Free Soundcloud Plays: A Step-By-Step Guide!

It’s no secret that when a producer uploads their music to SoundCloud, they’re hoping to get a lot of plays on their tracks and finally get the exposure they need.

And while this isn’t the only way to become successful, it is definitely something a producer should focus on.

In fact, having your track become popular on SoundCloud could help you get your name out there.

And the good news is SoundCloud has over 175 million users according to DMR, which means you it’s more than possible to get thousands of plays on your songs right now.

All you have to do is make sure you’re marketing your tracks correctly, and we’ll show you how.

In this post, we’ll be taking a look at tactics that you can use in order to generate more plays for your Soundcloud uploads.

We’ll go over some critical tips that can help your music project gain exposure over time, but we’ll also cover some tactics you can use to get plays right now.

By the end of this article, you’ll be able to upload your track on SoundCloud and have the tactics to get thousands to actually listen to it.



But first, let’s go over a few important concepts…

We have two important concepts to cover that we’ll be referencing throughout this guide:

• True fans

• The power of emotions

The concept of having ‘true fans’ was popularized by Kevin Kelly in 2008, and it quickly became one of the most transformative ideas out there.

As defined by Kelly, a true fan is “a fan that will buy anything that you produce”.

A true fan will attend all of your shows, listen to and share all of your music, and purchase all of your merchandise.

Kelly believes that if you have a thousand of these true fans, that’d be enough to make a living for yourself. And if you have more than a thousand, you can be highly successful.

Having millions of fans is a lofty goal to aim for when starting out, but having a thousand true fans is 100% doable.

And it’s much more important than just trying to get the most amount of plays or follows.

All too often, producers focus on gaining big numbers quickly while forgetting that building a brand is often a slow and steady process. They may choose to pay for reposts, likes, or comments, but that doesn’t guarantee success and might actually hurt them in the long run.

Instead, focusing on building true fans through personal interactions, live streams, or other similar methods of connecting with people can be more beneficial to your brand.

And in turn, you may find that after gaining true fans, it will be much easier to have your song releases to gain traction through Soundcloud plays, shares, and comments.

Additionally, many psychologists have realized that emotions can play as big of a role as logic when it comes to decision making.

 

So, if you want to gain more Soundcloud plays, then it would be wise to capture people’s emotions in other ways than just through a song release.

One of the best examples of someone connecting with fans in this way is Porter Robinson. He’s done an amazing job of conveying his persona to the world and makes it a point to connect with his fans during his live shows.

But if you don’t already have thousands of screaming fans to connect to, don’t worry.

To make an emotional connection, you can create a documentary, video content of your shows, posts on social media, or any other method that will showcase your personality and life.

This can help your fans feel more as though they’re a part of your journey rather than just an outsider observing what’s happening. And ultimately, when they’re invested in taking part in your journey, they’ll end up listening to your Soundcloud songs more often.

With these two concepts, you’ll be able to start setting up your brand that will bring you fans for years and years to come instead of focus on the more gimmicky ways that only help you in the short run.

Now that we’ve covered these two very important concepts, let’s get into how to actually use them!

Below are a few methods that will help you build an emotional connection with true fans and gain free Soundcloud plays.

Method 01: Using A Personal Facebook

In order to gain free Soundcloud plays, a top priority is to increase the number of true fans you have by building an emotional connection with them.

Using a personal Facebook in tandem with your main fan page is a great way to connect with fans. This is a fairly well known tactic among producers, and some even argue it’s not completely organic. We understand this, and there are valid arguments on both sides, but if you play your cards right, you can definitely generate some true fans this way.

A personal Facebook account to interact with your fanbase is way more personal, authentic, and genuine than just a fan page. This is something that’s hard to achieve just by posing through Soundcloud itself.

Here are the steps necessary for setting up a personal Facebook account to accompany your Soundcloud uploads.

Step 1

Create a Facebook account. If you already have one, we would recommend that you create a new one to keep your personal life separate.

Ensure that you add a professional, high quality profile picture of yourself, and a high quality cover picture. Having photos that clearly show who you are will help your friends and fans better connect with you as a producer.

Follow that up by adding some of your best friends so that you can share your songs with them on your new page as well.

Step 2

Post your most popular song from Soundcloud onto your Facebook timeline with a short caption.

Here’s an example caption:

Just released this new [genre name] song! What do you think?

Step 3

Search for a music production or fan group on Facebook related to the music genre you produce and join it.

Step 4

After joining a group, send 10 friend requests (or a little bit more) per day to people within the Facebook group.

Only a small number will accept your friend request, but for those who do, make sure that you interact with them.

This can be as simple as sending them a quick message letting them know who you are and why you’ve added them.

Here’s an example of what your message may look like:

Hey [fan name],

I’m [producer name]!  

I just saw that you were in the [Facebook group name] and wanted to let you know that I create [Facebook group music genre] as well.

I just made a new song and I would love to get feedback from people that are familiar with the style/genre!

It’d be super cool if you could take a listen and hear your thoughts on it! Here’s the link [new release Facebook post].

Thank you!

Step 5

Follow this up occasionally by updating your account with what’s going on in your life.

However, be sure to post reasonably without spamming unnecessary updates for best results!

Seriously, no one cares what your brunch looks like.



Updates and content with gaps ranging between a couple days through a week could be a good starting point.

In addition, be sure to interact with followers in other ways whenever you have the opportunity. You could try commenting and reacting on their pictures or posts.

If you show that you care about what’s going on in their lives, they’ll be more likely to reciprocate, just as a true friend would.

By doing this, you make people care about the content you post, making them more enticed to check out and support your posts when you add them to your timeline, especially links to your Soundcloud.

Combining this method with other important techniques which we will mention in this article, you can eventually transition these followers into true fans because of the bond you’ve built with them overtime.

And if you hit the Facebook max of 5,000 friends, you should be in a better position for finding success. As we’ve mentioned above, Kelly believes that having 1,000 true fans is enough for you to make a living doing what you love. With 5,000 true fans on your personal Facebook page, it’ll be that much easier to blow your brand up and gain Soundcloud plays.

As you continue to build emotional connections and more true fans, you’ll see your Soundcloud plays rise drastically!

Method 02: Creating Shareable Content

Releasing a song on Soundcloud is the first and most important way to connect with your fans.

Creating shareable content to accompany your music is the next most important step that you should take to gain more Soundcloud plays and gain even more true fans.

Let’s go back to the example of Porter Robinson. He has amazing music and live shows.

He has a unique personality that sets himself apart from many other producers with him publicly expressing his interest in topics such as anime. Additionally, he goes even further and expresses his unique interests through his music videos which can help capture a new audience of listeners.

However, it’s impossible for people to know these things about him unless he’s shared these aspects of himself with the world.

You can achieve this yourself in many different ways such as sharing videos of your live performances, creating music videos, YouTube tutorials, or blogging about your experiences.

Let’s take a closer look on how to do this.

Step 1

Ensure that you have content to post.

You can simply do this by working with some friends to create a music video, or have a friend record a live performance.

Here’s a great example of a relatively simple live performance video which creates a lot of hype around the artist.

As you can see, most of the video consists of one long shot behind the stage, but you can throw in your own flair as well.

Some examples can include shots from different parts of the room, cuts into interviews with people in the crowd, or any idea that can help define your style.

You can even ask fans if they have any video of your performance that you can share.

If you want to work on a music video, it’s important to keep in mind that while a bigger budget can help, it doesn’t always make the biggest difference.

You can still make great music videos through simple techniques. Here’s a great read to get you started.

However, everything we just talked about above sounds easy and good on paper. A common issue that will also most likely happen is the trouble of creating content quickly enough, but don’t panic.

Just remember that you can always repost the same content in different ways.

For example, let’s say you have video recording of a show that you performed at.

You can first post the video by letting fans know that you have a newly recorded video of a show that you’ve performed at.

Then, a week later, just can simply repost it and ask people for their thoughts. We’ve included some examples below.

Day 1

[Event name] was INSANE! Thank you all SO MUCH for coming out and showing love. Here’s a recap for you to relive the best moments of the night!

[Insert recap video]

Day 7

Did you make it out to our show last week at [Event name]? We had a blast and hope you did as well. Which city should we visit next?

To recap, you’ll want to make sure that you have content created and regularly scheduled out.

This will help you build your brand, keep people connected, and ultimately drive more Soundcloud plays to your music.

Step 2

Create a schedule for you to post on social media.

This will help by ensuring that you always have content to share with your fans and that they won’t forget about you.

Ideas can include posting music videos just like we talked about, sharing blog posts that were written about you, or maybe even an occasional meme.

Be careful with memes though, you don’t want them to become a part of your brand and some people even consider them unprofessional.

A great way to schedule out posts is by using a social media management system.

Examples of such systems can include Hootsuite or Buffer. Check out these tutorials on how to use Hootsuite and Buffer and learn to start running your socials effectively!

Method 03: Meet People In Person

Have you ever had the chance to meet one of your favorite artists in person?

For many people, it can create an even greater sense of connection than what they had felt previously.

It can be tempting to get into a habit of only marketing online, but there’s no substitute for meeting people face to face.

This is probably the best method that you can use to build true fans as this can lead to the most personal connections being made, and eventually, more Soundcloud plays.

Consider your best friends for a moment. Did you meet them online, or was it in person?

For many people, meeting their best friends most likely happened in person as it’s often a more natural process.

The same can be said about building true fans.

Your best fans will almost always be those closest to you. Therefore, it would make sense to try to build them in the same way as you would any other best friend you’ve made.

Step 1

Consider the people that you’re meeting in person as friends rather than fans.

When you’re viewing someone as a fan rather than friend, it subtly changes the way that you interact with that person. It might not be noticeable to you, but it will be to them.

Everyone wants to form a real connection with others, and that includes their favorite artists as well.

Step 2

There are many real, valuable, and most importantly human connections that can be made out of the production studio or the internet.

Go to events! Go to parties! Go anywhere where you can find people who are into music that you’re producing.

When you do get out there, be friendly, social, and introduce yourself to people. Keep it real!

People love talking about themselves so make it about them rather than yourself. Ask them what they do for work, what their hobbies are, and see where you can connect with them.

If things are going well, an opportunity might present itself to exchange contact info just as you would with any other friend that you meet.

Step 3

Be their friend! Catch up with them from time to time, whether online or in person.

After venturing out of the production studio enough, you’ll have met many people that you can consider to be relatively good friends.

Even better, since you’ve met them while attending events related to your music genre, there’s a strong chance that they’ll love your music and share it with their friends.

Using this method, you may be able to meet a few hundred friends who would be more than happy to be true fans and supporters as well.

Method 04: Reaching Out To Promotion Networks 

This is another great method for getting more plays on Soundcloud and building your brand.

Promotion networks often have hundreds of thousands of followers who tune in to what they post.

With a single blog post, you might expect thousands of extra plays to be headed your way.

And the best part is that we’ve already documented this process in detail just for you…

We cover all of the essentials of reaching out to promotion networks, such as:

• Building a database of press contacts

• Building relationships with press contacts

• How to write the best song submission message

• Tools and services that will easily get you started

Learn more about how to reach 500K plays on Soundcloud through blogs and Youtube.

Method 05: Build Your Own Email Or Messenger List

If you’ve ever gone to a website and entered your email in for a discount off of their product, then you’ve signed up to be on their email list.

An email or messenger list is simply a collection of fan emails or Facebook messenger subscribers.

These lists are very powerful because you have direct access to each person. You could easily reach thousands of people with just one message or email.

For example, if you have an email list of 10,000 people, and 10% of them open the messages that you send to them, that’s 1,000 people seeing each of your emails.

This is a great way of sharing your Soundcloud releases and can easily lead to your music gaining more traction.

If you’d like to get started building an email list, MailChimp is a fantastic platform to use.

For getting started with messenger marketing, we would recommend a tool such as ManyChat. Here’s a great post on getting started with it.

If you build your email list or messenger list, you could easily release a song on Soundcloud and gain thousands of plays within a few hours!

P.S. To learn more about the power of an email list as well as other important techniques, check out our article here.

Conclusion

Obtaining real Soundcloud plays for free can seem difficult, but it doesn’t have to be.

We’ve outlined some great methods and pointed you to multiple resources for you to use to separate yourself from other producers.

Remember, understanding the concept of having true fans and the power of emotions is key to making the right decisions.

Being able to make an emotional connection with people will help turn them into true fans.

When you have thousands of true fans, you’ll easily be set up for better chances of succeeding as a producer.

To reiterate, these are some of the best methods to use to build a brand and gain thousands of real, free Soundcloud plays:

• Create a personal Facebook account

• Create shareable content

• Meet people in person

• Reach out to promotion networks

• Build your own email or messenger list

We’ve laid out a step-by-step process for you to follow for each of the methods listed above.

If you’ve already tried some of these methods, what has your experience been like?

Did we miss anything? What other methods are useful for gaining more Soundcloud plays?

Let us know in the comment section below!