318 songs later, I dont see any growth.

Claine

Urban Imagist
Hey, I'm new here and this post is pretty much the reason why I decided to join. Sorry to just drop this without much of an introduction lol

As someone who has been producing for over 7 years, I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I have a wide and diverse discography of music. I try to stick to my own style of production and not to replicate what’s out but I’m kind of debating that, to be honest. Nowadays, the more tracks I put out, the more I’m reminded of my lack of following at the present moment.


I’ve never really put too much stock into who viewed my music before, but its safe to say, 300+ published tracks later with only 1.2k followers on Soundcloud and 2k on YT after 7 years is pretty bad. I’m looking for ideas on how to promote my music better. I produce for a lot of local artists in my area and put out “Type beat videos” though I always felt like my music rarely fits but I’m kind of stuck. I even post my stuff on Ig from time to time. I’m just looking for alternatives. My approach has always been work harder and put out more but I feel like I kind of missed the mark on working smarter opposed to hard.


You can find me on Soundcloud as Claine. I’m not really familiar with the rules on posting links.
 
I would try diversifying your content on YouTube as a start. You obviously have a ton of experience making beats. Show the world how you make them, show people how they're mixed, review the software and hardware you use. The average person doesn't care about beats without vocals, and the average musician isn't looking to buy beats. The average musician definitely cares about writing approaches, synth reviews, and mixing lessons, and the average person might be curious about what the world of producing music is like.

For your music I would release music that isn't for the purpose of selling beats and put it on Bandcamp, Spotify, Deezer, etc. Get about $10/week and put it towards marketing. Share your new content and released music on Facebook/Twitter/Google Ads, promote it with that new marketing budget. You can afford it, and if you can't i'm sure you could start making the morning coffee at home, skip going out to eat once a week, or cancelling that subscription service you never use. If you're selling beats and you don't need the income to survive, maybe put 50% of that income source into marketing as well.

Have a lot of free time? Stay on this forum and join a couple others related to your content. Put your links in your signature and help as many people as possible in their threads, and create new threads with great information. Do the same for social media groups. Create a website where you sell your beats and music, and start a helpful blog with keywords targeted at helping other people write beats and produce music.

If you've been doing this for 7 years and have 318 songs, you clearly have the determination to stick with it until you see the growth you want. You can probably turn the audience that you do have into hardcore supports for your new content, if the followers are active. Also if you've been keeping the emails of those beat clients, you can turn those people into new consumers of your new content.

I'm not claiming to have massive success with my music, but I have been seeing consistent results ever since I started getting more serious about promotion.
 
I would try diversifying your content on YouTube as a start. You obviously have a ton of experience making beats. Show the world how you make them, show people how they're mixed, review the software and hardware you use. The average person doesn't care about beats without vocals, and the average musician isn't looking to buy beats. The average musician definitely cares about writing approaches, synth reviews, and mixing lessons, and the average person might be curious about what the world of producing music is like.

For your music I would release music that isn't for the purpose of selling beats and put it on Bandcamp, Spotify, Deezer, etc. Get about $10/week and put it towards marketing. Share your new content and released music on Facebook/Twitter/Google Ads, promote it with that new marketing budget. You can afford it, and if you can't i'm sure you could start making the morning coffee at home, skip going out to eat once a week, or cancelling that subscription service you never use. If you're selling beats and you don't need the income to survive, maybe put 50% of that income source into marketing as well.

Have a lot of free time? Stay on this forum and join a couple others related to your content. Put your links in your signature and help as many people as possible in their threads, and create new threads with great information. Do the same for social media groups. Create a website where you sell your beats and music, and start a helpful blog with keywords targeted at helping other people write beats and produce music.

If you've been doing this for 7 years and have 318 songs, you clearly have the determination to stick with it until you see the growth you want. You can probably turn the audience that you do have into hardcore supports for your new content, if the followers are active. Also if you've been keeping the emails of those beat clients, you can turn those people into new consumers of your new content.

I'm not claiming to have massive success with my music, but I have been seeing consistent results ever since I started getting more serious about promotion.


Thank you for taking the time to write such a well thought out response. I appreciate it greatly. I do a few of the things you mentioned but I could definitely do a few things you said as well. I plan to post more on this forum for sure.
 
Have you made an effort to network with other producers? What marketing efforts have you tried (have you tried FB ads, IG ads, reaching out to fans of similar artists, etc)?
 
What's your goal? Is it to get followers/fans as an artist or is it to sell beats? They don't necessarily have to be exclusive but if it's to be a solo artist and get known you should do something besides post beats on SC and YT. Make an album full of tracks that non-rappers would like and put it on Spotify and stuff. To the average consumer, SoundCloud & Youtube beatmakers/rappers are a joke. Make it so your music actually can reach them! On the other hand, if you're just interested in selling beats, then networking and sending emails is gonna be your thing. Find artists you want to work them and get in touch. Just pick a direction so you don't aimlessly upload random beats to the internet hoping you get lucky. (Your beats are dope by the way)
 
I feel like with that kind of experience you definitely could be teaching and helping others with the knowledge that you have and I feel like that would give you some exposure. Also, what he said^. It does matter what you are going for with your music but you definitely do have to work just as smart as how hard you work to actually reach people's ears. You can't have people flock to your music. I feel like in this day and age you've got be banging on people's doors with your music and you go to your fans (figuratively). So marketing in my opinion is just as important as banging music, depending on what youre going for.
 
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Everyone in this post makes great points. However word of mouth is usually the most surefire way to create fans! By this I mean, go out and meet people, tell them you produce and generally be friendly and open to anything! You never know who you might meet out there!
 
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Rule number 1! Never give up! It can get deflating but let me tell you are doing better then me and alot of other producers. Always take it with a pinch of salt.
 
Does your music have anything remarkable in it that would make people share it? Are you just hoping a well produced track will somehow carry you forward? If people aren't sharing your music you will barely see any growth even if every person that stumbles on your music loves it. Brainstorm on what you would personally share to a friend then do that.
 
I know people say produce a lot to see results, but honestly I think it's less about doing it often a lot and more about doing it efficiently with actual knowledge behind it.
Like playing instruments, knowing synthesis, knowing how to record etc instead of just churning out 100 beats a day for no reason.
 
Hey man keep your head up. It takes most producers years before anything happens. You have created an environment for which you can now succeed! Before you didn't have any of that.
 
Hi, my name is Skidot and I am a trap producer who makes beat videos to youtube like you. I was growing pretty steadily for about 10 months. Once I hit 250 subs, I have just stopped growing and I have no reason as to why. Even though I haven't really been growing at all, I still post in hope of growing steadily again. Idk why it happens but I see where you are coming. I believe everyone who works hard at what they do and believe in their abilities can go very far. Just keep working and I know you will be big eventually.
 
Like someone mentioned before, you doing just great mate! Thing is, signs of the times...
A few years back, some other project I had went to 500+ followers with loads of peeps commenting in SC just by listening and liking to other folks music and of course following some, this in a couple of months.
Probably because SC was still a bit fresh and everybody was so stoked about having this platform where you could just drop your sounds and someone in Japan or somewhere else would thumb it up! :)
And of course, I could spend a bit more of time connecting, which probably helped.
My take is, that these days, people are so overwhelmed by the unbelievable amount of information/content that unless you do the active marketing (pay fb ads and stuff) seriously, things don't move that much.
Do you perform live acts showcasing your tracks sometimes?
By the way, nice tunes!
 
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