Get Your Music Heard on Soundcloud: 5 Proven Tips

SoundCloud is a popular platform that people use to listen to music and other audio media. It is a great way to find new music and follow artists you like. But the platform is quite competitive as there are hundreds of thousands of artists in the world trying to get noticed. If you are having trouble getting your music heard then these tips may help to gain engagement on SoundCloud. We have not included paid methods like services to buy SoundCloud plays as they do not provide engagement but do increase the stats. So, read on. 

Tagging Your Music

Tags are one of the most important ways to get exposure organically on social media platforms. On Twitter, Instagram, TikTok etc. we have hashtags. It helps people discover posts that they might be interested in. Something similar happens in SoundCloud as well. People are ready to listen to new music. They want to be able to discover fresh stuff in the genre they like. So, they search for it on SoundCloud. If your music is tagged with what the user is searching for then it can be more discoverable. For example, if you are into rock music, use tags covered by different rock artists in this genre.

But this does not mean that you put a bunch of popular tags or mix genres and stuff and expect to get more exposure. It doesn’t work like that. Your main genre should accurately match the music that you are uploading. This way people who want to listen to your kind of music will hear it. They will become loyal fans if your music is of good quality and entertaining. You can add location tags and mood tags to make it a bit more discoverable. Making your tags concise can initially help you target people who like your niche. This can help you get exposure from people who would be willing to return to your music. 

Never Compromise on Your Music

If you are not getting heard a lot then maybe you need to understand the craft of making music a bit more to gain engagement on SoundCloud. The quality of the music should be really good. The production and the mix quality should not feel shabby as it will take people out of the vibe and they will ignore your music in the future. Keep grinding and learning your craft. That’s one of the best initial steps to get better.

Whatever feedback you get try to see if they can help you make your music better. If you are a singer then you have to use your voice to its limit. If you are a music producer then understand music theory. Learn what works and why. Try to experiment in your genres to come up with your unique style and something which has a good vibe to it. Believe us when we say this, good artists who have risen through platforms like SoundCloud have consistently delivered good music. Once you have good music then promotion becomes a bit easier as people who listen to your music once will be returning for more. 

Cross-Platform Promotion

To improve on any social media you need to be able to promote your content. A lot of people use multiple platforms to promote their music, videos etc. If you already have some following on some platform you can utilize that following and drive the traffic to SoundCloud. You can put links to your tracks on SoundCloud to Instagram posts and stories. You can put it in the description of your YouTube videos.

Cross-promotion can help a lot. A lot of musicians use different platforms. It can help you get more exposure. You can upload snippets and previews of your song and promote it on TikTok or Instagram. Today, a lot of tracks have become popular due to those two platforms. We suggest you start thinking in this way if possible. Create accounts on other social media platforms and keep adding stuff there. If you want to get more plays on SoundCloud and gain engagement on it you need to let people know that your music is there. The first tip tells you how people who use the platform can get to your music. This tip deals with how to utilize other platforms to do the same. Use Instagram stories to upload song snippets. 

Engage With Your Audience

If you want to get your music heard you need to engage with your audience and fans. This will make them loyal to you or at the very least more supportive. Most independent artists who use social media platforms to get popular are quite interactive with their audiences. 

You can comment in your waveform and let your fans know a bit more about the track. Pick the sections that you think are interesting or you spent a lot of time working on and comment on them. How you came up with it or if you tried something new. Ask for feedback and support at the end. This way you can build a good interactive relationship with your fans.

Use other social media platforms to interact with your followers. Upload behind the scenes footage. If you have collaborated with someone then you can upload your interactions with them. Videos on you two working in the studio and stuff. These things get a lot of attention and help build a loyal fan base that will keep coming back to listen to your music and thus you get more plays. 

Collaborate With Other Creators

This is the last tip that we want you to think about and start implementing if you haven’t already. Collaborations with other musicians and artists can help you grow a lot. You will learn a lot and hone your craft much better. Besides this, you will be able to introduce yourself to the fans of other similar creators and they will be introduced to yours. This way you both can grow as creators and get more followers and listeners for your music.

You can send collaboration requests to popular artists but since they get tonnes of requests it may not be possible to collaborate with them. But still, send it. Send a couple of samples in which you want the other person to collaborate. Once you have collaborated with another artist on a few tracks you can make videos together talking about your experiences and use the other tips mentioned above to gain engagement on SoundCloud.

That was our list of tips on how to get heard on SoundCloud. We hope you learned a few things. To get more plays people go to service providers, to buy SoundCloud plays. We have not included it as we wanted to keep the tips such that you may not need to invest much. Buying plays will not guarantee engagement.

It will just increase the plays on your track and if you think that you can use this credibility to promote your songs better, you can try to buy SoundCloud plays otherwise, give the tips you learned here some consideration. Gaining fame and popularity is a gradual process so be patient and work smart. 

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.