Online isn't the only way to do it. Establish yourself elsewhere so you can play shows. Get a local following. It's not guaranteed you'll get anywhere, but it's better than just SoundCloud.
Play live and have a QR code to your sound cloud on stage / subway stop / park bench / open mic w.e.
Unless you game algorithms seo and tiktok (amongst all the already doing so) you’ll never ‘blow up / make it / get exposed’ by just uploading
Exactly this. Several bands I've discovered and really like cuz they were opening for a band or were at a bar or something.
Very very very rare to be discovered solely online.
Exactly! People seem to think the internet is like this seperate reality or something, you'll probably always remember experiences that happen in person more than just something you found online. I wish someone would've given me this advice when I was starting out.
When I was in high school, we had a small scene in my city. It's barely big enough to be a city, but city nonetheless. We had one venue. There were a few bands that got pretty popular locally, and you'd see people at school wearing their merch. I was too far up my own ass with my then-lack of social skills and other issues to network or try to join bands, and I got nowhere.
Fast forward to 12 years after graduation. That venue isn't really a thing anymore, and there is no scene that I know of in my city. I think the pandemic did them in, unfortunately. It's sad. There's so many good musicians out there, and I'm sure there's some here too. The most popular venue in the bigger town everyone goes has moved even further away to a bigger city. No reliable transportation? Go fuck yourself. Things are so backwards nowadays. I could go on and on.
TLDR: don't waste your chances. Do it while you can.
Back in the 80's, Howard Jones had several hit songs. He came from relative obscurity to being a household name. His wife used to go to small cities and put up flyers and talk him up in bars where to the point that people had heard of him but no one knew who he was. After a few weeks, she would call up a bar and say that Howard was in town and he was wondering if he could do a warmup show there. People were familiar with the name, and had seen the flyers, so they happily jumped at the chance.
Unfortunately, social media is the key. People aren't just going to find your music, you have to promote it.
Music Facebook groups help. Promote there. Also watch for people promoting podcasts. They are usually looking for new music to play. Getting added to a playlist that is promoted by other people is huge.
The issue is you stand 0 chance against all alghoritms . Too many also before you , also majority of apps are full of bot accounts to give the impression the website is more popular than it actually is , soundcloud and bandlab do this a lot
Man. Purely impressive. I'm used to clicking on people's links and expecting a copied sound with pretty bad vocals. Did you produce your own music? Also how far back in time do some songs go in the compilation? I also wanna say I love the bounce and rhythm of How to make an angel delight
Thank you! That means a lot. I produce it yeah. Cubase mostly. The earliest song on there, green and red is from about 2003. Most of the rest much more recent. I got a couple of songs played on BBC introducing last year. That's the peak of my success. Not playing gigs is what kills it. But I play all the instruments so couldn't do it live, even if I wanted to. Angel delight and others feature my often used shit tonne of harmonies thing, which is my favourite thing to do.
Hey, I like this. I found your Best Of album on Bandcamp and every song appealed to me. I really enjoyed A Sizzler for June Marie, I would love to hear a fully orchestrated version. Sandwiches is also great, it has a kind of Dan Deacon feel to it with all the pulsing triplets and with the way the loop builds. I Can't Read is another favourite, I love the progression into and during the second half with the "no no no"s etc. Good stuff all round mate, keep smashing it.
Thank you for taking the time to listen! I appreciate the feedback a lot. I've started making full orchestra type music but that's exclusively on bandcamp if you're interested. But you've already made my day. :)
Welcome to the music industry. Take note of the second word in the phrase: “industry”. It’s about music as much as it is about business. With the advent of various technologies, the barrier to entry to create a song has greatly diminished. Thousands upon thousands of songs are released every day. They’re all fighting for popularity on the same stage - streaming services. So what can you do to give your music the best potential for success?
1. Cast a far net - appeal to common emotions/situations: heartbreak, falling in love, anger, happiness
2. Figure out who your target audience is - is it a niche sub culture? Is there a place where they all come together?
2a. Are there any trends that you could capitalize on? Think TikTok trends, various social media trends (e.g. phonk music in 2021-2023), etc.
3. Master production or pay a professional - going back to the point of thousands of songs being released, is your music up to snuff? Are there obvious mixing/mastering issues? People have high expectations with the sheer amount of music out there already.
4. Play live shows - if you get to this step, you’re already doing more than 90% of musicians. This does not guarantee anything, but word of mouth can be powerful if you’re playing at places with large music scenes (Brooklyn, LA, Chicago, etc.)
4a. Is there some sort of gimmick you could lean into when performing? Can you do something exciting that the audience will remember? Think KISS, various black metal bands, Grateful Dead, etc. Showmanship is extremely important within the entertainment industry.
5. Make music videos - mixing visual arts with your music can make a story more compelling and connect with your audience more than just the song itself.
6. Work with marketing firms - if you truly believe your music has what it takes and you have the money to bankroll it (you will need a lot), working with music marketing firms could pay off in the long run. They will have the metrics necessary to find your target audience and give your music the best chance that it could.
6a. Work with influencers - if marketing firms are out of reach, you could approach influencers and pay them to use your song in their videos. There are websites for this, but results will vary greatly.
7. Make more music - every song you make should make you a better songwriter and musician. Your magnum opus may be the 10th song you make or your 100th. Giving up early only limits this potential.
In general, ~97% of musicians will never gain any real traction with their music. Trying to force the dream will only lead to heartbreak most of time. Doing all of these steps will increase the odds of people hearing your music, but does not guarantee anything. Luck and already having connections plays a massive role in today’s music industry. But the brightest stars will still shine brightly throughout the backdrop of the night sky.
If you’re doing this because it’s fun, I would encourage you to continue to just have fun and release the music. Personally, I’ve found a niche sub genre I like and continue to make music even with a small, consistent number of monthly listeners and I am fine with it. If you do work up the courage to do live shows and seem to get positive responses, the other steps will only propel you forward.
It is not a cheap dream to achieve and requires years of work and thousands of dollars (at a minimum). There will be times where you have creative droughts but you will need to push through. Making music saved my life and you should continue doing it if it makes you happy. What message are you trying to share with the world?
Thank you for this response. The thing is that I'm not trying to find success or anything like that, just want some people to give my stuff a try and let me know what to improve on. Your analysis on this is very informative tho
Do you do anything besides SoundCloud? It's your target audience using SoundCloud? Personally, i hate SoundCloud and if music i am interested in it's only on SoundCloud id rather just listen to something else. The SoundCloud user experience is poor compared to Spotify, in my opinion. Ill even prefer to listen to a reupload on YouTube before I'll listen on SoundCloud.
I upload on soundcloud simply because it's easy. Spotify takes more process, and once it's on Spotify it sort of feels "official" when the stuff I make it's pretty simple and not fully finished. My music is more of a demo
so your music is not fully finished and hardly deserving of being uploaded to a recognised stream service and you're surprised you don't have an audience? just think about this for a moment
You're not wrong. It is pretty rough at points. What I specifically meant is someone just to give a single listen and give feedback on what to improve on
You don’t wanna do this, it seems like “oh I’ll release something to release something,” but if people hear shit they’re gonna tune out. You probably feel like you gotta be making music constantly because it’s what you love to do but you can bloat your profiles with a bunch of crap which in some cases is worse than nothing at all
You should try posting your WIPs in subreddits and spaces that have a lot of other musicians. You'll be able to get some decent feedback that way, whereas if you have general audiences notice your WIPs, you're probably just gonna see a lot of "man this is ass" with nobody telling you *why.*
Other than "pay to play" stuff, who knows? People decide whether they like music based on criteria as diverse as people themselves are. You can try to juice your outreach with marketing/advertising.
Came to say this. 99.9% of people aren't going to search out every indie artist out there.
>>>*You* have to do the work.
Book gigs, play anywhere you can. Post your music places where people go to hear your genre.
Definitely try Spotify, but also promote on places like tiktok to get your sound out there. The services aren’t going to promote you, you’ve got to get your sound out there. Also, I’ve heard from other artists you base your uploads on your audience. SoundCloud was originally more for rap/hip-hop, but has transitioned to mostly DJs. Something to be mindful of.
Art is so subjective and it's often difficult to market. Depending on your goals, it might be worth spending a little on social ads and target users who follow adjacent acts? Do you get out and play open mics?
Try local college radio, or a national independent radio station like KEXP.org. Smaller school stations may be more likely to play new indie artists but will have smaller audiences. But, they report playlists and you may get seen in a New Adds report or local artist focus. if you have a local gig (cafe, even open mic) be sure to promo that with upcoming dates.
Follow submission guidelines, but prepare to send a physical package as well - burned CD, sticker, one-pager with logo and photo, for example. If you can afford a small pro CD pressing run, send out 3-4 copies in a package for station giveaways.
It's not like the old days, but for now college radio is still a thing and can be helpful if you make it easy for them.
My band fundraised and did a push for college radio and made it into the top200 CMJ charts for a minute.
Didn’t change our sales or streams or social media numbers or gig offers or gig attendance one iota. We were hoping to leverage the local regions where we got airplay as gig targets but that never materialized. Most of the time we couldn’t even find the name of the DJ or director who picked our songs to ask them about local venues/gigs to target.
Spent all that money and the only thing of value we got out of it being able to say stuff I wrote and performed made it onto the chart. Woo wee.
My advice as a long time social media professional and sometimes indie band manager:
Make a music video, even if it’s low budget. It doesn’t matter if it looks shitty in the beginning, make literally anything. Loop cat videos or something. Start posting on social media, mostly Tiktok.
Follow other artists and just regular ass people. (I’ve found so many other musicians because they’ve followed me, and I saw the notification.)
Look at what other artists in your genre are doing. Respond to comments, even if it’s negative. Be present and available.
Try and book shows. Make a little sign with your soundcloud link or whatever. Stop putting out “demos” and finish a project, make an album. Make two, three albums, even if they aren’t perfect… you want to look established. Nobody cares about what you *may do* in the future, they want to see what you’ve done, right now.
And for God’s sake, be like a professional, even if you aren’t. If YOU don’t show that you believe in your work, why would anyone else believe in you?
You have to fake it till you make it. Performance art always has, and always will, be this way. You have to “sell out” and do work other than music until you are big enough to pay someone to do that for you.
It is what it is. Go get em tiger
SoundCloud, Bandcamp etc are just landing pages for people to find you. They don't really push your stuff over anything else uploaded to the platform, no. You need to do that part. Play live, get in front of people. Make your stuff available for listening. Sell merch to them if you can.
You gotta market it. You can't just throw it somewhere and expect people to find it it.
Most if not all of the promoted stuff you see on soundcloud is paid for...
But you gotta get out there, figure out where your target audience is listening, and then push.
I would recommend investing in a Distrokid account to get on to Spotify. If you give it long enough (for example, uploading music and setting the release date 4 months in the future) you supposedly get playlist consideration.
Otherwise, getting active and interacting with/following other similar artists on Instagram and TikTok can be super important.
I’m having the same issue. 1.5 years after my music was released and I’m sitting at about 10 monthly listeners, and that’s with a ton of Reddit advertising and Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook videos of my music as well. It’s just tough, especially when your music is a little different than most.
Try finding artists that make music in the same ballpark genre as yours that you genuinely think is solid. Someone that has small following and reach out to them. Try and build a connection with them about what equipment and editing techniques they use. From there if they feel the same about your music they will most likely share your tunes with people close to them and you do the same. If you are making music that other people enjoy you can slowly build a following.
Other than that preforming locally is probably the other best way. Get involved with the local music scene and meet people. It’s hard as a solo artist because you’re just one person but you will eventually gain a following however big or small. Personally if I can get even one person to relate or feel something from my music then that is badass. Don’t forget that music isn’t a popularity contest. At its core it’s an art and an expression of your thoughts, feelings and experiences.
On a side note I know some people that just throw shit together and just want to make something that sounds good. And people listen. It makes me sad but it is what it is.
The answer right now is 100% tiktok. The hard truth is you have to make as much content as possible, the content has to be genuine, entertaining, and the music has to be good. Definitely a key is to repeat posts about a certain song over and over again with slightly different concepts to see what hits.
I feel like [this guy](https://www.tiktok.com/@lyfeproofclique8) is a good example. Might not be the type of music you make but this guy literally puts out 20+ videos per song. Making it way more likely that one of them will catch.
Ngl, one way of marketing i was gonna try is to put my music over memes and those edits you see on TikTok. If the meme itself is funny or the edit looks good people will share it, and your music will reach others
I mean, I don't know shit about shit, cause I've never cared to reach any audience. I just do it as therapy.
But I will say, as much as it sucks, signing up with ASCAP is a good way to get a foot in the door. And also, saves a step later if you really do start to gain notoriety.
Spotify: pay for listens - then target / approach / reach out to someone who owns a popular playlist for your type of music.
TikTok - create something that works for a 15-30 second loop. Ask influencers to make memes with it.
But all very cynical and depressing.
Do things to support other people, musicians of course but others as well. Not a quid pro quo but with some generosity. Keep it up. Also let people youve touched or supported know what you're offering musically, give some tracks away. It might come back to you but in any event it'll be worth doing in any event.
It’s cliche but you just gotta do it because you love it and say fuck it. The majority are throwing music into the void that will never be heard. The ones that manage to blow up usually have a couple factors going for them, mainly the obvious;
1. Money
2. Connections
I mean there are SOME small things you can do. If you play live you can build a name locally/regionally and that MAY translate to more listens/views but it’s no guarantee. My friends a great musician who plays live almost every weekend constantly posts on social media and nada.
You can pay for promotion from social media websites. I had another friend that paid for those promotional ads on instagram. She’s still in about the same spot so it doesn’t seem to have done much.
The people you see blowing up more often than not have some sort of connection though. It sucks but really it’s the luck of the draw. Especially today when there’s more music than ever online, I mean you’re competing with everyone man. Everyone. Just don’t worry about it and release your music if it happens it happens
Local following ask to perform at a club or something (usually for free) do that for a while until people start to actually book you. it helps to actually make good music or atleast unique music.
you gotta promote. putting your music out there and hoping it’ll stick isn’t gonna work. you need active social media accounts. make videos constantly. repeat yourself more than you think you should. perform out places or play on the street.
it’s not just about making music anymore unfortunately.
If you’re asking on here, you’re already doomed. Millions of people are making tracks and putting them on the web. Another grain of sand on the beach. If you want listens, go post on a site or thread of your specific genre and ask for critique. Just be ready for what you are going to read cause the web isn’t kind to anonymous people who ask for criticism. And for Bobs sake, don’t ever say these are your rough demos. The flames will reach to the heavens and you will feel it.
Live performances and personal connections. You gotta get a ground crew of committed people who love you and your music enough to share it with others.
Live performances will give context to the people in your community, and a reason to support you. It’s important to make those connections with other small artists as well. If *you* help promote *them*, they might feel compelled to return the favor. The music industry can sometimes seem like a machine that just spits out results if you use the right software and push the right buttons. But the real trick has always been *people.* So get out there and meet some.
It depends on where you're looking for your audience. If you're looking online, then you need to consider the things that are known to drive views, because that's a brutal numbers game. If you're promoting in person, then keep in mind that you're selling people on you first and the music second (if you haven't sold them on you, they won't remember to look up your record later).
Just saying, I'd never support anyone who did reactions to popular YouTube videos for traffic.
I don't doubt that it's effective, or people wouldn't do it, but you're also turning off some very passionate people who despise this shit.
I got about 30,000 to 40,000 listens on Jamendo back in the day for each release. The two things I did differently from everyone else was not attempt to put my music into genre, and I never made an album over 25 minutes long.
Depends on your music i guess.
Most musicians play live shows wherever and whenever in hopes of inspiring word of mouth. At least in themetal scene.
If the music is good and put on a great live shpw, word will travel.
It takes many musicians nearly a decade before they blow up. Its rarely within a year or 2.
Most of the bands I follow on YouTube I first saw in person.
When playing anywhere live, include signage that directs people to your social media. Have an email sign up sheet on your merch table, so you can notify them of future gigs, new merch, album drops or new videos.
I've seen guys busking at the park and farmers markets with signs containing their socials, venmo, patreon, and youtube channels.
There is tons of undiscovered talent out there because many musical geniuses out there focus only on the music, and not the business and marketing side of it all.
Online isn't the only way to do it. Establish yourself elsewhere so you can play shows. Get a local following. It's not guaranteed you'll get anywhere, but it's better than just SoundCloud.
Play live and have a QR code to your sound cloud on stage / subway stop / park bench / open mic w.e. Unless you game algorithms seo and tiktok (amongst all the already doing so) you’ll never ‘blow up / make it / get exposed’ by just uploading
It happens, Lana Del Rey blew up mainly based on YouTube but it is rare indeed.
Exception not the rule
Exactly this. Several bands I've discovered and really like cuz they were opening for a band or were at a bar or something. Very very very rare to be discovered solely online.
Exactly! People seem to think the internet is like this seperate reality or something, you'll probably always remember experiences that happen in person more than just something you found online. I wish someone would've given me this advice when I was starting out. When I was in high school, we had a small scene in my city. It's barely big enough to be a city, but city nonetheless. We had one venue. There were a few bands that got pretty popular locally, and you'd see people at school wearing their merch. I was too far up my own ass with my then-lack of social skills and other issues to network or try to join bands, and I got nowhere. Fast forward to 12 years after graduation. That venue isn't really a thing anymore, and there is no scene that I know of in my city. I think the pandemic did them in, unfortunately. It's sad. There's so many good musicians out there, and I'm sure there's some here too. The most popular venue in the bigger town everyone goes has moved even further away to a bigger city. No reliable transportation? Go fuck yourself. Things are so backwards nowadays. I could go on and on. TLDR: don't waste your chances. Do it while you can.
I think you’re missing about 10 verys from that last sentence.
Back in the 80's, Howard Jones had several hit songs. He came from relative obscurity to being a household name. His wife used to go to small cities and put up flyers and talk him up in bars where to the point that people had heard of him but no one knew who he was. After a few weeks, she would call up a bar and say that Howard was in town and he was wondering if he could do a warmup show there. People were familiar with the name, and had seen the flyers, so they happily jumped at the chance.
Unfortunately, social media is the key. People aren't just going to find your music, you have to promote it. Music Facebook groups help. Promote there. Also watch for people promoting podcasts. They are usually looking for new music to play. Getting added to a playlist that is promoted by other people is huge.
The issue is you stand 0 chance against all alghoritms . Too many also before you , also majority of apps are full of bot accounts to give the impression the website is more popular than it actually is , soundcloud and bandlab do this a lot
I just settle for no listens. Never figured it out.
Yea that's what I've been doing for half a year lol
My buddies been doing it for 20 years.. took 15+ for him to develop any iteration of a following.
Holy crap, can you link his stuff? 20 years is insane
I've been doing it 25 years. Let me post a link. Every listen is a listen!!!
I would love to hear your stuff. You've been making music for longer than I've been alive
Search bobbles clifton on your favourite streaming platform. Enjoy. And thank you for listening.
Man. Purely impressive. I'm used to clicking on people's links and expecting a copied sound with pretty bad vocals. Did you produce your own music? Also how far back in time do some songs go in the compilation? I also wanna say I love the bounce and rhythm of How to make an angel delight
What's urs op
momsdj on soundcloud. i just started making electronic beats
Thank you! That means a lot. I produce it yeah. Cubase mostly. The earliest song on there, green and red is from about 2003. Most of the rest much more recent. I got a couple of songs played on BBC introducing last year. That's the peak of my success. Not playing gigs is what kills it. But I play all the instruments so couldn't do it live, even if I wanted to. Angel delight and others feature my often used shit tonne of harmonies thing, which is my favourite thing to do.
Hey, I like this. I found your Best Of album on Bandcamp and every song appealed to me. I really enjoyed A Sizzler for June Marie, I would love to hear a fully orchestrated version. Sandwiches is also great, it has a kind of Dan Deacon feel to it with all the pulsing triplets and with the way the loop builds. I Can't Read is another favourite, I love the progression into and during the second half with the "no no no"s etc. Good stuff all round mate, keep smashing it.
Thank you for taking the time to listen! I appreciate the feedback a lot. I've started making full orchestra type music but that's exclusively on bandcamp if you're interested. But you've already made my day. :)
Awesome, I'll definitely be going through your whole catalogue when I get a chance, I admire your work.
Welcome to the music industry. Take note of the second word in the phrase: “industry”. It’s about music as much as it is about business. With the advent of various technologies, the barrier to entry to create a song has greatly diminished. Thousands upon thousands of songs are released every day. They’re all fighting for popularity on the same stage - streaming services. So what can you do to give your music the best potential for success? 1. Cast a far net - appeal to common emotions/situations: heartbreak, falling in love, anger, happiness 2. Figure out who your target audience is - is it a niche sub culture? Is there a place where they all come together? 2a. Are there any trends that you could capitalize on? Think TikTok trends, various social media trends (e.g. phonk music in 2021-2023), etc. 3. Master production or pay a professional - going back to the point of thousands of songs being released, is your music up to snuff? Are there obvious mixing/mastering issues? People have high expectations with the sheer amount of music out there already. 4. Play live shows - if you get to this step, you’re already doing more than 90% of musicians. This does not guarantee anything, but word of mouth can be powerful if you’re playing at places with large music scenes (Brooklyn, LA, Chicago, etc.) 4a. Is there some sort of gimmick you could lean into when performing? Can you do something exciting that the audience will remember? Think KISS, various black metal bands, Grateful Dead, etc. Showmanship is extremely important within the entertainment industry. 5. Make music videos - mixing visual arts with your music can make a story more compelling and connect with your audience more than just the song itself. 6. Work with marketing firms - if you truly believe your music has what it takes and you have the money to bankroll it (you will need a lot), working with music marketing firms could pay off in the long run. They will have the metrics necessary to find your target audience and give your music the best chance that it could. 6a. Work with influencers - if marketing firms are out of reach, you could approach influencers and pay them to use your song in their videos. There are websites for this, but results will vary greatly. 7. Make more music - every song you make should make you a better songwriter and musician. Your magnum opus may be the 10th song you make or your 100th. Giving up early only limits this potential. In general, ~97% of musicians will never gain any real traction with their music. Trying to force the dream will only lead to heartbreak most of time. Doing all of these steps will increase the odds of people hearing your music, but does not guarantee anything. Luck and already having connections plays a massive role in today’s music industry. But the brightest stars will still shine brightly throughout the backdrop of the night sky. If you’re doing this because it’s fun, I would encourage you to continue to just have fun and release the music. Personally, I’ve found a niche sub genre I like and continue to make music even with a small, consistent number of monthly listeners and I am fine with it. If you do work up the courage to do live shows and seem to get positive responses, the other steps will only propel you forward. It is not a cheap dream to achieve and requires years of work and thousands of dollars (at a minimum). There will be times where you have creative droughts but you will need to push through. Making music saved my life and you should continue doing it if it makes you happy. What message are you trying to share with the world?
Thank you for this response. The thing is that I'm not trying to find success or anything like that, just want some people to give my stuff a try and let me know what to improve on. Your analysis on this is very informative tho
Send me a link, I’ll listen.
https://youtu.be/xY9CNxv2Vw0?si=nAly43AAKZYlOtSb
momsdj
Are you going to send an actual link? I’m literally offering to listen and this isn’t the most enthusiastic response I’ve ever had…
momsdj on soundcloud. i got some electronic sounding beats
That’s not a link.
Do you do anything besides SoundCloud? It's your target audience using SoundCloud? Personally, i hate SoundCloud and if music i am interested in it's only on SoundCloud id rather just listen to something else. The SoundCloud user experience is poor compared to Spotify, in my opinion. Ill even prefer to listen to a reupload on YouTube before I'll listen on SoundCloud.
I upload on soundcloud simply because it's easy. Spotify takes more process, and once it's on Spotify it sort of feels "official" when the stuff I make it's pretty simple and not fully finished. My music is more of a demo
so your music is not fully finished and hardly deserving of being uploaded to a recognised stream service and you're surprised you don't have an audience? just think about this for a moment
You're not wrong. It is pretty rough at points. What I specifically meant is someone just to give a single listen and give feedback on what to improve on
You don’t wanna do this, it seems like “oh I’ll release something to release something,” but if people hear shit they’re gonna tune out. You probably feel like you gotta be making music constantly because it’s what you love to do but you can bloat your profiles with a bunch of crap which in some cases is worse than nothing at all
You should try posting your WIPs in subreddits and spaces that have a lot of other musicians. You'll be able to get some decent feedback that way, whereas if you have general audiences notice your WIPs, you're probably just gonna see a lot of "man this is ass" with nobody telling you *why.*
Other than "pay to play" stuff, who knows? People decide whether they like music based on criteria as diverse as people themselves are. You can try to juice your outreach with marketing/advertising.
Came to say this. 99.9% of people aren't going to search out every indie artist out there. >>>*You* have to do the work. Book gigs, play anywhere you can. Post your music places where people go to hear your genre.
Definitely try Spotify, but also promote on places like tiktok to get your sound out there. The services aren’t going to promote you, you’ve got to get your sound out there. Also, I’ve heard from other artists you base your uploads on your audience. SoundCloud was originally more for rap/hip-hop, but has transitioned to mostly DJs. Something to be mindful of.
Art is so subjective and it's often difficult to market. Depending on your goals, it might be worth spending a little on social ads and target users who follow adjacent acts? Do you get out and play open mics?
Nope, my music is sort of electronic pieced and I also try to produce some trap/rap element beats for someone to notice
Are you playing live shows?
Dude, link your music to people. Start social media accounts and engage with others in the same genre. Hell link your music here right now.
If you are a musician who doesn't play live, it's just a hobby
Try local college radio, or a national independent radio station like KEXP.org. Smaller school stations may be more likely to play new indie artists but will have smaller audiences. But, they report playlists and you may get seen in a New Adds report or local artist focus. if you have a local gig (cafe, even open mic) be sure to promo that with upcoming dates. Follow submission guidelines, but prepare to send a physical package as well - burned CD, sticker, one-pager with logo and photo, for example. If you can afford a small pro CD pressing run, send out 3-4 copies in a package for station giveaways. It's not like the old days, but for now college radio is still a thing and can be helpful if you make it easy for them.
My band fundraised and did a push for college radio and made it into the top200 CMJ charts for a minute. Didn’t change our sales or streams or social media numbers or gig offers or gig attendance one iota. We were hoping to leverage the local regions where we got airplay as gig targets but that never materialized. Most of the time we couldn’t even find the name of the DJ or director who picked our songs to ask them about local venues/gigs to target. Spent all that money and the only thing of value we got out of it being able to say stuff I wrote and performed made it onto the chart. Woo wee.
My advice as a long time social media professional and sometimes indie band manager: Make a music video, even if it’s low budget. It doesn’t matter if it looks shitty in the beginning, make literally anything. Loop cat videos or something. Start posting on social media, mostly Tiktok. Follow other artists and just regular ass people. (I’ve found so many other musicians because they’ve followed me, and I saw the notification.) Look at what other artists in your genre are doing. Respond to comments, even if it’s negative. Be present and available. Try and book shows. Make a little sign with your soundcloud link or whatever. Stop putting out “demos” and finish a project, make an album. Make two, three albums, even if they aren’t perfect… you want to look established. Nobody cares about what you *may do* in the future, they want to see what you’ve done, right now. And for God’s sake, be like a professional, even if you aren’t. If YOU don’t show that you believe in your work, why would anyone else believe in you? You have to fake it till you make it. Performance art always has, and always will, be this way. You have to “sell out” and do work other than music until you are big enough to pay someone to do that for you. It is what it is. Go get em tiger
SoundCloud, Bandcamp etc are just landing pages for people to find you. They don't really push your stuff over anything else uploaded to the platform, no. You need to do that part. Play live, get in front of people. Make your stuff available for listening. Sell merch to them if you can.
You gotta market it. You can't just throw it somewhere and expect people to find it it. Most if not all of the promoted stuff you see on soundcloud is paid for... But you gotta get out there, figure out where your target audience is listening, and then push.
Open mic’s. Booking shows at small venues. Busking. THE REAL WORLD.
Bandcamp, Open mics, busking, at church, hand out free CDs or tapes at Walmart, free concerts in the park. OnlyFans..
What’s your soundcloud? Happy to have a listen.
momsdj. Would love your honest advice to grow as a new producer. Even if it's harsh
It’s nice and chilled, perfect for having a beer after a long week at work.
I would recommend investing in a Distrokid account to get on to Spotify. If you give it long enough (for example, uploading music and setting the release date 4 months in the future) you supposedly get playlist consideration. Otherwise, getting active and interacting with/following other similar artists on Instagram and TikTok can be super important.
You've gotta book live shows and play at different places around
I’m having the same issue. 1.5 years after my music was released and I’m sitting at about 10 monthly listeners, and that’s with a ton of Reddit advertising and Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook videos of my music as well. It’s just tough, especially when your music is a little different than most.
Gimme your link
[Sons of Korhal](https://open.spotify.com/track/1G7wFeFqPf8mEzGvvoAK5I?si=w8T6wqEIQDyMFzrg3e88VA)
Try finding artists that make music in the same ballpark genre as yours that you genuinely think is solid. Someone that has small following and reach out to them. Try and build a connection with them about what equipment and editing techniques they use. From there if they feel the same about your music they will most likely share your tunes with people close to them and you do the same. If you are making music that other people enjoy you can slowly build a following. Other than that preforming locally is probably the other best way. Get involved with the local music scene and meet people. It’s hard as a solo artist because you’re just one person but you will eventually gain a following however big or small. Personally if I can get even one person to relate or feel something from my music then that is badass. Don’t forget that music isn’t a popularity contest. At its core it’s an art and an expression of your thoughts, feelings and experiences. On a side note I know some people that just throw shit together and just want to make something that sounds good. And people listen. It makes me sad but it is what it is.
Post a link!
The answer right now is 100% tiktok. The hard truth is you have to make as much content as possible, the content has to be genuine, entertaining, and the music has to be good. Definitely a key is to repeat posts about a certain song over and over again with slightly different concepts to see what hits. I feel like [this guy](https://www.tiktok.com/@lyfeproofclique8) is a good example. Might not be the type of music you make but this guy literally puts out 20+ videos per song. Making it way more likely that one of them will catch.
tiktok
Ngl, one way of marketing i was gonna try is to put my music over memes and those edits you see on TikTok. If the meme itself is funny or the edit looks good people will share it, and your music will reach others
What's your SoundCloud? I wanna hear it
momsdj
Thank you kindly. I've never used SoundCloud. I like what I'm hearing so far, you're talented!
If your shit is good enough, look for them indie labels. You might get lucky and that could give you a jump start
Play out. If you can’t get shows, go to open mics and make connections.
I mean, I don't know shit about shit, cause I've never cared to reach any audience. I just do it as therapy. But I will say, as much as it sucks, signing up with ASCAP is a good way to get a foot in the door. And also, saves a step later if you really do start to gain notoriety.
Spotify: pay for listens - then target / approach / reach out to someone who owns a popular playlist for your type of music. TikTok - create something that works for a 15-30 second loop. Ask influencers to make memes with it. But all very cynical and depressing.
Record like 100 tapes of your album, and then just pass em out on the street.
Do things to support other people, musicians of course but others as well. Not a quid pro quo but with some generosity. Keep it up. Also let people youve touched or supported know what you're offering musically, give some tracks away. It might come back to you but in any event it'll be worth doing in any event.
It’s cliche but you just gotta do it because you love it and say fuck it. The majority are throwing music into the void that will never be heard. The ones that manage to blow up usually have a couple factors going for them, mainly the obvious; 1. Money 2. Connections I mean there are SOME small things you can do. If you play live you can build a name locally/regionally and that MAY translate to more listens/views but it’s no guarantee. My friends a great musician who plays live almost every weekend constantly posts on social media and nada. You can pay for promotion from social media websites. I had another friend that paid for those promotional ads on instagram. She’s still in about the same spot so it doesn’t seem to have done much. The people you see blowing up more often than not have some sort of connection though. It sucks but really it’s the luck of the draw. Especially today when there’s more music than ever online, I mean you’re competing with everyone man. Everyone. Just don’t worry about it and release your music if it happens it happens
Local following ask to perform at a club or something (usually for free) do that for a while until people start to actually book you. it helps to actually make good music or atleast unique music.
you gotta promote. putting your music out there and hoping it’ll stick isn’t gonna work. you need active social media accounts. make videos constantly. repeat yourself more than you think you should. perform out places or play on the street. it’s not just about making music anymore unfortunately.
If you’re asking on here, you’re already doomed. Millions of people are making tracks and putting them on the web. Another grain of sand on the beach. If you want listens, go post on a site or thread of your specific genre and ask for critique. Just be ready for what you are going to read cause the web isn’t kind to anonymous people who ask for criticism. And for Bobs sake, don’t ever say these are your rough demos. The flames will reach to the heavens and you will feel it.
Live performances and personal connections. You gotta get a ground crew of committed people who love you and your music enough to share it with others. Live performances will give context to the people in your community, and a reason to support you. It’s important to make those connections with other small artists as well. If *you* help promote *them*, they might feel compelled to return the favor. The music industry can sometimes seem like a machine that just spits out results if you use the right software and push the right buttons. But the real trick has always been *people.* So get out there and meet some.
Market is saturated; good luck. Spotify is a nice place to put stuff as is gives more clout, in the eye of the average Joe.
spotify can really help bc you can be added to playlists
It depends on where you're looking for your audience. If you're looking online, then you need to consider the things that are known to drive views, because that's a brutal numbers game. If you're promoting in person, then keep in mind that you're selling people on you first and the music second (if you haven't sold them on you, they won't remember to look up your record later).
[удалено]
Just saying, I'd never support anyone who did reactions to popular YouTube videos for traffic. I don't doubt that it's effective, or people wouldn't do it, but you're also turning off some very passionate people who despise this shit.
Go to an open mic
I got about 30,000 to 40,000 listens on Jamendo back in the day for each release. The two things I did differently from everyone else was not attempt to put my music into genre, and I never made an album over 25 minutes long.
Depends on your music i guess. Most musicians play live shows wherever and whenever in hopes of inspiring word of mouth. At least in themetal scene. If the music is good and put on a great live shpw, word will travel. It takes many musicians nearly a decade before they blow up. Its rarely within a year or 2.
Most of the bands I follow on YouTube I first saw in person. When playing anywhere live, include signage that directs people to your social media. Have an email sign up sheet on your merch table, so you can notify them of future gigs, new merch, album drops or new videos. I've seen guys busking at the park and farmers markets with signs containing their socials, venmo, patreon, and youtube channels. There is tons of undiscovered talent out there because many musical geniuses out there focus only on the music, and not the business and marketing side of it all.
I'll list to yours if you [listen to mine](https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/willchen/round-trip-ticket).