If you’re someone who’s trying to promote new music, it’s easy to get caught up in the different social platforms and DSPs and you might be left wondering how to most effectively interact with your audience on each channel. You will likely spend a lot of time and effort on social media platforms to get fans to stream your music and build your fanbase. In the shuffle, one channel that often gets left on the sidelines is SoundCloud.
Today we want to draw your attention to SoundCloud because lately it’s been showing up for many of our clients as a major driver for streaming activity and consumption.
Here’s an example.
We went into the Immensity database and pulled in publicly available data for the band Crumb. (An American psych-rock act that recently released singles in anticipation for a new album and has started touring regularly).
This breakdown you see in the image below is a screenshot from the Immensity system showing what platforms actually did and did not increase streaming activity for Crumb. In their dataset, we noticed that from April 9th - May 6th SoundCloud was causing more streaming activity than other platforms.(It was actually a high performing platform for driving streaming activity over multiple reporting periods, not just this one date range).
We often see this type of trend, that when a fanbase is engaging with an artists music on SoundCloud it often translates to more overall engagement and streaming impact on DSPs. It makes sense! SoundCloud has a very devoted user base that uses the platform for discovery and in many cases as their main streaming platform. What’s really cool is how much potential SoundCloud has for driving fans to other streaming platforms and social channels.
So what are some best practices on SoundCloud? As laid out in this Soundcharts article here are some tips.
First, make sure that you’re actually using SoundCloud and uploading your new music there as you would on all streaming platforms (some artists miss this part). Start by getting your overall page design in line with your latest release aesthetic (banner, profile image, etc) and link up your social media platforms.
After you’ve established a presence on the platform, you can collaborate with and remix other artists, interact with others by following, liking, reposting, messaging, commenting, etc. Be sure to check out your demographics with the SoundCloud analytics tools, and make sure all of your SoundCloud settings and Google SEO are up to date.
Lastly, if you can fit it into your release cycle, release exclusive music on SoundCloud. Such as demos, b-sides, sped up or slowed down versions of your songs, and live or acoustic cuts. SoundCloud is also working on some new features that will help you promote your music even better. Check out their new “fans” feature that helps you discover and connect directly with your most engaged fans on the platform.
Above all, don’t forget about SoundCloud!