Written By Petra Hule
Amongst many music platforms, SoundCloud was discovered as a platform for artists to share their present and future musical creations. Eventually, that then drove the platform to become a means of distributing and publishing music. With 175 million active users per month, Soundcloud has become one of the biggest music platforms, especially for individual artists, as it allows users to upload and share original music.
What Is SoundCloud?
Originally created for artists to collab and create from different parts of the globe, it has now become a platform where artists’ fanbases can be expanded on top of all the other unique features that SoundCloud possesses. Read on to discover a few easy tips and tricks in order to maximize all these great features.
SoundCloud Subscriptions: Which One Is Right For You?
Soundcloud has an array of different subscriptions that its users can choose from. To start, the free subscription allows you to upload up to 3 hours worth of music and listen to an unlimited amount of music. The added benefits to premium subscriptions that come with a fee are the statistics and insights into your profile and the activity around your profile, such as interactions by users and listeners.
What To Include In Your SoundCloud Profile
Although every SoundCloud Profile is different, there are a few essentials to keep in mind when building your profile.
Brand Name & Handle
First up when creating your profile on Soundcloud or any other social media platform for that matter, be sure to keep your account name and tag the same so you are easily found. Keep in mind your artist and handle on other platforms and try to match both when creating a profile on SoundCloud. Along with the same name and social tag, try and keep your profile photo the same on all socials so that they know they’ve got the correct artist. A great feature to the display of Soundcloud is the header photo which is just a larger photo at the top of your page. Keep in mind that all the little things add up to big things, so putting in the extra effort, even if it’s as simple as a photo, goes a long way.
K.I.S.S. Bio
Bios can be overdone so always remember the cringe, yet effective, acronym K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). Not much has to be added to your bio, but be sure to include links to websites and other platforms where you can be found, something quirky about you or even tour and release dates for new music.
Think Wisely About Cover Art
When we take a look at things we enjoy like going to our favorite places or hearing our favorite sounds we see that each enjoyment is art, in and of itself. The sound of our favorite place or sounds that remind us of places, the sights from our favorite spots to go to are all enticing because they make us feel some type of way.
Visual cues are just as important as the sounds that your fans want to experience, thus, putting thought into the Cover Art of your music on Soundcloud can lead to views on your music video or other social platforms. Personally, I can say, there is nothing more soothing than listening to a song that you know will be crowned with the top spot on your repeat list to see that the cover art matches the vibe you feel coming off the track.
Even if it doesn’t align with how I envisioned or perceived the song, the mere fact that the artist put so much thought and energy into what they wanted the cover to look like means a ton. A Musician’s cover art shares their vision with users, like me, who enjoy their work and adds to the many reasons I would actively seek them out on other socials and for future releases. I know that I would not be the only one in saying this or feeling this way.
Elicit Tip: put yourself in your audiences’ shoes and completely detach yourself from your work, in an attempt to experience how your fans and listeners will feel.
Buy Link Feature
The reason why SoundCloud should become any aspiring musicians’ best friend would be the Buy link feature. This allows users to buy your music which can be linked to other musical platforms such as iTunes and Beatport, so you can make some extra money on your music. This, however, is completely up to you. The benefits of allowing users to purchase your music are the financial profit, yes, but more so the fact that people are actively and willingly purchasing your music in order to support your career. That being said, not all artists want others to purchase their music, thus, the feature allows you to direct listeners to places such as Spotify where they can listen without paying a fee. As mentioned, completely up to the individual artist, respectively, however, this is a great way to monetize your music and SoundCloud account.
How To Share Your Music On SoundCloud
Returning to the initial reason of creating SoundCloud and the atmosphere where people, wherever they are in the world, can come together and share music amongst themselves, including private links.
Private links are created and can be shared with other SoundCloud users which controls who can listen and who can give feedback before its released to the rest of the world. This feature allows time limits and can be useful when wanting to share unfinished music with radio stations, labels, or music blogs like Elicit.
The main thing that can be applied to all social media platforms is activity and interaction which is why staying active and covering all your socials and intertwining them together drives your follow count upwards.
SoundCloud Ads: How Do They Work?
Advertising your music on SoundCloud through Instagram benefits both accounts and gives more content to your fans, which is what they are looking for. Keeping in mind quality over quantity, having an array of platforms with different content on each makes it easier to not overdo one or the other and to always produce something fresh.
As Instagram is appealing to the eye, SoundCloud provides the hearing experience and is a space where fans can enjoy your music, but also where you can grow and collaborate with creators just like you.