Introduction
In Social Media for Musicians: SoundCloud, we’ll take a look at SoundCloud as a tool for musicians looking to increase their online profile, build their fan base, and find new ways of interacting and communicating with their fans and audience.
With its advanced waveform display and audio quality, SoundCloud gives listeners a better experience while providing a platform for artists and musicians to showcase their work in a dynamic, interactive environment.
As social media continues to develop, grow, and become a part of how we communicate, platforms like SoundCloud enhance valuable engagement levels, allowing not only for marketing opportunities, but also for networking and collaborations.
What You’ll Find in This Book
We’ll cover the following areas:
Exploring SoundCloud and its benefits for musicians
Building your SoundCloud profile and adding to your Social Media presence
Building up time-tagged comments and interactions
Finding ways to collaborate with artists
Receiving feedback from fans
Whom This Book Is For
This book is for musicians, artists, or bands looking to enhance their level of fan engagement, and who are interested in uploading and showcasing their music in a well-designed online space that has both musicians and fans in mind.
How This Book Is Organized
We’ll take you through setting up your SoundCloud profile. From there, we’ll look at how to upload your tracks. We’ll show you how to add images and tags, and how to create playlists and groups. The book will finish off with how to use SoundCloud on mobile devices, integrate it with audio software, and use its advanced features.
Chapter 1: This chapter will provide an introduction to why you should be using SoundCloud to market your music.
Chapter 2: This chapter will help you start connecting with your existing and potential fans by creating your own SoundCloud account, and will help you take a look around the SoundCloud interface.
Chapter 3: In this chapter you’ll learn how to upload your tracks to SoundCloud and what audio formats are supported.
Chapter 4: This chapter will cover the SoundCloud audio waveform display, how it is unique, and its benefits for musicians.
Chapter 5: SoundCloud can be used as a great sketchpad for songwriters. This chapter will provide some tips on how you can use it this way.
Chapter 6: In this chapter you’ll learn to add images and descriptions in SoundCloud.
Chapter 7: This chapter will look at using playlists in SoundCloud, including editing and sharing options, as well as reposting. We’ll cover more on your stream, and you’ll get a tip on using SoundCloud as a reference tool.
Chapter 8: In this chapter, we’ll explain the difference between public and private tracks, how to change the settings between the two, plus how listeners can download your tracks.
Chapter 9: Groups are a great way to find like-minded musicians and music lovers, and can also be a valuable tool in showcasing your own tracks and musical inspiration. In this chapter, we’ll look at how to set up groups.
Chapter 10: This chapter will detail how to create and use time-tagged comments—possibly the most important feature in SoundCloud.
Chapter 11: Many audio applications are integrating the SoundCloud API into their software. In this chapter, we’ll look at a few applications that integrate with SoundCloud.
Chapter 12: SoundCloud can also be used on mobile devices. This chapter will cover how you can do this and how SoundCloud can be useful when you’re out and about.
Chapter 13: In this chapter, we’ll look at SoundCloud Pro, and you’ll see some examples of sharing from SoundCloud to other social media channels.
Chapter 14: We’ll conclude with a quick recap of what has been covered in this book.
Now let’s dig in and get to know more about SoundCloud as a tool for the modern musician.