SoundCloud Relevant Or Not?

OGBama

Moderator
For those that use SoundCloud when did you register and is it still relevant for connecting w/producers who only produce, rappers who only rap, etc.?
 
SoundCloud has helped me connect with several people who make music, so yes it's very relevant. If you try to blow off SoundCloud as nothing big you'll not sit well.
 
For those that use SoundCloud when did you register and is it still relevant for connecting w/producers who only produce, rappers who only rap, etc.?

I'm not totally sure when I registered but it says my oldest track that's still up was uploaded 7 years ago. At one point in time I considered it to be more of a social thing but nowadays I just find it to be a convenient host for my music, particularly if I want to release a single track ahead of a full project. Not everybody can play a song when you post using Spotify, but everyone should be able to hear it on SoundCloud whether it's via email, status update, whatever else. I definitely have found some people on there to work with but not anybody super recently. I haven't totally closed the door on making connections through there though.
 
I wouldn't ignore it. It's easy enough to access, has something of a built-in audience. I'm not primarily a HH producer, and I haven't posted anything new in my several accounts in a long time, but I still get e-mail notifications from people discovering tracks or podcasts that they like.

I'd say don't spend the money on premium yet, but definitely get involved.

GJ
 
Kinda both.
I feel people glorify the power of Soundcloud a bit too much, with leading examples from people who got exteremly lucky to have their song (the first song they happen to post) blow. It's a dog eat dog community down to the first time you enter the site as a registered user imo. All Soundcloud throws your way is the ability to tag useless hashtags that instantly puts your song into a grave, by that I mean just having it thrown into a vast amout of other tracks people are making, just like a tweet on Twitter that gets overlooked. The "follow and unfollow train" is a nightmare, also is the "random user like train" that gets all people involved nowhere. Messaging other artist is a thing more up and comers kinda see as a waste of time, and end up ignoring stuff sent in by fans or other artist. I feel its that "I,ve worked up to this following, so my work networking is done." type deal and also they could super busy. Added onto that note that some people just turn off the ability to send messages by, which is kinda just a dead end for a major crowd, and then you're forced to sound like a begger by the rest of the community if you attempt to comment a message for the arist on a sound. Guess what? The artist is like 95% not gonna reply...
It's extremley difficult as a starting artist on Soundcloud, unless you are signed and have the label/managment to put up a paid pro account for you that will already have a following. Soundcloud has become pretty commercial as well, you are met with the biggest artist that are found all over the place (Spotify, iTunes, Radio,) and that just hurts the traffic you could gain from new fans, and artist alike. It also kinda kills some orginality that new talent bring by just being thrown into that group.

I wouldn't overlook it though, but I'd work on establishing myself in other areas more then Soundcloud. Because at the end of the day traffic gotta come from somewhere, and it's difficult to get organic traffic from Soundcloud itself.
 
To me, Soundcloud is even more saturated with artists than SoundClick, MySpace, and MP3.com (late 90's/early 2000's). It's harder than ever to stand out on SoundCloud than anything that came before it because there's entirely too much content and no focus and that's largely due to the bar being lowered so significantly to what constitutes an "artist" nowadays. Thanks to rampant piracy everybody with a computer thinks they're an artist, so platforms like SoundCloud stay overcrowded with people trying to make it.

Me personally, when I get 100% back into the swing of things, I'm just going to submit tracks directly to labels and artists through their websites. When it's time to release a new Techno EP or whatever, it's being done through BandCamp and I'll get the word out through FaceBook and various other message boards like this one to drive traffic.
 
I signed up Soundcloud a while back, I still do utilize it for my productions but not as much as I do with my website and Spotify. Many artists still use it so I dont feel that it will fade. There is still plenty of opportunity and networking available through this resource though.
 
I love everything about soundcloud, and I think that if you want to use it to connect with people you totally can.
I feel like it's probably the necessary starting point for hip hop music.
 
soundclouds relevancy is about sky rocket with their new stream revenue algorithms they just integrated
 
i think soundcloud is still a good pick! you can stay connected to the people and really its a good platform for the beginners!
 
the majority of my followers are rappers (i make metal) and im not getting the feedback that i really need.. i kind of made a friend from europe and have listened a lot of music and that's it
 
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SoundCloud is useful as a place to upload beats. With Serato now allowing DJs to stream tracks from SoundCloud I think there is the opportunity to increase your following and as a way to gain more streams. I am currently experimenting with this. I have playlist set up on SoundCloud with my music and other producers music. I've been letting these playlist play on repeat for hours at a time and have been watching the streams increase. In a few months I will be able to see whether it is financially worth it to focus on SoundCloud streams. I was already getting pennies for the few random streams but now I want to see what happens when you get thousands of streams. If if creates a couple hundred per quarter then it will have proven to be worth it for me.
 
Personally, I've been on SoundCloud on and off since 2015, and I believe that the only thing it is good for is hosting music, and meeting other artists. On SoundCloud, most of the users are musicians and artist. With that being said potential fans do not see the same value of creating a SoundCloud account as an artist does. With that being the case if your goal is to have that magical ratio where you are following 1 person, but thousands are following you then you fighting an uphill battle. As the people that follow you are not obsessed fans, they are often artist themselves. Therefore they often want a follow back. I think of following people on SoundCloud as something such as adding a friend on facebook, it's a mutual thing. To put it simply the platform just simply does not lend itself to building fanbases. There are other platforms like youtube Instagram, and twitter that better lend themselves to that.
 
Personally, I've been on SoundCloud on and off since 2015, and I believe that the only thing it is good for is hosting music, and meeting other artists. On SoundCloud, most of the users are musicians and artist. With that being said potential fans do not see the same value of creating a SoundCloud account as an artist does. With that being the case if your goal is to have that magical ratio where you are following 1 person, but thousands are following you then you fighting an uphill battle. As the people that follow you are not obsessed fans, they are often artist themselves. Therefore they often want a follow back. I think of following people on SoundCloud as something such as adding a friend on facebook, it's a mutual thing. To put it simply the platform just simply does not lend itself to building fanbases. There are other platforms like youtube Instagram, and twitter that better lend themselves to that.

This is the best replay I've read so far, especially better than mine. And you're right, Soundcloud is a great source for storing music and songs, no so good for establishing fans. Honesty, the competition is so thick with people competing to house and share your music, I wonder if, they'll ever be able to bring listeners to the platform. I even know of some musicians who don't know how to use it, which is kind of sad in my opinion. I think you identified a huge disconnect with Soundcloud and their users. Musicians want to establish both fans and business connections, Soundcloud is probably on this; hopefully. I really like meet people there.
 
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