Artists like Chance The Rapper changed the game by utilizing the platform to catapult his career but he isn’t the only one; many artists, record labels, DJs and rappers have amassed substantial followings through organically curating their music and gaining followers on SoundCloud.
You've put in the work in the studio, poured hours of passion into your craft and now you're ready to take the next step.
Sometimes all it takes is getting your music in front of the right listeners to help elevate the pursuit of your dreams to the next level.
SoundCloud is the perfect music distribution platform once you feel you have reached this step. But, as we all may have experienced, sometimes just posting your music to SoundCloud and hoping for the best doesn't seem to work.
Beyond this simple function are many intuitive features the platform has made available to increase the chances of your music falling in front of the ears who want to hear it.
I'm going to share a few tips and tricks I've learned over the years which have helped me get booked at festivals and shows while traveling the world.
When I first started using SoundCloud, I was simply using my personal profile to create playlists for the yoga classes I was teaching. After more and more people started expressing that they liked them, I organized them and cleaned up the titles to make a concise series that I could then share with my friends.
This ties into the previous tip of creating organized playlists and is also one of the tips to optimize your profile shared on the official SoundCloud blog. After organizing my playlists I created clean, relatable - and perhaps most importantly - searchable titles.
By sharing the playlists with my friends who had asked for them and various Facebook groups, each playlist started to get more and more likes and plays. These organic interactions led to some of the playlists getting picked up by the algorithms which continue to generate organic plays and followers to this day.
But this tip doesn't just apply to playlists. It is equally as important to create clean, concise titles for individual tracks, podcasts and mixes.
Believe it or not, this simple gesture will make your profile appear more professional and subliminally entice people browsing the search and stream functions to engage with your tracks if they believe you are taking your work seriously.
The first name and last name sections don't just have to be about who you are, they can be who you have collaborated with as well.
Have you ever noticed when searching for labels and artists using the SoundCloud search function that related pages appear? One way to get SoundCloud to recognize your page as related is to let people know that you have collaborated.
One example, as illustrated in the above images, is to include label names in the First Name and Last Name section which appears underneath your page name. I chose to highlight labels who I am proud to have recorded guest podcasts with.
Additionally, I have listed all the labels I have worked with in the biography section while also tagging their profiles.
If you haven't yet collaborated with any of your dream labels yet, no need to worry. Before I ever recorded any podcasts I listed all of the artists and labels I was influenced by in my biography section while also tagging their profiles.
As I got more opportunities and the scales started to tilt, I shifted this to how it currently appears.
SoundCloud allows you to add up to 8 links under your biography section (on desktop), but these don't just have to be to your Facebook or Instagram.
Adding links to your playlists, tracks, or podcasts directs people back to your sounds, encouraging more listens and engagement while exploring your profile. You can also link to YouTube, MixCloud, Patreon, Venmo, PayPal, TikTok, Snapchat or add in a link to your website.
One area I often see overlooked is in the space provided for track descriptions. Including links to previous tracks and re-updating your track descriptions every time you post something new may seem like a tedious task but it is well worth it.
Oftentimes people will find your music through recommended plays and, by including links to your other work in the track description, you are softly encouraging them to explore your other sounds.
If you really want to go the extra mile, Bitly is an awesome tool which allows you to create "short links" and track who is clicking on your links. By creating unique links that are only used in your track descriptions, you can actually monitor how many people are coming directly through this extra bit of work you have put in.
On top of the 8 link spaces provided by SoundCloud, there are numerous ways to get creative with including links into your profile. Not only can you link to other music, but you can link to photo albums, videos and other media to show what experiences you are creating and humanize your profile, establishing more trust and connection between you and your listeners.
Photos go a long way in grabbing people's attention when browsing through the stream. To date, I've posted 40+ DJ sets and mixes, and there is a significantly noticeable difference in the amount of plays between mixes with a certain type of image creative versus those without.
Those using high resolution images prominently featuring animals, sharp colors or humans with pronounced emotional expression undoubtedly perform better than those without. The above images are just a few examples of graphics corresponding with some of my highest play counts.
Not only can you get creative with links in your track descriptions, but this is your chance to actually tell the story of what the track means to you and the process behind it. Sharing a piece of yourself and being authentic with your audience goes a long way in establishing relationships and encouraging listeners to come back.
From an algorithmic standpoint, there are ways to increase your chances of being heard by weaving in reiterations of keywords and key phrases that may be relevant to you and your audience.
For example, if I played a set at Burning Man, I would include keywords such as "Burning Man", "Black Rock Desert", and whatever themed camp I might have been involved with along with phrases such as "Downtempo", "Electronic", and "Deep House" to let the listener know what type of music I was creating, which leads us to our next tip...
The beautiful thing about music is that it has the power to invoke emotion, which is what many listeners are seeking for when they are browsing for new tunes to consume. By getting hyper-specific with what it is you are offering and sharing this through your genre and mood tags, it might be the difference between someone deciding whether or not to click play.
Don't underestimate the SoundCloud comments. While a generalization, I've come to realize that the people who listen to the most music on SoundCloud seem to be the musicians themselves. By interacting, commenting, and showing support in the comment sections of other artists' music, I've forged some lifelong friendships and have also made connections which have led to bookings at shows and festivals.
People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. The SoundCloud stream is flooded with music but what can set you apart is your story. Don't be afraid to share the "Why" behind what you create. You might be surprised at how much people resonate with the story you have to share.
I know RepostExchange has been a big part of my story and led to opportunities I otherwise never would have thought possible. What sets this platform apart is the community they have created.
It has made it incredibly easy and accessible to connect with similar artists in similar music niches through their various packages. The best part, is that when starting out, you can try RepostExchange for free to see for yourself.
And if you really want to amp up your game, there are some awesome packages available which make it super easy to sort, categorize and exponentially increase the amount of people you can get your music in front of.
