7 Pro Ways To Greatly Increase Your SoundCloud Popularity
1. Post your music e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e.
We see a lot of artists who post their music on SoundCloud and maybe YouTube and then call it a day. This may work if you have a promo budget that allows you to channel all your traffic to these two platforms.
But without a promo budget, a different approach may be more successful: post your music everywhere! The bigger the net, the more fish you will catch.
Don’t just limit yourself to SoundCloud and YouTube. Instead, post your tracks on all platforms that allow you to upload your music directly and include links to your download gate or music store. SoundCloud, Youtube, Audiomack, Hearthis, TikTok, Vimeo, Bandcamp, MixCloud or Fanburst are all good options to consider. All of these have sizable build-in communities, which is critical as this is the audience you want to reach.
2. SoundCloud metadata has to be clean
Your track shouldn’t contain a handful of unreadable cryptic messages. It should, however, contain pertinent information, such as the artist name, track title, and label. In SoundCloud’s blog post, they provide a great example of a bad and good title. A bad title would be “AllxxThexStars051418vfinal.” A good title would be “All The Stars.” Furthermore, “Avoid duplicating information that’s displayed elsewhere,” states SoundCloud. “There’s no need to add track numbers to your title when uploading an album.”
Not everyone on SoundCloud is an artist. Label accounts should provide the artist’s name and title so the artist and song can be recognizable. Additionally, this information helps with discoverability on the platform.
Podcasters and journalists should “include important information such as the names of guests and discussion topics in the title,” states the post. “This helps with searches and discoverability.”
3. Images and descriptions are especially powerful on SoundCloud
Don’t push the cover art and description down to the bottom of the priority list. You should use high resolution images and upload and resize them to fit within the confines. In addition, the description is a clean slate that allows you to be as descriptive and creative as you want. Tell your listeners the story of the audio you’ve uploaded. In the description you can add the “backstory, credits, lyrics, gear lists, or guest lists,” adds the blog post.
This is also the perfect place to give your collaborator(s) a shoutout by linking their profiles. Remain consistent and professional in your writing on your tracks.
4. Tag the mood and genre of your audio
Every piece of audio has a mood tied to it. Be sure that you show it in the tags. Furthermore, the algorithm that SoundCloud uses is very specific and prioritizes recommendations for its users. If your tags are correct, you’ll be much more discoverable.
Additionally, by choosing the main genre of your track, you should subsequently add a few relevant sub-genres and moods that describe your audio. “It’s better to add a handful of relevant tags rather than go crazy and add as many as you can,” states the blog post. Basically, quality over quantity. This proves true in more situations than just SoundCloud tags.
Incidentally, Spotify uses a similar discoverability algorithm with moods, a feature they added back in 2013.
5. Be an artist and curator for a comprehensive discography
Much like a website, making your music easy to find on your profile should be a top priority. Are you releasing an album, EP, or compilation? Create a playlist for it because it shows up under the “Albums” section of your profile. SoundCloud orders them according to their release date, which makes it simple for fans. Additionally, listeners will be able to add it to their collection.
So, in addition to receiving reposts and uploads to successful profiles, you can do some basic metadata configuration on your tracks. Fill in all of the information correctly, and ensure your tags are relevant, not spammy.
6. Parting Pro Tip: How to Edit Multiple Tracks at Once
These updates can be time-consuming, though SoundCloud offers some ways to speed things up. That includes the ability to update settings, tags, and artwork across multiple tracks, and even create a new playlist from a selection of uploads.
7. Submit your music to hundreds of music blogs and influencers
Music blogs and other curated music channels, especially on SoundCloud or Youtube (think Trap Nation) can turn talented underground artists into mainstage stars. They are incredibly powerful. That means getting your music in front of these curators and influencers is a must for every artist promoting his own music.
Now, the chances of getting featured by one of the more powerful music curators and blogs is very small. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go for it.
There are different philosophies on how to approach these channels to get your music heard by their A&Rs. If you are trying to get featured on a few, selected channels that are perfect for your niche, then it might be best to invest time into building a personal relationship with their team to capture attention.
If your sound is a little more mainstream and could work well on a lot of blogs and curated music channels, then you might go for quantity in your approach. Send your music to hundreds of relevant blogs, and your chances of being picked up by a few of them is going to be higher.
Click Here To Buy SoundCloud Plays
