Original article found on Symphonic
The heart of SoundCloud is its deeply engaged community of creators who share the sounds they create with, not only each other, but with the world. SoundCloud is more than just a music streaming platform. It’s about sharing common interests, attitudes, goals and connecting with people who share your same passion. If you’re looking to grow your community on SoundCloud, here are 8 tips to get you on the right track…
Stay in Touch With the Community
This is the first and most important step in growing your own community. You have to take the time to understand what’s already out there and who’s doing what. Not only does this inspire your own work, but it’s always good to keep your finger on the pulse of the industry, no matter what section of it you frequent.
To do this, you can use search tools and groups to find sounds you like and interact with other communities. In addition, adding a track you like as a favorite goes a long way with other artists on the platform, who may just return the favor.
Dropping a timed comment often starts a conversation, and following the person keeps you in the loop for future uploads.
Use Download Gates
Simply put, download gates are software tools that allow you to give away something in exchange for social interaction. ToneDen and Hive were some of the first websites to pop up allowing people to create their own custom download gates. What these websites would give you control over is “fan-gating” a listener to be able to download a track or album for free in exchange for following the artist’s Soundcloud.
When it comes to your music, these can help you get twice as many followers from releasing a track than you normally would. There are many download gates to choose from, but Toneden and Hypeddit are a couple good ones to consider.
Make honest, relevant, useful and encouraging comments, often
It’s ok to say “nice”, but it’s even better to say “nice drums, but sounds like some bass details are getting lost. Check EQ?”. It’s not great to say “nice, listen to mine”, especially if you didn’t actually listen to it. It’s not genuine and many perceive that as spam. You want to try to build your community through genuine interaction, not just spam.
Reply to your comments and messages
A polite response to compliments on your tracks and in your inbox is generally appreciated by your listeners and keeps the conversation going. It also shows you’re active on the platform and care about those who take the time to interact with you.
Share your favorite artists and tracks with your other social networks freely
It feels great to get Tweeted or Facebooked by a follower who likes your track, right? Return the favor in advance! It’s all about supporting your community here.
Consider collaborating via private track sharing
SoundCloud makes it really easy to collaborate by letting you share works in progress privately, preserving full recording quality in the actual file uploaded.
Offer your own tracks for remixing and consider Creative Commons licensing
You might be surprised what unexpected variations and usages come back from the overall SoundCloud community of hugely diverse genres.
Join a Repost Network
By getting others to ‘repost‘ your track, it’s published to the streams of all their followers. Technically, a repost by an influential account could lead to significant exposure.
In Conclusion…
With these in mind, you’ll be on the right track to growing your community on SoundCloud in no time.
Good luck!
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