How to get more listeners on SoundCloud and Audiomack

SoundCloud and Audiomack are built around artists and their listeners talking to each other. Both let artists upload music to their own profiles, both have feeds where followers see what's new, and both reward music that people engage with: reposts and comments on SoundCloud, Trending and charts on Audiomack. They work differently from Spotify, where most discovery runs through playlists and the algorithm, and they reward a different kind of effort.

This guide explains how listeners find music on each, using the platforms' own help pages. It's part of our guide to getting more listeners.

SoundCloud: how the feed works

The SoundCloud feed is where most listening starts. SoundCloud's page on how the feed works describes two tabs on mobile:

• Discover recommends public tracks to listeners based on how similar they are to songs those listeners already play and like. Each recommendation says why it was picked.
• Following shows new releases and reposts from the profiles a listener follows, in order.

Two settings help a track in the feed. When you upload, you can choose the 30-second preview the feed plays, so pick the part of the song that hooks people. And you can add a caption, which SoundCloud suggests for a personal message to your followers: why you made the song, or a story from the session. The artwork you upload shows in the feed too, so treat it like a cover.

Because the Following tab only reaches people who follow you, asking listeners to follow your profile is worth doing every time you share a SoundCloud link.

Reposts: how music travels on SoundCloud

A repost is SoundCloud's way of passing a song along. SoundCloud's page on reposts says a repost adds the track to the top of the reposter's profile and shares it to their followers' feed. You can't repost your own track, so every repost of your song comes from someone else, with their audience.

That makes reposts the bridge between audiences. A repost from another artist, a label, a collective or a curator puts your song in front of people who trust their taste. The way to earn them is the same as anywhere: be part of a scene. Listen to and repost music you love, comment on other artists' tracks, collaborate, and share the songs that inspired yours. SoundCloud limits accounts that misuse following, liking and reposting, so steer clear of repost-for-repost schemes and paid repost networks.

Comments on the waveform

SoundCloud comments are tied to a moment in the song. On the web, SoundCloud's commenting guide explains that a listener clicks below the waveform to leave a comment at that point in the track. The comments then show along the waveform as the song plays, so the next listener sees what people thought of the drop, the verse or the bridge.

Reply to comments, especially early ones. A track with a conversation under it feels alive to the next person who opens it, and the people you reply to are the ones most likely to repost it.

Search and tags

SoundCloud's search page says search looks at text matches, current trends and the listener's own taste, and that listeners can filter results by tags such as genre, style and mood. Give every track a clear title, the right genre and a few accurate tags, and write a profile bio that says what kind of music you make.

Audiomack: Trending and playlists

Audiomack is a streaming and discovery app, and its Trending lists run by genre, from hip-hop and Afrosounds to Latin and gospel. Artists upload to their own Audiomack account, and the platform's curators feature music in Trending and in Audiomack's own playlists.

Audiomack lets artists put new music in front of those curators. Its help page on submitting for Trending sets out the rules:

• authenticated and verified creators can choose Submit to Trending on the Trending page or from Manage Content in the Creator Dashboard, on desktop;
• only music uploaded in the last 4 weeks can be submitted, and a track can be submitted once it's publicly released;
• you get an email if your song is trended, and submitting doesn't guarantee it will be.

Audiomack's page on getting more followers and plays adds its own advice: join its Creators Program, share the trophies and graphics Audiomack emails you on your other platforms and tag Audiomack, tell your existing fans you're on Audiomack, and keep submitting new releases to Trending. Audiomack's free Artist Guide goes further, with pieces on connecting with fans and planning a rollout.

Bring your listeners with you

On both platforms, the fastest way to new listeners starts with the ones you already have. A song that gets plays, comments and reposts from your fans in its first days gives the feed, the curators and the charts something to notice. That means promoting the release where your audience already is:

• share the SoundCloud or Audiomack link in posts and stories on your other platforms around release day;
• put it in your bio and in the email you send fans;
• post a clip of the song with a reason to hear the whole thing.

Our guides to release day promotion and how to promote your music cover each platform's posts in detail.

How Audora helps on SoundCloud and Audiomack

Audora delivers your release to SoundCloud along with Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, YouTube and 140+ stores, and into the databases radio stations, cars and song recognition read (Gracenote, Shazam and others). Each release goes out with a pitch for the people who market it to the stores, written from your answers, and Audora dates it to give the editors time.

Around the release, Audora plans a promotion campaign of posts that point people to the song, wherever they listen. Every post is written in your voice, with its caption, hashtags and the picture or video it needs, and you approve what goes out. Your release link opens the song on whichever service a listener uses.

TikTok, YouTube, Instagram (Stories included) and Facebook Pages post automatically, and nothing goes out until you approve it. Stories carry no link sticker, so your release link goes in your bio.

Audora also makes your cover art, a bio in three lengths and a logo to the stores' spec, ready to use on your SoundCloud and Audiomack profiles, with full commercial rights to everything made. After release, every playlist your song is on is shown back to you, with plays and saves from the stores' own reporting.

The exact steps for your release, dated to its day, are in your Audora account. Audora keeps tuning them, adding, dropping and retiming steps as it learns what works best for its artists. See what every track gets for everything that goes out with a release.