The Art of Getting More Listens on Soundcloud: What are the differences between Organic Listens and Fake Listens?
Here’s your obvious statement of the day: The internet leveled the playing field for artists.
Thanks to the net and tech such as Soundcloud©, all an artist really needs to gain exposure is a willingness to work hard and put their best tracks out in the world to hook fans. (Obviously, there’s a lot more to it than that, but you get what I’m saying, right?) Of course, with this kind of vast move forward in technology, every artist on the planet rushes in, and you’re track is just one of tens of thousands.
So how do you set yourself apart and get more people to organically listen to your latest track on Soundcloud? The key to gaining new listeners may lie in your social media activity, in creating a unique look for your Soundcloud account, or engaging one-on-one with listeners at gigs. But usually it’s a combination of all of those elements, and a few others you may not have thought of before. The point of this post is to cut through the bullshit and create a true and lasting fan base.
How do I get more listens on Soundcloud?
The simplest answer is provided by Soundcloud itself.
“We firmly believe in building a strong community on the site, with deep connections to other users.”
Adding your tracks to groups, following people whose music you enjoy, and leaving genuine comments on their tracks can promote yourself within the SoundCloud community.
Sharing your music to other social networks online can also further expand your reach. You can read more about how to share your tracks to other social networks.”
Once again, it sounds simple enough, but how do you go beyond the traditional social platforms? The most obvious answer is by joining a site like Hypeddit.com, a budding social and professional community of like-minded emerging artists that’s more than social static, plus provides you with the clout to take your tracks to the next level in exposure.
(Click here to create your free account.)
Should I Buy Soundcloud Listens?
You’ve put together a solid track. Hours in front of the screen, perfecting the rhythm and the beat, and now you’re ready to upload. You know the track is something special and you want tons of listens, an avalanche. You drop the post and two days go by and you only have three listens. A week goes by and you’re up to ten. No one’s listening and it’s tearing you up.
You go online and when you Google Soundcloud, and you constantly see links to sites promising you a guaranteed 1000 listens for only $3. It seems like a good deal, right? Especially if it helps get you more natural listens. But here’s the thing, the Soundcloud community is a savvy one, they know the popularity of a song isn’t just based on listens, but likes, reposts, and comments. Just because a track has a lot of listens doesn’t mean it’s actually being listened to. There needs to be interaction. Long story short, all that $3 is going to buy you is a chance to being listened to by bots and potentially missing out on creating real fans of your music.
What Are Other The Artists Doing For Listens?
For this we’ll take a look at a few artists on the hypeddit.com Top 100. The three tracks were chosen randomly.
#4: Styline – Sub Focus featuring Dzeko & Torres – Back Time Kickin
This track is currently at 10,839 listens, which isn’t a surprise, Styline is a massive artist with 450,000 subscribers on YouTube and 150,000 followers on Facebook. Styline has utilized social media to its maximum potential, particularly YouTube. YouTube is an essential social platform for musicians and performers, so if you don’t have a YouTube account (Which if you have a G-Mail account, you already do), make sure to register for one.
#7: DJDeepDink – Brynny vs. Shotek – Lovers of the Sun
Currently at 10,089 listens, DJDeepDink follows along with the same strategy as the previous two artists with a custom logo, contact info, and social media links. The other aspect that I didn’t mention was artist bio. Much like your logo, your bio is a huge part of your identity. Listeners want to know who you are, and your bio tells them.
The Art Of Getting More Soundcloud Listens
Look, chances are you’ve put a lot of these ideas into motion, but sometimes you overlook the most obvious things when you’re in the moment of creation. So, if you’ve done these things already, just think of them as little reminders.
Get Social
Being a part of all the major social media platforms is essential. Soundcloud and Hypeddit.com have social tools for you to easily connect to your existing social accounts like Facebook and Google +. Also, don’t be afraid to experiment with other social media: Twitter, Tumblr, your own website if you have one. Simply put, once you’ve got a new track, get it out there, get people jacked.
Listen, Comment, and Repost
The lifeblood of the Soundcloud and hypeddit.com communities is interaction. If you find a track you like, comment, provide positive feedback—try to avoid single word comments like nice, cool, awesome, etc., because they appear spammy or robot generated— and repost. The number one thing to remember is that Soundcloud is a community where you can make friends and network with fellow performers. Do this, and in the longterm you’ll neither have the desire or the need to buy listens on Soundcloud.
Play Out
If you’re a performer and making music is your life, getting in front of a room full of people should be who’ve all paid to listen to your music should be your #1 goal. And it really should be. Playing out is the most important aspect of recording and gaining new fans, because not only do people get to hear you live, but you also have the chance to interact face-to-face both before and after your set. It’s your chance to have fun and sell yourself and your music. Along with having some drinks and conversation, maybe invest a little money on some business cards with the QR Code to your latest track printed out on a business card so new fans either have it for later, or so they can scan it into their phones right then and there.
Collaboration
Yet another benefit to listening, commenting, and reposting other artists tracks on Soundcloud and hypeddit.com, the potential of networking and creating artistic opportunity with other artists. Through discovering new music and artists you could very well be developing connections that could lead to working with more experienced performers who’ve developed a larger or different audience than your own. Collaborating on a few tracks with another artist may be a way of taking yourself to the next level.
Create an Email Newsletter
So you’ve been collecting data from social media, your website or blog, from gigs, from family and friends, and now it’s time to put that data to use. Email marketing is perhaps one of the most effective means of communicating with your fans, it also happens to be one of the easiest. With easy to use and FREE (Or pratically free)services such as Mailchimp and Constant Contact you have have a means of having direct contact with your fans on a monthly or quarterly basis, or whenever you have a new track that you want to receive immediate listens to. The plus side with both services is that you don’t need to know how to write HTML in order to create brand specific emails, because both services will mirror the look and feel of your website, blog, or Soundcloud page.
There are obviously more ways to gaining more listens and fans to your Soundcloud tracks: Place a Soundcloud widgets on your website or blog, experimenting with non-music based social networking such as Instagram and FourSquare.
I want to know is, what’s worked for you? What hasn’t? Have you seen success through buying listens? Do you have horror stories about your experience in buying listens? I want to hear from you, so leave your comments, questions, or gripes in the comments section below.
