SoundCloud has become one of the platforms for streaming and sharing music. The unique way SoundCloud allows fans and creators to converse and engage can be an asset in any artist’s arsenal. Outlined below are tips, best practices, and guidelines on how you can optimize your presence and make your mark on the platform.
Finesse Your Artist Profile
Your artist profile on any digital service should be a clear and direct reflection of you as an artist. It’s super important to have an up-to-date image of you on your SoundCloud profile that also matches the current branding of your album cycle. Using consistent images helps your fans recognize your content on whichever platform they use and makes your story that much easier to understand.
Definitely be sure to also link your social profiles and even upcoming tour (or livestream) dates in your SoundCloud profiles. Giving your fans ways to easily engage with you elsewhere is a fantastic way to convert your SoundCloud fans and followers to other platforms.
Encourage Fans to Follow You on SoundCloud
SoundCloud also offers fans the ability to "follow" your profile on the platform so they can easily stay across any new uploads, posts, and keep engaged overall with your content. A growth in followers can help boost streaming numbers, introduce new listeners to your music, and grow your engagement in a way that catches the eyes of SoundCloud playlist editors.
Consider ways to run different "follow" campaigns that encourage your fans to follow you on SoundCloud. For example, you could use SoundCloud’s integration with Instagram Stories to post one of your songs from SoundCloud directly to your Instagram Stories and tell fans to follow you there.
Pro Tip: A great time to run "follow" campaigns would be in advance of a new release. Telling your fans to follow you on SoundCloud to stay current on what’s coming next can be a great way to get your fans excited about upcoming releases and encourage them to click that "follow" button.
Promote Your Music on SoundCloud
SoundCloud offers a variety of ways to promote your music on the platform. Be sure to use SoundCloud’s "Spotlight" feature to highlight a few of your top SoundCloud posts, whether that be a new track, a release you want to draw attention to, or one of your most popular uploads. The "Spotlight" feature allows you to pin items to the top of your SoundCloud profile and can be a great way to drive traffic to a specific post.
Also, don’t forget to include links to your new SoundCloud releases on smart links amongst other digital platforms. This ensures that your followers who use SoundCloud as their preferred streaming service will be able to easily access your new release come release day!
Pro Tip: SoundCloud offers their own tools to help you promote your release such as the "Promote on SoundCloud" feature. This feature gives you the opportunity to run a paid promotional campaign on SoundCloud and increase your reach and engagement. These campaigns can be run on flexible budgets, which make them a great option to consider if you’re hoping to boost your presence on SoundCloud.
Engage With Your Fans
One of the most unique aspects of SoundCloud is the ability you’re given as a creator to engage directly with your fans and listeners. Take advantage of this opportunity by using all that SoundCloud has to offer to converse with your fans the best way you can.
Consider following a few of your top fans, liking some of their posts, or leaving comments. Similarly, be sure to go through comments on your own posts frequently and throw out a "thank you" to the fans giving your releases love.
Another interesting way to engage with fans is to use SoundCloud’s direct messaging feature. You could share sneak peaks of new music, teasers, and new announcements with your top fans on SoundCloud via direct message to keep your top listeners excited and engaged with your content.
Pro Tip: Give your fans a taste of what you’re listening to and create playlists. These playlists are best kept to about 5-10 tracks and can be a great place to share your inspirations for your music, highlight a few favorite tracks from your own catalog, and also introduce collaborators of yours to your listeners. Consider recording vocal liners to explain why you picked the tracks you did and intersperse them throughout the playlist.
Understand Your Insights
Optimizing your presence on the digital services can always be improved by understanding your activity on the platform in question and SoundCloud is no different. Be sure to use SoundCloud’s Insights Overview page to take a deeper look into your activity on SoundCloud.
The Insights Overview page gives you access to a variety of data points (depending on the SoundCloud plan you have) including reposts, likes, track plays, and downloads. Use these insights to determine new marketing initiatives for SoundCloud, highlight your top performing posts, as well as monitor your engagement.
Get Creative
SoundCloud gives creators incredible control over their profile and all it has to offer, so use this control as best you can and get creative! You can use SoundCloud for a variety of things aside from just posting your releases to it.
Consider using SoundCloud as a platform to run announcements on. Record a voiceover announcing what’s to come whether that be a new release or tour dates and post it to SoundCloud as you would a track.
The flexibility of the SoundCloud platform means you can also do things like run an "Ask Me Anything" session and Q&A with fans via voice recording! You could also post teasers, demos, a how-to for the creation of a song, etc. as a SoundCloud upload to live amongst all of your music. The opportunities with SoundCloud are endless!
Whether you’re a new-to-SoundCloud artist or you’re an experienced member of the SoundCloud community, you can always find new ways to optimize your SoundCloud profile and engage with fans. As a platform offering ample opportunities for creativity, engagement, and promotion, SoundCloud can be an incredible place to find new audiences, keep in touch with your existing fans, and grow your following overall. Hopefully the tips above have sparked your creativity and given you some places to start when it comes to taking advantage of all that SoundCloud has to offer!
Article Authors: Emily Berwald, Community Support