activity on your account, this can sometimes be explained by fake accounts on the platform. These accounts follow, play, like and repost sounds across the community in order to appear human.
How do I go viral on SoundCloud?
Build Your Viral SoundCloud FanbaseAlways share your SoundCloud URL. … Identify your target audience. … Add comments to your tracks. … Post new contents consistently. … Regularly interact with your artists and fans on social media. … Get influencers in your line to play your music.Feb 9, 2020
How can I boost my music on SoundCloud?
8 Tips for promoting music on SoundCloudSync up your social media. … Check out your demographics. … Collaborate. … Remix fellow artists. … Interact with others. … Fix your SoundCloud settings. … Fix your SoundCloud and Google SEO. … Go Pro.Oct 1, 2019
