How to Become a SoundCloud Superstar, For real.

[outdropt]

So we heard how people buy views/comments/favorites.. how do you up your views/comments/favorites for real?

I'm not talking about spamming here.

Everyone knows the basics:

Create an alias.
Make a good track.
Link your facebook, twitter, soundcloud together.
Make the title of each track look legitimate.

With this your exposure is still minimal. Do you ever think, how did this person find my track?

What about posting a topic on DSF? If you have a sig and you post a topic, people that view the topic might check out the tune.
I find that how many views i get on track correlate to my activity on DSF.
Try to post a tutorial video on youtube, post links to all of your pages in the description
Recently I saw someone post a track for... I think it was Zomboy, that post had 200k+ views.
In the description he posted a mix and remix that he did himself. They both had a few K hits, it sounded good, but compared to his other tracks the view count was no comparison.
Tagging plays a big part in how much exposure you get from a search engine. Tag a few producers that play a similar genre of music.

Those are a few off the top of my head. Got any others?

[Benji]

Get Soundcloud premium and spam your tracks in all the relevant groups, you can get a 14 day trial I think

[outdropt]

*COUGH*

I'm not talking about spamming here.

*COUGH*

[Benji]

You know what I mean, just put your songs in the groups that allow the posting of those kinds of songs. I was trying to be helpful

[sunny_b_uk]

i agree posting good music alone doesnt work.
good songs + somewhat regular uploads + luck + contacting labels to sign your tracks.

[blinx]

I also have seen most of my plays/comments/likes are on tracks i have in my signature here on DSF and most of the traffic to my SC is DSF based. I like to rotate the newest single into that signature. This way if ppl like what i have to say, they might check my tunes OR if they think im a total tnuc they can STILL play my track and either be impressed or validate that im a noob in their eyes and quietly mock me in the comfort of their own home. Either way a real person heard my tunes so i win lol.

Another idea for SoundCloud Superstardom, is to remix current popular tunes in an effort to piggyback on the success of the original track. If you do this right you can not only own soundcloud but really break your name to the world.

[mo_0kz]

I saw a thread on here maybe two days ago about how you could buy "views". The guy bought like 30k views on a mediocre song. That still says a lot. If you're able to make tracks that sound just as good as a heavyweight producer and still can't get enough exposure I could see that potentially helping you.

If I made tracks that sound like fucking masterpieces I'd be trying every thing in the book to get exposure. I'd probably do that as a last resort. If your music sucks though it definitely just makes you look like an ass.

[legend4ry]

[I'm on night shift so fancy a tangent]

From what ive noticed in my almost double figure years making/promoting my own music - a lot of it is theoretical or what ive noticed from other people.. Sadly my content isn't good enough for these tips to be shown in practice of my own brand/identity within the industry.

I have made a lot of mistakes and done a few things right; commence knowledge....




Bread n' Butter : CONTENT - make your soundcloud appealing.

FINISHED, FULLY MIXED/MASTERED : tracks with correct tagging (don't put your bloody artist name in title on soundcloud its on the header of the page!). No one wants to listen to WIP1 or ROUGH IDEA - UNMiXED.

ONLY PUT THE BEST - I over saturate my soundcloud, I admit it is something I need to work on but it should be a showcase portfolio not a sketch book, you can have a secondary account for that. Only have tracks you a) will never be able to out-do or are scheduled for a release and b) want to share for free.

ADD UNIQUE PICTURES : even if its just some lolcat or a logo, do it. When people share your soundcloud on facebook, it embeds a picture; this sticks out more.. same with Tumblr - your two main social media markets. FACT. This is how you get viral.

COMMENT : Reply to comments which reserve a reply. These look good when embeded but don't do it to every comment, its spammy and looks like you're paying2win. This also shows you're humble, something people are drawn to.



Think of your listeners as this..

Impressionists : people who just listen to judge, these are quick glances and hold no credibility other than a +1 on your stats. 1 in 300 people will comment a thought, more will click a love heart if they enjoy it but this is purely for personal benefits for the soundcloud favourites playlist. While they still look good - encourage commenting but adding a deception which asks a non-intrusive question; also when you're posting it on social media do the same - often people will comment on soundcloud to your question rather than where they read it. Even if they do post on other social media - spark conversation! For reasons why, I covered it here : http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... k#p2903282

Once you've done that you're all set! Now its time to give you 5 top tips on how you promote your content on facebook to get the maximum exposure out of every post!


When possible, always post a link: Every time some one clicks the link from your page - its another play and potentially a new fan. Remembering what we said about every time someone likes or comments a status; there is potential of their friends seeing what 'activity' they've been up to. Again, potential new fans because they have a friend who seems to like this person and their music is right THERE to listen to.

Questions lead to conversation: When you're not in the position to post a link (EG; you haven't made a new track for a while) you can keep yourself fresh in peoples mind by asking questions to your fans this is also a great way to find what kinda of music and views your fans have!; what are they listening to at the moment? What is their favourite release by you? Which label are they most supporting at the moment? Do any of your fans produce too? - These a great questions to spark interest within your fan community - as stated above too, every time someone comments - your chance of being seen by more people is greater now more people are interacting.

Support other people within your network: For any twitter users; you probably know how this goes with #FF but for those not in the know.. Every Friday the twitter community posts a status with names of people they think you should follow called friend friday (hence #FF). This can work on facebook too; if you say - out to @mrX on this new one *posts link* he smashes it up each and every time. The potential of him 'sharing' what you said about him is high because you're scratching his back, why won't he scratch yours? - It has to be said, if you don't know the person at all the potential is pretty low to get a repost.

Give credit where credit is due: With Websites like Mixcloud, it is now very easy to find if your tracks have been played in a mix or a radio show. Use this to your advantage to give a public thank you to the DJs, Labels some time find it hard to get a foot in the door because their artists are slack at helping them as much as they help themselves, if you're going to be working with a label more than once, keep your fans up to date with them ! This will work in your favor when the label grows as you will get the same treatment as you gave them but to a wider audience.

Don't spam & learn your fan base: Like I stated, this is NOT twitter; one to three posts a day is more than enough to get seen by the majority of your audience, taking time zones into consideration - when you wake up, when you get some spare time in the day and in the peak of the evening seems to hit the sweet spot. For example posting things at 4am in the morning if you're from the UK will only 'really' be seen by your most engaged fans from UK & Europe but will be seen by Asia/Australia/America, so look at your insights and learn what posts gave the most activity and what time it was, where the majority of your fans are from and what age they are. This will help you determine a average time to post throughout the day.

Fans : This is people who actively seek your music or just new music. These are your (potential)fans, you will get feedback, praise and shares from these people. This number is dynamic and fade in and out as time goes on but utilize these as your greatest assets.

Industrialists: These are people 'in the industry'. They are just looking for a way to use you to make their product or selves bigger.. Be it a blogger, DJ, Label, social media group (fan pages, youtube channels, etc, etc) - they are all capitalizing on what you have to bring them something more. While they help you to in the long run.. These are your key to getting impressionists which will then filter out till you grab a few fans.


In the long run : You want to have a nice looking 'portfolio' and try and share it to people who will in turn share it with their people. If you have some haggard, unfinished product then you will only get plays and the odd comment cause some DSFer wants to see if what you said in production meets to your production skills.



[/I'm on night shift so fancy a tangent]

[6Cloudz]

Have your homies spam youtube with comments

[MilkyThomas]

Excellent post legend4ry!

[MilkyThomas]

On a side note, how important do you guys feel it is to stick to one genre or style when promoting yourself? I love all kinds of music and make all kinds of music, but I feel a bit like I should have one alias for dubstep, another for housey/technoey stuff, another for more chilled stuff.. does this matter? My soundcloud has all sorts of stuff on there - should I make it more lean or is variety a good thing in that regard? (I think it is, obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have so much different stuff on there..)

[Aufnahmewindwuschel]

make trap

[mo_0kz]

On a side note, how important do you guys feel it is to stick to one genre or style when promoting yourself? I love all kinds of music and make all kinds of music, but I feel a bit like I should have one alias for dubstep, another for housey/technoey stuff, another for more chilled stuff.. does this matter? My soundcloud has all sorts of stuff on there - should I make it more lean or is variety a good thing in that regard? (I think it is, obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have so much different stuff on there..)

I've noticed the people who produce a more broad spectrum of genre's under one name get more notoriety.

It's good to have multiple styles and be versatile. I plan on having many........

[Static D0gma]

I thought this threaed was going to be another "BUY FREEE SOUNDEDCLUD PLAYTIES". A ctually pretty good stuff to remember.

That reminds me about a lot of shitty brostep producers who have 3 figure follower counts. They comment on almost every tune they come across with the same thing. Like that Electrode guy, he comments ":D" on everything. He also buys plays, and he does some other crap a scumbag who only makes music to make money does. It makes me sick.

[MilkyThomas]

There was a thread that wub posted down the page somewhere about some guy who did exactly that, which I think sparked this thread. Where's the honour in buying plays? There is none.

This thread is pretty good though, legend4ry's post is worth hanging onto I think!

[mthrfnk]

I've had some pretty good feedback and play counts on a few tracks of mine. My sole sources of promotion are my sig here/the WIP thread, my Twitter and SoundCloud groups and tagging.

I recently posted a few tracks to a 24hr EP event Madeon ran and got lots of new followers/plays/comments and struck up a little PM convo with Madeon.

I think the system of simply posting/sharing decent music does work to an extent, it's just about pushing it through all channels - i.e. upload to SC and YouTube, link to Twitter/Facebook, share to blogs/groups/forums/promoters etc.... and hope it spreads from there.

Fwiw Madeon's advice to me was just keep posting good music and good remixes and people will start to notice you and share your music, after which if you get enough attention that's when the labels start biting and you're in a good position to get a good deal.

[RmoniK]

Youtube promotion buddy, not even kidding. If you make good enough music, a (decent) promo channel will want to release it. If they don't, keep working on your music and worry about exposure later. That's the stage i'm at right now.

[sigmund floyd]

good thread.....i think a few years ago good music would just prevail but now you def have to market your shit no matter what.....oh yeah, new tune BTW check my sig

[Un-supreme]

its a shame, but its a game

[peaka]

This is actually something that I've been trying to figure out.

It's most likely due to the vast number of subscribers, but I find the easiest way to do this is via youtube and good tags. It also probably has something to do with youtube app coming baked into the two most used mobile os on the market (Andriod and osx). I'm not sure about blackberry or windows though. Anyone know if the youtube app comes baked into the stock phone?