We wanted to do a little update on one of our favorite music services, Soundcloud, so we got David Adams from their team to put together a guest blog post on how to get the most out of your soundcloud account.
So without further ado here's David with...
'5 ways to win at SoundCloud you may not even know!'
So your music is beginning to get heard and reaching your audience but how do you make the most of your SoundCloud profile to really be #winning!
1) Have an awesome profile!
People are listening to your music and coming back to your SoundCloud profile but what do they actually learn about you when they are there and where does this lead them next on the web? With your SoundCloud profile you can connect your other web presences as well as a spotlight tab to choose what songs fans see first. If fans are searching for your music just by getting your username and SoundCloud URL correct can make it easier for fans to find the right profile. For more information with this profile 101.
2) Don't just post to SoundCloud, use it to post to the whole web!
Your music should not just be on your SoundCloud profile but everywhere you have a presence on the web. It's time to unmute the web on all your online profiles! Put music on your facebook profile by connecting your SoundCloud account with Rootmusic.
3) Giving someone your promo CD, give them your promo card!
Found that person you have always wanted to get your music in front of? Don’t hand someone a promo CD – it will almost always end up in the bin. And not because the person doesn’t want to hear your music - but because these days, CDs are simply inconvenient. How about printing a link to your digital sampler on a promocard?Your SoundCloud profile can be the tool to who you want without them leaving with your CD with a bag full of other CD's weighing them down.
Found that person you have always wanted to get your music in front of? Don’t hand someone a promo CD – it will almost always end up in the bin. And not because the person doesn’t want to hear your music - but because these days, CDs are simply inconvenient. How about printing a link to your digital sampler on a promocard?Your SoundCloud profile can be the tool to who you want without them leaving with your CD with a bag full of other CD's weighing them down.
Have a brand new track you are working on and only want the right people to hear? Use SoundCloud's private sharing features like secret link to easily send a track to someone via email. Why not even create a private promo page with the secret widget with all your relevant press assets so they get the whole experience across with content you want to keep away from the public eye for now.
4) There's more to audio than your track
SoundCloud is an audio platform so it's important to think of the audio you can share with fans can be more than just your music. SoundCloud recently launched a record function. Accessible via the website or SoundCloud app for iPhone or Android, the record feature enables anyone to capture sound on the move and then, in the embeddable waveform player.
SoundCloud app is an ideal way to push out a quick audio message to the web - you can easily record your audio tweet to your SoundCloud profile. On tour? Tag your location and create an audio tour diary! Why not switch things up a little and conduct a few informal interviews on the fly - consider interviewing a bunch of different artists at shows, grab an audio snippet of their tour experience and share it between both sets of fans!
5) Everyone's a potential audio creator, create together!
With features like the record app anyone has the possibility to be an audio creator. How about taking requests for your next gig? Perhaps encourage fans to submit audio snippets of them requesting their most favourite track and explaining why they love it. Imogen Heap recently reached out to her creative fanbase and asked them to record and upload sounds via SoundCloud to be incorporated in her next single, which she then released two weeks later.
With features like the record app anyone has the possibility to be an audio creator. How about taking requests for your next gig? Perhaps encourage fans to submit audio snippets of them requesting their most favourite track and explaining why they love it. Imogen Heap recently reached out to her creative fanbase and asked them to record and upload sounds via SoundCloud to be incorporated in her next single, which she then released two weeks later.
If your own fans want to send you audio messages another way to interact how about using our social audio Q&A site Takes Questions. Simply set up a TakesQuestions account, wait for your fans to submit questions to you, then record an interactive response using the record function on your iPhone or Android phone!
Fans want to create too so how about opening the stems to one of your tracks? You can set up a group, embed your stems onto a landing page and include a dropbox widget linked to the group for submissions. Set this up to suit you, it doesn't have to be just a remix competition, you could give out the backing track and set this up as a topline melody contest. Check out this Contests 101 post about how you can set this up.
Fans want to create too so how about opening the stems to one of your tracks? You can set up a group, embed your stems onto a landing page and include a dropbox widget linked to the group for submissions. Set this up to suit you, it doesn't have to be just a remix competition, you could give out the backing track and set this up as a topline melody contest. Check out this Contests 101 post about how you can set this up.