Here at The Plug Radio, we listen to tons of music and are sent A LOT of sound cloud links through social media. Helping musicians and building a platform that allows great music to be heard on a larger scale is what we are all about. We want to share some tips that make it easier for today’s artist in the digital age to bring your music to a professional level and snag as many listeners as possible. so let’s` get started!
SoundCloud is one of the biggest and most influential of music sharing and extremely important when it comes to independent artists. Using the site effectively will lead to real listens and real life long fans.
Sending Directly
The best tool you have is word of mouth. Sending your music to friends and family directly is a great place to begin especially when you’re starting out. However, you should never ever send a link without any description, or any words in general because no one is going to click it without saying… “what’s this? and automatically becoming uninterested. A better way to engage a listener is to email with a description of the song/project with a visual because the art matters.
Visual
The artwork that you have to represent your music will go with it no matter where it goes, therefore, you have to make sure that the art is relevant, unique and interesting. In order to be embedded on a blog site, your artwork will be the first thing that is recognized. For best results always use a JPG or a PNG that’s at least 800 x 800 pixels.
Buy When You Try
You can add a Buy link to your music on your sound cloud page so that when someone likes your song they can connect back to your iTunes or whatever else you use to sell your music. This sends a message to a listener that you are not only professional but believe your music is worth the money. If you have a professional account with Soundcloud you’re also able to change the wording to the link to anything you can. you would be surprised how many people would contribute to an artist that they really like.
Share and Care
Posting your own music to Soundcloud should not be your end goal. You should support and share other artists music as well. The more you comment and engage in other artists music then the more they’ll be there to support and play yours as well when it’s time. Re-post artist that you love listening to and build up the community you want to be a part of. When you plug a listener into a song or album they like, that builds their trust in you and makes them warranted to listen to you more often. When networking and building that community with music it can lead to building great relationships with that artist which leads to gigs and opportunity for collaboration.
Get Social
Everywhere you go, promote your music and your Soundcloud link. Promote professionally on twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google +, Pinterest, and Tumblr. When you link your social accounts you can automatically share right from the Soundcloud site. Make sure that you consistently share regularly to your demographic. Not everyone is going to be engaged or listen right away, which is fine but when you cater to your listener you will save a lot of time and energy.
Tagging
Last but not least, similar to hashtags on Instagram or twitter, SoundCloud also allows for tagging various keywords in order to find your music. Be sure to use the correct tags for the genre of the music as well ie. (hip hop, pop, beats, acoustic).
Just like any other tool, you have everything you need with Soundcloud you just have to use it correctly. Use our tips to make your music reach far and let us know what works for you and what’s some things you’ve found to not to work as well. We want to hear from you. Leave questions, comments, and suggestions below or at our Instagram: @THISISTHEPLUG.
Published by: Maddie D