As an independent musician, we know that it's hard to break through the mold. Unfortunately, there is no magic number to the number of plays to get on Soundcloud to become famous—however there are some good heuristics to follow.
You could be a solo artist or a band with an ear for anthemic guitar riffs. You could be a film composer and have a knack for composing huge scores. This makes you want to share your stuff on Soundcloud and amass a legion of fans! —Right?
So let's get into the heuristics of how to promote your music — on SoundCloud and in general.
As we said before there is no magic number of plays. Artists with tens of thousands of plays still don't make a living off their music because they are not growing in other ways .
Let's start with a good goal though.
You want to stream a minimum of 500 plays. If you've got that great! If not keep listening, liking and commenting on other tracks so that they listen, like and comment on yours.
Eventually, you'll want to increase this number — but wait, don't just think of that number as static, you want it to grow.
So the next goal would be, can you get 100 more plays PER MONTH. This shows that your rate of being listened to is increasing.
Next — set an even LOFTIER GOAL at 500 plays per month. This way you can keep your eye on the prize. It's not just about acquiring new listeners, you also want to keep your main fanbase listening.
It should be obvious, but this won't help you. If you have a lot of plays but zero actual interaction with your fan base it will look fishy and record labels won't take an interest in you.
Record labels are not stupid, they know how plays can be paid for.
Therefore, you need to get better at getting actual interaction with your music.
Link your Soundcloud to all of your social media profiles and share it consistently every time you release a track or have an update about yourself.
This can mean that if you get an article written about you in a magazine, why not share the track again? You are almost guaranteed plays if you are reposting your track with some exciting news to share.
Upload a video to youtube. It doesn't have to be great. Just get it in there and encourage people to embed it into their blogs and social media. That helps spread the word.
If you're in a city you could try hosting a show in a venue that nobody knows about. That way, when people hear your music, they can't say "who?"
Use SoundCloud to improve your search for people who are looking for like-minded bands. When you like and comment on tracks the algorithms will eventually point towards your music on their end.
Read the blogs and social media posts they share.
Search for them on Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr and Pinterest.
Look for the accounts and communities they have built. Invite them to your shows.
Your goal is to get on their "top lists" - which basically means be an artist that your fans respect. They will do the marketing work for you and spread the word about your music.
Contacting real magazines to write about your work is one of the best solutions out there. If they are legit, they will have a real fanbase that they are exposing you to which will get your more fans (and therefore more plays).
HOWEVER — this takes a lot of time, and many times magazines won't even listen to you if you are just a nobody trying to promote their music. What is the solution?
If you haven't heard of PR (public relations) it's just a specialized way of getting your music out there to media giants who control the landscape .
In a nutshell, digital PR professionals are people that work to improve or promote digital marketing, including websites, blogs, social media profiles and more.
Your freelance digital PR specialist should have in-depth knowledge of the web, social media, blogs, as well as the relevant news and events in your niche market.
Our website is an all-in-app PR agency that helps get artist digital media coverage in music blogs with 10,000-100,000 views per month.
However, this is not the only aspect where they help you, good PR agents will also offer various training and advice related to digital PR so that you can make the most of their services and use them to their full potential.
Some of the other reasons to consider hiring a PR professional to work with your band or project is the fact that they usually work to develop a digital strategy, be it a website, social media accounts, blogging, or anything else that is relevant to your goals and goals for the future.
Another benefit is that they are not just selling you their services. When you have a good working relationship with them, you will be able to refer them to your friends and acquaintances, also helping them in any way you can.
This is another advantage to going through a PR specialist. The only reason you would hesitate to do this is that you do not know anyone to recommend them, but this is a benefit that the services of a digital PR specialist offer you.
In summary, the advantages that hiring a digital PR specialist provides you is more time, much more affordable, and the ability to increase your web presence. So why hesitate to go through a professional when you can?
