So, you’ve come up with a new track, EP, or entire album that you’d like to upload to SoundCloud. The next step after posting it is starting to build a following so you can actually share this music with the rest of the world. If you simply upload a song and put no extra effort into advertising it, you’ll probably get a handful of views and enough favorites to count on one hand.

Use tags and share to social media groups

Using tags is the easiest way to reach out to different targeted audiences. A lot of people downplay the importance and usefulness of tags, but they’re incredibly affective at bringing in new listeners. When adding tags, make sure to include all genres and sub-genres that apply to your track, as well as any plug-ins, instruments, or effects used. Tags can also include the original composer of a sample you used in the track.

Sharing your profile and tracks to various group on sites like Facebook, as well as SC itself, is another great way to share your music. Make sure you’re posting to relevant groups, meaning if you created a house track, you’re posting to groups related to house music (basically the same things you used in tags).

Purchase followers, plays, and favorites on occasion

This method is guaranteed to help you build a following, but you simply cannot rely solely on purchasing SoundCloud plays to make your profile popular. However, it’s a great compliment to organic views and word of mouth advertisement that you’ll create using our first tip. Whenever a track has a lot of views or favorites, and the artist has a large amount of followers, the chances of a random user listening to the track will increase dramatically.

Advertise (and offer) a free download

As a brand new artist, it is very hard to actually profit directly from music that you create and upload to SC. While you might be able to make a few sales to family and friends, the odds are very slim that a random user will stumble upon your track and make the decision to purchase it (especially when songs can easily be ripped from SC). Alternatively, you can go ahead and offer a free download, and include “Free Download” in the title/tags.

This will increase your exposure, as a lot of people browse SC to see what they can snag for free, and will even search specifically for tracks with free in the title or tags.

Let’s get started!

Hopefully this short little guide will give you some insight on how to build a solid following on SoundCloud. Each of these three tips are easy enough to follow and only take a few minutes to put into action, so it’s time to get to work and start climbing your way to the top of the SoundCloud mountain!

Date: December 30, 2015 / Categories: Tips, / Author: Rich Drees