8 Ways To Grow Your SoundCloud Community

The heart of SoundCloud encompasses a 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 streaming platform. It’s about sharing common interests, community, culture, passion, creativity and everything music. If you’re looking to grow your community on SoundCloud, here are 8 tips to get you on the right track…

8 Ways To Grow Your SoundCloud Community

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 what’s popping off in 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 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 Hypeddit are some of the most popular websites for 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.

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, so do your research and find one that works for you.

• Some good ones to consider include: ToneDen, Hypeddit, Click.DJ and The Husk, just to name a few.

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 even perceive that as spam. The best way to build a meaningful community on SoundCloud is through genuine, sincere interaction. Everybody hates spam, so don’t be that person.

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.

The effort you put in will come right back tenfold, and you’ll be surprised by how many real friendships you can make just from starting a conversation with a genuine response.

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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. It’s full of hugely diverse genres ready to create something never been heard before. It really is the best place to let your creativity fly without limits.

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 on its own. Doesn’t hurt to try!

In Conclusion…

With these in mind, you’ll be on the right track to growing your community on SoundCloud in no time. All in all, just remember to be respectful, interact as much as you can, and be open to learning from others on the platform. Nobody knows everything from the jump; being open to new information as you go is the best way to grow.

Good luck!