Blogs play an important role in the music industry. However, blogging is not enough if artists or music content creators want to get more engagement and play counts for their content.

That is why many creators today consider SoundCloud marketing.

Why SoundCloud is better than other social media platforms

If you follow a certain creator or artist, all their uploads and reposts will be shown in your feed. And unlike Facebook or Instagram, there is no algorithm that will intercept the updates of your feed. In SoundCloud, they just pop into your feed chronologically.

That is why creators have a lot of chances for users to see their work, that is if the user does not follow thousands of accounts. Because if he/she does, chances are his/her feed is bombarded with content.

But still, your content has better chances of gaining engagement if they are uploaded on SoundCloud, Spotify, or YouTube. Why? People go to these channels because they expect and would like to hear some music. Thus, their mind is already set to “like” this kind of content once it pops into their feed or stream.

If you are after getting fans and followers on social media, you should know that audio-centric social platforms like SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify, are at the top of the fan/follower tunnel. The other social media are there to support and further create fandom. And if you created a fandom or super fandom followers, this leads to conversion or customers.

That is why many artists and creators are getting the wise step of starting with SoundCloud to build attraction and engagement.

So how do you get attraction, engagement, follows and play counts on SoundCloud? There are strategies and methods that you can do. Here are some of them:

1. Use promotional channels

Promotional channels are SoundCloud accounts that usually have a large following that uploads content from other artists or creators. By this, the artist or creator will have more chances of reaching more audiences and getting play counts.

These promotional channels are also called SoundCloud labels. They are different from the traditional record labels that distribute music to stores like iTunes, Spotify, etc. SoundCloud labels are usually led by young founders. They are more lenient and do not question the legitimacy of your content. You can actually connect with them via chat on Facebook Messenger.

Some of these SoundCloud labels get so popular that they soon get launched as regular record labels. With this, they get to be distributed, sign records, and soon monetize their content by copyright.

2. Content is important

Whether regular written blogs or audio blogs, content is very important. So if you are producing audiovisual blogs, it is important to create content that gives value. If your content is good, a like-to-download gate on your content will accelerate. And if you are gaining good engagement with your content, it would be easy for other creators to find your content and share or repost it on their channel.

Other techniques that creators do to create valuable audiovisual content is that they focus on one topic or genre. And once this genre gets enough engagement or popularity, they create other sister accounts and promotional networks. And to get more engagement, they use these sister and promotional accounts to promote their other content.

Here are some promotional networks that you should definitely check out to have an idea on how to do it.

3. Get likes

Aside from creating valuable content and setting up genres, another way to attract engagement and social interactions is to give out something to your followers – this process is called like-to-download gate.

Make your content downloadable. But before your followers download your content, they need to like, repost, or share it first on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Other creators are asking followers to follow the artist, the promotional channel or the record label before getting a free download on the content.

Some of the services that do this process are Click.DJ, Artist Union, ToneDen, and Hive.

4. Share your music

Sharing your music with other creators can increase your play count as well as engagement.

How? If you have 1000 followers and a fellow creator has 2000 followers who are willing to upload your content on his/her channel, then, you get higher chances of getting followers and plays.

However, be reminded that users with higher followers will prioritize their content first over your content.

5. Create networks

If you have high numbers of followers, you should consider creating networks with other creators. Why? This is to give your account new content that can attract potential new followers.

So look for other creators, create a network with them. Ask them to upload your content or ask them if you can upload their content. They key is to look for creators that can be valuable to your channel or account.

6. Reaching out to promotional channels

As mentioned, promotional channels are a good way to get attraction and engagement. However, these promotional channels get hundreds or even thousands of submissions. And they only upload 1 or 2 among these numbers?

So how do you compete with this numbers?

The secret is to befriend the owner of the promotional channel. Shoot them a friendly message on Facebook. Don’t be too aggressive when doing this. Don’t push your content to them right away. Compliment them first, or introduce yourself and what you do and what your channel does, establish first a good relationship and then, introduce your content.

7. Try repost trading

Repost trading is an agreement between you and another creator with the same following as yours to reposts each other’s content on each other’s channel.

Things to consider when doing repost trading are:

• Is the creator of repost trading?
• Is the genre the same with yours?
• Frequency of repost

8. Paid Marketing

The above techniques are all organic and free. And if you are still having a hard time getting attraction or engagement, you can also do paid marketing.

Some of the paid activities include:

• Paying SoundCloud channels to repost your content
• Hiring a marketer to run a SoundCloud marketing for you

These are just some strategies that you can do if you are after getting higher attraction and play counts on your content or channel. Try some of these and see what will work for you.

 

Date: December 10, 2018 / Categories: Getting Discovered, / Author: Rich Drees