How to increase Soundcloud followers and plays

[J4P4S]

Working together with people on the whole thing is always win aswell. For example, the pictures. Go to some art communities like Deviantart. Look around for some pictures. Ask the artist if you can use it. 9.9 times out of ten, they will say "yes". They're pretty much all very nice & motivated people. And you both win, he might go spread your music around, you spread their art. And believe me, some of them make some fantastic work!

Social media has done a lot of good for artists. But not always. You'll have to do a lot of work, or you'll get drowned by fellows. You might have better music and such, but if someone's really popular, you'll have to step up. As most posts already said, soft advertising by giving feedback does a very very good job. But it takes alot of time.

It's true, spamming with "look at my song" ain't really good, but there are times it works. Earlier, I was browsing through Doctor P's Facebook page, and someone posted a (relatively) related song. And damn, he got a lot of views from that, and a lot of comments on Soundcloud as well.

Summing up. You have to figure out a strategy, have friends maybe help you, work together with people. Power in numbers! But most of all, enjoy making your stuff. Don't let down because your fellow musician had 3 times the views in the same amount of time on a worse track (<- subjective anyways).

[Dave]

Great points there J4P4S - Really like the idea of Deviantart, maybe that could be a part of one week's promo tasks, go on deviantart, find some art you like and ask the artist to use it in conjunction with a song you made, then youtube it and promote it.

Weird that the guy got a response from randomly posting on Doctor P's facebook page - I never thought that kind of promo worked. Maybe it's just luck of the draw?

[J4P4S]

Great points there J4P4S - Really like the idea of Deviantart, maybe that could be a part of one week's promo tasks, go on deviantart, find some art you like and ask the artist to use it in conjunction with a song you made, then youtube it and promote it.

Weird that the guy got a response from randomly posting on Doctor P's facebook page - I never thought that kind of promo worked. Maybe it's just luck of the draw?

Nah, most official artists block user comments, but people like Doctor P don't. Keep in mind, he has 100.000+ followers, so at least some people take a listen. And most of those new mainstream dubstep kids will love it anyhow. It's a good promotion stunt somehow. It's not how I would do it though.

Collabs with DA artists is instant win.

[alexc]

Great points there J4P4S - Really like the idea of Deviantart, maybe that could be a part of one week's promo tasks, go on deviantart, find some art you like and ask the artist to use it in conjunction with a song you made, then youtube it and promote it.

Weird that the guy got a response from randomly posting on Doctor P's facebook page - I never thought that kind of promo worked. Maybe it's just luck of the draw?

Nah, most official artists block user comments, but people like Doctor P don't. Keep in mind, he has 100.000+ followers, so at least some people take a listen. And most of those new mainstream dubstep kids will love it anyhow. It's a good promotion stunt somehow. It's not how I would do it though.

Collabs with DA artists is instant win.

The things though it's not about how many people listen to your track, it's about the getting the right people to listen to your track (imo).
I know a lot of producers and labels wouldn't dream of listening to a tune from a link that is just spammed in a comment on someone's tune.

[J4P4S]

The things though it's not about how many people listen to your track, it's about the getting the right people to listen to your track (imo).
I know a lot of producers and labels wouldn't dream of listening to a tune from a link that is just spammed in a comment on someone's tune.

I get your point, and I agree. But look at it this way. There's alot of music that people listen to because they get spammed by it. That's pretty much what the whole Pop genre is about. Not about quality music, but about popularity.

Just to give an example...

[petermennitirecords]

This stuff might seem obvious and its not all about actually communicating but:

-Be consistent across all your social media. Same avatar, same general info, etc - no matter what site they're on you want people to be able to tell it's you easily.

-Link between your social media sites, prominently. If someone finds you on Twitter, make it easy for them to find your Soundcloud, Facebook, etc because most people use one over the others. Also make your contact pretty easy to find - people are way more likely to get in touch with you or listen to your music if you make it easy for them.

-Make it look nice - proper grammar and spelling, organization, and decent prose in your info sections will probably make you look more serious and professional than good music will. Unfortunately.

-Be pretty concise whereever possible - the less people have to read, the more likely they are to read it. Also put the most important info first - If you're posting about a gig start it off with "PLAYING TONIGHT AT [VENUE] - I GO ON AT [TIMESLOT]"

-Make sure you're offering something before you create a social media page. No one will add an artist that has no songs and no gigs. I'm personally waiting til I'm trying to release something or book gigs before I even bother with this stuff...

-Don't post your stuff in the most crowded places - no one will care. If you aim for a smaller audience you'll be more visible and it'll probably get you better results.

-Also, I don't think you need to use Myspace unless you're in an emo band. Just my opinion though.

Basically - MAKE IT EASY FOR PEOPLE TO CONNECT WITH YOU and MAKE SURE YOU'VE GOT IT TOGETHER or they won't bother.

[ReSet]

-Also, I don't think you need to use Myspace unless you're in an emo band. Just my opinion though.

Haha, that made me chuckle. I only have one so as not to leave a gap, but I rarely use it because a)no-one really cares about myspace anymore and b) it's full of attention seekers who only care about themselves. There's no community whatsoever.

Also, +1 to the DeviantArt idea. I've actually done that, and it works like a charm. Most people will be flattered that you want to be associated with their art, and will generally give you a mention to say thanks. Us artists need to stick together!

[J4P4S]

-Also, I don't think you need to use Myspace unless you're in an emo band. Just my opinion though.

Haha, that made me chuckle. I only have one so as not to leave a gap, but I rarely use it because a)no-one really cares about myspace anymore and b) it's full of attention seekers who only care about themselves. There's no community whatsoever.

Also, +1 to the DeviantArt idea. I've actually done that, and it works like a charm. Most people will be flattered that you want to be associated with their art, and will generally give you a mention to say thanks. Us artists need to stick together!

Yeah, DA works like a charm indeed, it's full of good-spirited people, I love the community there.

[ef2020]

Really interesting article! Thanks a lot for that

A good thing about getting more SC plays is that you rank higher in their search algorithms, just like you do if you have more FB fans and so on.

I've used 'socialmediacreativity dot net' to great effect here - usually buy plays when i put a new track up and seems to get a whole lot more momentum on my track!

[stateofpsychosis]

best way to get popular on Soundcloud is to use this site:

FREE SoundCloud Promotion! - http://goo.gl/CGANl

it's the only site out of all the promotion sites that gets you real plays/comments not fake bot plays that you have to pay for like with the rest of the sites :/

You can use it for free by earning points by making comments and those points get you comments back
or if you're lazy you can pay for points to get comments but that's not necessary. Just making 30 comments a day on there will blow up your soundcloud popularity.

There are even more opportunities to.
People are even getting signed by labels off the top list that works with the site.

It's a good time to join to because it's still fairly new so get in and take advantage of this

here's the link again:

FREE SoundCloud Promotion! - http://goo.gl/CGANl