How To Get More Plays on SoundCloud: 9 Killer Strategies for 2024

As an artist, we’ve all wondered at some stage how to get more plays on SoundCloud.

After all, you are responsible for promoting your own music. But what can you do on SoundCloud specifically to increase those numbers?

In this guide, we’ve gathered 9 of the best strategies you can implement TODAY to boost your plays on SoundCloud. We won’t waste any of your time, so let’s dive straight in ๐Ÿ‘‡

By the way, if you’re looking for the best hacks to get more plays on Spotify, bookmark this guide for later.

New to music promotion? ๐Ÿ“ข

Check out our FREE eBook – 10 Tips For Promoting Your Music on a Budget:
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๐Ÿ‘‰ Find your ideal audience online

Strategy 1: Make (Actually) Great Music

Ok, so you probably don’t want to hear this one, but we have to start here.

While it is possible to promote crap music, it never survives the ultimate test: the opinion of the audience.

No matter how much PR or marketing you give a track, if it’s just average, you won’t get more SoundCloud plays.

how to get more plays on soundcloud
One of my earlier tracks, ‘Carpark Anxiety’, has only gotten 900 plays in 3 years, even though I sent it to a lot of people. Why? Nobody wanted to share it, because it’s very average.

People don’t buy a vacuum cleaner if they don’t want one, so people won’t listen to music if they don’t like it.

One thing to remember is that literally anybody can upload to SoundCloud.

This is undeniably great for the democratization of music production and promotion. However, it also means that the quality of the music uploaded can range from great to average to downright trash.

With SoundCloud, anybody can upload a 30-second demo. No need for a distributor like with Apple Music or Spotify. This means that the average SoundCloud listener is used to skipping tracks a lot more than on other platforms.

If your tracks don’t cut it in terms of quality – people will skip. Even more importantly, if you don’t hook the listener after a few seconds, they might skip too.

Should I Upload Everything I Produce to Get More Plays on SoundCloud…?

But this begs the question – should I upload my music if it’s not 100% there yet? This is arguable, but on a platform like SoundCloud, the stakes are much lower, with removing tracks being just a click away.

Plus, you’re likely to get valuable feedback from the public if you ask for it, allowing you to gauge what will and won’t work.

So while promoting music online is important, getting feedback and taking that into the studio will prove to be a much more valuable use of time.

music studio

So how do I make my music ‘better’? That’s another topic entirely, and that’s also why we have courses like EDM Foundations and Songwriting for Producers.

But a few pointers:

  • make sure your core musical ideas are solid – production, mixing, and mastering won’t matter otherwise;
  • get feedback from listeners, tastemakers, and other artists;
  • be patient and keep making a large volume of music.

So, there you go: two contradictory opinions ๐Ÿ˜…. On the one hand, your music needs to be of the highest quality. On the other hand, releasing a lot of music can get your name out there, and help you improve.

The truth is, that different things work for different people. Some producers prefer to get feedback in private for years before releasing their first track. Others will start releasing tracks as soon as they are done, and let the listeners make up their minds. You’ve got to decide for yourself what strategy you prefer to adopt.

Strategy 2: Which SoundCloud Plan Should You Get?

SoundCloud is notorious for changing its various plans. So it can be a bit confusing as to what you should get, and what you’re paying for exactly.

So here’s the recap on the different SoundCloud plans as of September 2024:

  • SoundCloud Next (free)
  • SoundCloud Next Pro (11โ‚ฌ/month)
  • SoundCloud Go (5.99โ‚ฌ/month)
  • SoundCloud Go+ (10.99โ‚ฌ/month)
  • SoundCloud DJ (19.99โ‚ฌ/month)

What sets these plans apart? Well, we can break these plans based on how you plan to use SoundCloud.

If you’re just a listener, then the Go, Go+, or DJ plans are the ones you should look at.

These 3 plans are designed to give you an ad-free listening experience, offline access, and more. But they won’t let you upload music. For that, you need to look at the Next or Next Pro plans.

The SoundCloud Next and SoundCloud Next Pro plans are the ones that actually let you upload your music. So what sets them apart?

The two plans available for producers on Soundcloud
The two plans available for producers on SoundCloud

At first, it might seem like the free plan is enough. 3h of track uploads? That’s already 45 tracks at a 4-minute average length. Not too bad.

However, there are quite a few features you won’t get access to if you stick to the Next plan.

Firstly, you won’t be able to set any Spotlight tracks:

With a free Soundcloud plan, you can't set a Spotlight track
With a free SoundCloud plan, you can’t set a Spotlight track

Spotlight lets you choose which track people see first when they come to your profile. This way, you can highlight your latest release or bootleg. Without a Spotlight, people will just see the last track you’ve reposted or shared.

Secondly, you won’t be able to monetize your tracks.

That might not seem like a priority right now, but you never when a track will pop off ๐Ÿ‘€.

Finally, SoundCloud seriously limits your insights into listening stats when on the free plan. You might get a bit of info here and there about who is listening to your music and where. But you’ll quickly run into blurred-out sections:

That's not very helpful, Soundcloud
That’s not very helpful, SoundCloud

Lastly, if you don’t get a Next Pro plan, SoundCloud will bombard you until you do ๐Ÿ˜…. Honestly, they are relentless with their popups.

So, even though you can start with the free plan, the Next Pro plan will very quickly become essential if you want to get more plays.

Strategy 3: Make Sure Your Account is Up-To-Date to Get More Plays on SoundCloud

We’ve also covered this in our Top Spotify Hacks, but keeping an up-to-date profile page is key.

Firstly, make sure to write a short, compelling bio. This can be the same bio you have on your Spotify profile page:

Write a compelling bio
Write a compelling bio

Describe the genre you produce as well as a little bit about yourself. If you’ve had any notable releases or major events you played at, include them here too.

Next, make sure your profile and background pic are updated.

Artists will sometimes update their background pic to feature their latest release. That’s a great idea, but make sure to keep it up-to-date. Ideally, your profile pic should be the same as the one on Spotify for consistency’s sake.

Finally, make sure your social media handles are updated:

Keep your social media handles up-to-date!
Keep your social media handles up-to-date!

If you’ve stopped using a specific social media, then remove the link. Nobody wants to head to your Twitter profile only to find out you haven’t posted since 2015 ๐Ÿ˜….

Strategy 4: Leverage Existing Audiences to Get More Plays on SoundCloud

This might be confusing to say, but it’s true.

There are people who are always going to be better at marketing music than you. So don’t reinvent the wheel, use these people to your advantage.

Find channels on Soundcloud that can share your music with larger numbers of people than you ever could.

This could come in the form of

  • Repost channels
  • Other artists with bigger followings
  • Promotional channels
  • Labels/collectives
  • Playlisters
how to get more plays on soundcloud
The almighty Repost button

Don’t ignore offsite audiences as well. Just because they don’t have larger audiences on SoundCloud, doesn’t mean a blog or YouTube channel can’t send lots of plays your way.

Make sure to utilize:

  • Blogs
  • YouTube Channels
  • Spotify Playlists
  • Influencers (e.g. vloggers, Instagram accounts)
  • Radio stations (some play directly off SoundCloud!)

The key here is to find channels that are a good fit for your music. Don’t go messaging someone just because they have a lot of followers. They are already looking for very specific kinds of music for their tastes.

So play a few of their previous uploads/shares and make a decision. Don’t be too scared if your music isn’t exactly the same as what’s already there, but if it’s too different, it’ll likely get a pass.

Once you know who to send music to, then you need to figure out how.

New to music promotion? ๐Ÿ“ข

Check out our FREE eBook – 10 Tips For Promoting Your Music on a Budget:
๐Ÿ‘‰ Nail your social media strategyย ๐Ÿ‘‰ Give your music the best chance of successย 
๐Ÿ‘‰ Find your ideal audience online

Strategy 5: Email is still King

How do you send a message:

  • that you know the recipient will get;
  • that goes to a place they check very often;
  • that is simple and clear;
  • using something everyone has;
  • that doesn’t rely on a platform that could be gone soon.

The answer? Email. It’s old, but it’s still the best.

But how do you apply this to Soundcloud?

Email for Networking

Everyone has an email. Artists. Labels. Promo channels. Repost channels. Avid music fans. And you can communicate with them through this channel, no matter if they have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or not.

I got my biggest play numbers out of email networking, including a top placement on one of Majestic Casual’s weekly playlists on Soundcloud. In this case, it was a form that sent them an email, but the point still stands.

An Actual Case Study About How to Get More Plays on Soundcloud

Here’s an example of me emailing my track to someone for a YouTube upload, and looking at the difference in response time.

The first email I sent.
The response time.

I got a response in less than 24 hours!

Granted, this won’t usually be the case for huge names in the industry, but email networking works.

Not to say that you can’t use avenues like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Those channels are great but always try email first. And use the Hubspot extension to track email opens.

To make this easier, you’ll want to make a list of emails of relevant people you can send your music to:

how to get more plays on soundcloud
I personally use a software called Notion (has database functionality) to track YouTube channels, Soundcloud pages, labels, and more. I’ve blanked out the emails for privacy.

A few tips & tricks about sending emails:

  • Be concise – the recipient is likely already time-poor, so get to the point.
  • Send them a SoundCloud link – it’s the easiest to listen to, and you can make it downloadable.
  • Be conversational – don’t just send a link, actually treat the person on the other end like a human, and you’ll get treated like one too.
  • Personalise messages – CC’ing a large list never works, and it often annoys people, especially if people ‘Reply All’. Send one message at a time and once again, treat them like a human.
  • Follow up – not everybody is in a position to do something the first time around. Follow up in a week or two (depending on the person) if they haven’t replied.

If you want more promo email etiquette tips, check out this list from an industry professional.

Building a List

Download gates (such as ToneDen and Hypeddit) are great ways to collect emails:

Collecting email addresses with Hypeddit
Collecting email addresses with Hypeddit

If you haven’t heard of these tools before, they are called “download gates” (more on them later in Strategy #7). In a nutshell, they let you require steps before people can download a track of yours.

If you’re a Bandcamp user, you can grab email addresses on checkout too. That way, you can build a list to send your music to the next time you have something to release!

Once you’ve got a list, you need to find an email marketing service. Symphonic Distribution compiled a list of the best email marketing platforms for musicians, so make sure to give that a read.

Strategy 6: What About Repost Chains?

Repost chains used to be one of the most useful tools to get more plays on SoundCloud. At the time, it was a truly effective way to garner the force of multiple accounts in a simple, automated way.

how to get more plays on soundcloud
The impact of a repost chain back in 2019

In essence, a repost chain was simply a group of people who automatically repost a track, each at a timed interval, to maximize exposure.

However, we can no longer recommend this technique in 2024.

Soundcloud has largely cracked down on Repost chains. Here’s what their terms of service state:

SoundCloud's ToS regarding reposting
SoundCloud’s ToS regarding reposting

But even if SoundCloud were to allow it, we wouldn’t recommend it. You simply won’t get any true fans from this technique. Sure, your Soundcloud plays will go up. But in the end, those plays won’t convert into true fans who will listen to your music and come to your shows. So stay away from fake tactics like this.

Strategy 7: Leverage the Free Download Option to Get More Plays on SoundCloud

In my opinion, the Free Download is one of SoundCloud’s most powerful tools.

Firstly, enabling a free download is the quickest way to get a track into the hands of a DJ.

how to get more plays on soundcloud
Enabling the Free Download option

This is because people don’t download tracks to play them on their computer. They download them to play them in mixes. Secondly, using Download Gates is one of the best ways to increase Followers and ultimately the number of plays on SoundCloud.

If you’ve never heard of Download Gates, here’s the TL; DR.

A Download Gate lets you set a number of “steps” that people need to complete before downloading your track. Most of the time, these can include:

  • Follow your artist page
  • Like the track
  • Repost the track
  • Comment on track
  • Provide their email address

Based on the size of your audience, and how confident you are, you can decide to add more or fewer steps. I find that asking people to follow, like, and repost your track is a good compromise.

Adding gate steps with Hypeddit
Adding gate steps with Hypeddit

The most popular service is called Hypeddit. It’s free, but you can also get a premium account to unlock more download steps (such as automatic emails to fans, and cross-platform following).

Strategy 8: Make Your Music Discoverable

Now that the ‘Discover’ tab exists on SoundCloud, the aim is to get your music featured on this new avenue of discovery.

The best way to do that is metadata. Tell SoundCloud what your music is, and give it the best chance on the platform.

There are a few key ways to do this:

  • Correct Genre tags
  • Relevant track tags
  • Name your track appropriately
  • Utilize the description
  • Get other engagement (likes, comments etc.)

You might be wondering why I’ve bolded ‘Correct Genre tags’, and that’s because it’s probably one of the most important factors in SoundCloud deciding where your music will be placed.

You can see one of San Holo’s latest tracks is tagged as ‘Electronic’, which is one of the default options when creating your track. SoundCloud likes this because it knows who to show the track to.

Beyond that, the more metadata SoundCloud has, the more opportunities it can give that track on the platform, not only with ‘Discover’ but also with the ‘Charts’ feature, especially when it gets more plays.

Relevant metadata goes beyond the platform into other services like Google, meaning your music will come up in search results too.

Why?

Because Google reads text, not your mind, and if it can see who you are and what your music’s called, it’ll help your chances of showing up. Pretty neat.

Strategy 9: Focus on Remixes and Bootlegs!

I’ve kept my favorite tip for last ๐Ÿ˜.

Soundcloud has made a name for itself by being extremely lenient when it comes to copyrights. To make it simple, you can upload pretty much anything. Bootlegs of the Beatles, Madonna, Queen… Anything goes. Try the same thing on Spotify or YouTube and you’ll get copyright strikes real quick.

This means SoundCloud is to go-to place for DJs looking unofficial remixes and bootlegs.

Let’s say you’re looking for a remix of Guess by Charli XCX:

Guess by Charli XCX remixes

Boom! You’ve got a Trance remix, a House remix, and a lot more. And these tracks often get hundreds of thousands of plays!

So if you’re an aspiring DJ, producing high-quality bootlegs is a great way to make a name for yourself and get more plays on Soundcloud.

Bonus Tip: Don’t Buy to Get More Plays on Soundcloud

Everyone wants to take the easy road, right? But oftentimes it’s simply not worth it.

For a few thousand extra plays in the short term, you can damage your career, risk your account getting shut down, or simply lose the trust of your true fans. Plus, it’s against SoundCloud’s Terms of Use.

I had to mention this here because it’s often something people consider when they’re looking to up their SoundCloud game. The same can be said for likes and followers, and other platforms too. These stats are fake and don’t provide organic growth.

The Bigger Picture of How to Get More Plays on Soundcloud

Like I already said, marketing and promoting your music should go beyond SoundCloud.

Plays aren’t the only thing to consider either.

Yet it’s hard to promote your music well without a lot of money.

That’s why we made our guide about promoting your music on a budget. You can grab it free below:

New to music promotion? ๐Ÿ“ข

Check out our FREE eBook – 10 Tips For Promoting Your Music on a Budget:
๐Ÿ‘‰ Nail your social media strategyย ๐Ÿ‘‰ Give your music the best chance of successย 
๐Ÿ‘‰ Find your ideal audience online

If you have questions about marketing and promoting your music, let me know at [email protected] – I’d be happy to answer.

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