Soundcloud Promotions: How To Get Noticed On Soundcloud

June 1st, 2013 by Luke

Soundcloud Promotions is a new way for those interested in increasing their presence on online to get ahead of the game. If you’re struggling to gain momentum in your online presence through social media, Soundcloud Promotions might be of interest to you.

What is SoundCloud?

If you’re not already familiar with what SoundCloud is, get over there right now and set yourself up an account. It’s an essential part of any current artists promotional kit. SoundCloud is the world’s leading social sound platform where anyone can create sounds and share them everywhere. Recording and uploading sounds to SoundCloud lets people easily share them privately with their friends or publicly to blogs, sites and social networks. Everybody is using it, and for good reason!

Why increase followers on SoundCloud?

On SoundCloud followers can see any song uploaded by the people they follow and listen to it immediately. They receive real time updates about their favourite artists activity and what they are doing on the site, plus receive lots of extra information about the artist and their music. This is important to help a bands music gain momentum on the site, the more activity people see, the more it will help gather traction among the fanbase and create a discussion about the music.

There is also many advantages to having a large fanbase, such as looking impressive to new potential fans. The bigger a bands fanbase the more likely someone might give them the time of day to hear what they’re about. It’s true, we’ve all fallen victim to that one, whether we like to admit it or not, or even noticed it for that matter.

Building an online musical presence by hand can take a lot of time and effort (I know I’ve done it) The complicated process required for successful online promotion can take up excessive amounts of valuable time, in my case more time per week than a full time job, for little payoff. It’s time that could be invested better. Musicians should be focusing creative energy on making more awesome music, not days, weeks and months endlessly spamming friends, family and random strangers added on Facebook, or other Social media platforms in a futile attempt to get them interested in what we’re already so passionate about. Inevitably this method will lose more friends than it will gain, and the fans that are gained, will likely be there begrudgingly, as soon as they think they can disappear without being noticed, they will.

What Is SoundCloud Promotions?

SoundCloud Promotions as the name suggests is a service to help promote music on SoundCloud. It gives artists a helping hand getting their feet off the ground on the social music platform and help them get noticed. They have a simple sign up process, simply choose the package you want and then they will email you with further details after the transaction has been processed. The site is user friendly and pretty to look at. The prices are very reasonable too. Visit soundcloudpromotions.com for more details.

Buying Fans?

I’ve heard many artists frown upon the idea of purchasing new listeners for their music, and feel it’s some sort of cheating. But all businesses advertise, if any artist wishes to make a career out of music, understanding that music is a business like any other is key to success. It’s the nature of the beast. If an artist doesn’t advertise in this day and age, their music is going to fail to reach out to the public eye. Whether the artist does it, or a record company does it on their behalf, advertising is almost always essential one way or another. Sometimes artists get lucky with a viral YouTube video, or a song that captures public imagination enough to be spread by word of mouth. But these events are rare in the grand scheme of things, and smart artists back up these events with regular forms of advertising to help perpetuate the spread anyway. All you have to remember is that spamming friends and random strangers with unsolicited messages is a much more frowned upon form of advertising than anything paid for and it’s far less effective.

About The Author

Jon Hutchinson is a music journalist from the UK, As a 10 year veteran of the music industry he is currently building several up and coming music media sites, and loves to help others find their way in the music industry.

Five Ways To Make The Most Of Recording Studio Time

April 10th, 2013 by Luke

The following blog is by a special Guest Author and presented in collaboration with www.selectrecordingstudios.co.uk

Make The Most Of Recording Studio Time

Whether you’re about to record an album or making a demo that you can shop around to record companies, studio time is a significant investment – so it pays to do everything you can to get the most bang for your buck. It’s essential to carefully plan and organise your time so you don’t waste a minute and end up with nothing to show for a day’s recording. Follow these simple steps to get everything you can out of time in the recording studio and end up with results you love.

1. Get Studio Versions of Songs Prepared

There’s a huge difference between live performance and performing in a studio so make sure you’ve checked your arrangements and worked out how best to record your song. Creating succinct, tight versions of your song will afford you the best results and save time in the studio too. If you’re trying to promote your band, then a sloppy demo is not the best way to go about it. The more slick and professional your demo is the more likely you are to be picked up.

2. Set Studio Time Goals

You’ll have a set amount of hours in the studio but whether it’s a day or a fortnight, treat it like a job and carefully map out your time. This is especially important if you need to accommodate other musicians flexibly. Once you’re in the studio time will fly so it’s much more effective to have a concrete timetable than a loose plan.

Choose one or two tracks to work on in a day and don’t be tempted to squeeze more in if you don’t have any longer. It’s much better to complete two songs perfectly than end up with a bunch of half finished recordings. A three minute song could take three hours to record so it’s unlikely that you’ll finish a whole album in a day. However, there’s always the chance that you’ll get things done more quickly than you expected so make contingencies for any time you have left by preparing a couple of extra tracks just in case.

If you’re working with a band then make sure they’re aware of your plans and understand what your expectations of them are. That way there’s far less likely to be confusion over which songs to learn or which instruments to bring.

3. Opt for Professional Mastering

Mixing is usually done by engineers within a recording studio but mastering is an entirely different process. If you eliminate mastering from the studio time you have it can allow you to fit in more. You can get your recordings mastered at a later date but make sure you enlist someone with the skills and experience you need. Although professional mastering is a separate investment, you’ll end up with better results than you will if you try to do everything at once.

4. Eat and Drink

It may sound silly but when you’re caught up in the moment everything else goes out of the window, but forgetting to eat and drink certainly won’t help your performance. If you want to maintain your energy levels then choose healthy foods that release energy slowly like wholemeal bread, porridge and brown rice. Avoid high fat, high sugar foods as they will give you a burst of energy followed by a slump. Keep hydrated with plenty of water and if you want to stay on your toes avoid drinking alcohol.

5. Pick the Right Studio

Embarking on your firstsession can be daunting so look for a studio that caters for your needs. Most studios accommodate amateurs and professionals but will incorporate differing levels of service. A good studio will have friendly, helpful, well-qualified staff who will be able to talk you through the recording process and put you at ease. They’ll also be able to help you find ways to improve your performance and offer advice on recording techniques.

You’ll find useful information on the majority of recording studio websites about the kind of work they do and some will even allow you to listen in to recent recordings so you can get a feel for the type of result you can expect.

Bonus Tip

If you’re feeling a little intimidated by the idea of a recording studio session then pay a visit to the studio before it takes place. Staff there should be happy to give you a tour and let you familiarise yourself with the surroundings and what will happen on the day, which will help you to feel more at ease when you finally come to record.

So if you’re set to become the next big thing make sure you start off on the right foot and follow these tips to ensure that your recording studio session is a rousing success.

About the Author:

I’m a fifty something technical director with a passion for the food industry and blogging.

I’m happily married with two grown up daughters.