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20.01.25

Become a Soundcloud expert

by IDOL
With 100M monthly mobile users and 150M fans worldwide, SoundCloud offers a unique social experience. Rayen Gonzalez, our DSP Editorial & Partnerships Manager gives expert tips to optimize success on the platform.

Founded in 2006, SoundCloud is a significant player in the streaming landscape. With a vast user base of 150 million fans, predominantly Gen Z or Millennials from 193 countries, 89% engaging through mobile devices, it offers a unique social experience. Unlike more passive platforms, SoundCloud attracts high-intent listening, often marking the starting point for breakthrough artists like Billie Eilish back in 2016. This provides a dynamic ecosystem fostering connections, discovery, fair compensation, and development within the music industry.

This unique DSP stands out with its fan-centric model that ensures even lower-streamed tracks can generate meaningful revenue for creators. In 2021, the platform introduced Fan Powered Royalties as an experiment for a new model, fostering a direct, two-way relationship between artists and fans. Additionally, this hybrid model serves as a powerful fraud deterrent in the realm of streaming fraud.

‘With the help of Fan Powered Royalties, [artists] can not only identify their superfans,but more easily target, leverage, and monetize their fan segments.’ SoundCloud’s Rockonomics

On SoundCloud, success is measured by true fans who contribute significantly to an artist’s revenue, while passive fans make up the rest. To boost earnings, artists can either transition fans from the long tail to the fat head or enhance earnings from dedicated followers. SoundCloud simplifies this by introducing a metric to identify true fans, those surpassing a set monthly contribution. Expanding this group or increasing revenue from them becomes achievable through the platform’s creator tools, enabling direct communication with true fans. While other remuneration models exist, Fan Powered Royalties prioritize the true fan game, offering potential revenue increases.

The Rockonomics study shows that “one in four SoundCloud users are also using Spotify for Artists”. As many users engage with other services, SoundCloud can be seen as a complementary DSP rather than a competing brand. Yet SoundCloud’s metrics and creator tools are good leverage and valuable assets for artists. As an added bonus, SoundCloud has recently introduced a new Artist subscription tier designed specifically for ’emerging and aspiring’ musicians. In this article, our expert Rayen Gonzalez, DSP Editorial & Partnership manager, explains how to make the most of this platform.

Brand/Artist Identity

Curate Your Unique Brand
Building a distinctive brand on SoundCloud is pivotal for reaching your audience. Start by optimising your profile with pro tips, such as updating banner art and avatar images in line with campaigns, linking to socials, adding contact information, and using the Spotlight feature to highlight new content. Employ proper tags to enhance discoverability, ranging from genre tags like #Hip-Hop to specific descriptors like #Alternative #KorgPiano or #LatinAmerica.

Find Your Voice in the Community
Engagement is key to expanding your reach and connecting with new fans and collaborators. Utilize actions like liking, commenting, reposting, sharing, and following. Create playlists featuring your own songs, inspirations, collaborations, or frequently played content. Leverage your presence on other social media platforms to invite fans into your SoundCloud community. Artists who actively engage with their fans, responding to comments, receive significantly more likes and comments.

Advice from Rayen Gonzales, DSP Editorial & Partnership manager at IDOL: Subscribe to Next Pro, upload early demos for fans, and ensure your tracks are monetizing.

Fan engagement

Share and Identify
Utilize your platform insights to identify top listeners and engage with them directly through DMs, exclusive content, and more. Sharing your new releases, albums, or playlists directly to IG Story and other socials amplifies your reach. Tease official tracks before release and add SoundCloud to all smartURLs. Foster superfans by keeping them informed about all your activities, including new releases and upcoming shows.

Engage with Fans for Lifelong Connections
Building enduring relationships with your fans is paramount on SoundCloud. Strengthen your fan connection by sharing private links, expressing appreciation, seeking feedback, and promoting new music. Host Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions on the waveform, answering fan questions while driving engagement on your tracks. Embrace the social aspect of SoundCloud by actively liking, commenting, reposting, and creating playlists : Fans love to hear from you and discover your musical passions.

Analytics

Behind the Waveform for Growth
Leverage real-time data insights to monitor and foster growth on SoundCloud. Understand fan engagement, track social stats and performance, view geographical data to identify top countries and cities, and track playlist adds to gauge your reach and discoverability.

Campaign ideas

Stand Out with Unique Strategies
Distinguish yourself on SoundCloud by running teaser campaigns, building pre-release excitement by uploading snippets simultaneously with other socials. Direct music fans to SoundCloud to listen, boosting followers and engagement. Enhance fan connections by uploading exclusive audio content, such as demos, covers, mixes, a capellas, audio commentary, track by tracks, and announcements. Host contests and giveaways, offering concert tickets, merch, or meet & greets to reward your dedicated community.

Release Strategy

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