How to get your first 1000 sound cloud followers in 16 steps

1. How
To
Get
Your
First
1000
SoundCloud
Followers
In
16
Steps
(WITHOUT
Spamming)
By
http://BassGorilla.com
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So, you’ve created a KILLER new track, hit the upload button, and then waited for the followers to
start pouring in to hear your brilliant new musical masterpiece.
Unfortunately, all you heard were crickets. Of course your cousin visited the site and said it was
AWESOME. He’s your #1 fan
But he’s also your ONLY supporter…
Because you’re missing a critical piece of the puzzle.
It doesn’t matter how great your music is. Without actively promoting your music, your SoundCloud
page is STILL going to be a ghost town.
If a tree falls down in the woods does it make a sound? It’s the same deal with your music – even the
most amazing song in the world will not make heads nod if no one hears it.

2. So you’ve got to do this: Spend one third of your time creating epic music. And spend two thirds of
your time promoting that music.
I can hear some people complaining now…. “But Luke, it took me an entire week to write that new
track. I don’t have time to now go out and spend hours promoting it.”
If that’s the case – you probably don’t have time to build a large following of your music and this
article probably isn’t for you.
But… if you want to get your first 1000 followers on SoundCloud – then grab a fresh cup of coffee and
let’s get ROCKIN
1. Make EPIC music regularly
if you never finish any of your loops and WiPs, or if you’re too scared of criticism, then you’re not
going to get far. You have to force yourself to COMPLETE your tracks, and spend time to make them
sound awesome – they should not be too repetitive, they should not be overly complicated and difficult
to listen to, they should make people feel something, whether it’s excitement or despair – whatever
your intention is with the track. But that’s a story for another post. You get the idea – make the best
music you can, and make loads of it.
A lot of you might say that you don’t have the time, but it’s all about your priorities. Did you need to
go out and sink 8 pints of beer last night, and be hungover all day today? Probably not. Could you have
used that time and all of today to make some epic music instead?
Resources
Analogik.com – how to write great electronic music
emusictips.com – signs that your music is amateur
Anthonyarroyodotcom.com – music theory for electronic music
2. Build your network of friends & connections
How will this help you? Once you have real friends with other sound cloud users, they’ll help you
promote your music in lots of different ways (that I’ll get into in a minute).
The key to developing real relationships is to show genuine interest and offer real value to others,
instead of always thinking about what’s in it for you.

3. We’ve all seen those people who follow 2000 people (the maximum number) and like everything in
their dashboard, without properly engaging with you. DON’T be another one of those guys – it’s
obvious that you’re spam-liking and spam-following and that’s not a good look.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Find people whose music you like.
2. Like, repost, comment on their songs.
3. Find them on Facebook and like their Facebook page, then comment on their Facebook page
4. After a couple of weeks of steps 1, 2 and 3, send them a message on SoundCloud – ask them how
they made this sound or that snare, and let them know that you’ve shared their music with your
followers on SoundCloud, Facebook etc.
Basically, get a conversation going and show them that you’re willing to help them out.
If you do this with 10 people, you’ll be able to reap a lot of benefits including growing your audience.
3. Google Plus Communities
Now when it comes to other social media sites, there are two that I highly recommend: Facebook and
Google Plus. Yes, it’s true. Google Plus is here to stay, and it’s a great told for getting hundreds of
people to hear your new musical creation, regardless of how many followers you have.
First, you’ll need to set up a decent Google Plus profile, and then the real fun starts: Google Plus
Communities. These are the secret weapon inside G+. They are basically large groups of people based
around common interests. There are communities for almost every genre of music imaginable – house,
dubstep, electro, drum and bass – you name it!
Here is where to go to look for communities that match your music:
https://plus.google.com/communities
Here’s more help with using G+ effectively:
http://socialmediatoday.com/alexandrarose/1845726/dear-marketers-ignore-google-plus-your-own-risk
Once you join some groups, you’ll see that there are a TON of interesting discussions and debates
going on in G+.
Here’s what to do:
A. Start engaging with between 5 and 10 related communities. What does this mean?
- voting up other people’s posts
- responding to other people’s posts
- adding VALUE to the conversation
B. AFTER you’ve engaged with people, whenever you have a great new piece of music to share, just
post a link to your sound cloud in your top 5 – 10 communities and ask people to share it and follow
you on SoundCloud.

4. 4. Facebook Groups
If you’re already an avid Facebook fan, you’re probably already a member of some of the groups on
there. And there are many more on Facebook than there are on G+ (I still prefer G+ because it’s less
crowded and there seem to be less braindead people on there compared with Facebook).
Here’s what you’ll do:
A. Search for your genre(s) of music and narrow your search to groups
B. Join 10 to 20 Facebook groups related to your kind of music
C. Search for groups related to equipment like Ableton, Logic Pro, Native Instruments and join some
of those groups too
D. Engage in the conversation (just like I told you to do with G+
E. Once you have a musical masterpiece you want to share, drop a link in each of these groups
Once you start making use of Facebook groups and Google Plus communities, you’ll see a real surge in
the number of people listening to your music.
As an example, I recently released a new drum and bass track on SoundCloud. I usually get around 50
listens to my music each day, but by promoting my song on other social media platforms, I got close to
400 listens in one day:
Four more useful Facebook tips:
A. Ask your music producing friends to share your link to their followers on Facebook and G+
B. Check your Facebook Analytics to see when the peak time is that most people are online, then
schedule your status update to go out on that date
C. On your Facebook fan page, post the link several times during the first week that you publish your
new song
D. Share your fan page’s status update on your own timeline
Make sure you’re engaging and contributing to the conversation before you just drop a link to your
own song like a douche.
5. Tagging
Make your music is searchable and easily findable for people searching for music in SoundCloud. The
more tags, the easier to find and the more plays you will get. Here are some ideas for tags to give your
new track:
- genre tags (and related genres)
- similar style record label names
- similar artist names
- adjectives that describe the mood of your song
- other similar songs by other well known artists

5. 5. Leave comments, and respond to comments people leave on your music.
And make sure that the comments you leave are useful, meaningful, and not just ‘rad’ or ‘sick’…
When you show that you’ve put some thought into your comment, it gets noticed, not just by the
person whose song you are making a comment on, but by other people who listen to his or her song. If
people notice a pattern of you writing great comments, some of them will come and check your music
out.
Also, the people who get your useful comments will appreciate it and will be more likely to check your
profile out and follow you.
6. Collaborate with your new connections
Here’s the beauty of doing a collaboration: You do half the work and get extra exposure to all of their
fan base as well as your own. You also help your friend by letting him or her get exposure to all of
your fan base!
Collabing also helps you to discover new techniques and approaches to making music by seeing in
depth how another person does it. This will help you grow your skills.
7. Get on the remix tip
Remix a popular song that is current and will be searched for by millions of people. This can bring a
ton of new listeners to your page, and if your remix is decent, you’ll convert a ton of those visitors into
followers.
You can remix music of a similar genre to your own, or you can experiment and remix something
completely different – see whether this gets better results or not.
How To Get Your First 1000 SoundCloud Followers
8. Forums – the unsung hero.
There is just about a forum for every type of music online, and millions of conversations are happening
every day in forums.
You get laser targeted ears on your music, and it is completely free. There is no other strategy that
works as well as marketing your music in forums.
The approach here is just like with G+ Communities and Facebook Groups.
But remember – no one is gonna listen if you just post links to your own music without engaging with
other people first and adding some value. Contribute to conversations first, post links later. Trust me,
you’ll get a lot more exposure and you’ll also get to know a lot of cool peeps along the way!
Resources:
Dubstep Forum
Neurohop Forum
The Glitch Hop Forum
DNB Forum
House Music Forum
Future Music Forum
Gearsluts
Future Producers
idmforums.com

6. 9. Get a great logo to use everywhere online
A big part of getting recognition for your music is in your branding. Think about it – if you have a
consistent logo image that people see around the web in forums, social media sites (including
SoundCloud), over time they will become more familiar with you.
You have two options here:
A. Get good at using Photoshop or
B. Get a graphic designer to make it for you
Now, if you don’t have any graphic design friends who can make it for free, you can pay as little as $5
to get your logo made on Fiverr.com
Be sure to use your logo in your profiles in forums and all social media sites that you use. This will
reinforce your brand and make people more familiar with you over time.
10. Start publishing DJ mixes on SoundCloud
How can mixing songs together help you grow your SoundCloud following? Simple – by getting all the
people whose music you feature in your mix to share the link on their SoundCloud profile (by
reposting) and their Facebook fan page and G+ profiles, bringing in a ton of listeners and new
followers in the process!
And guess what! You don’t need turntables to create a mix – you can do it in your DAW. And many
people do!
Find about 20 songs that you want to include in your mix. A good chunk of them should be your
friends’ mixes – friends you’ve made on SoundCloud. In the description, link out to all of the artists
whose tracks you used and include a track list. Ask them to repost it on SoundCloud (even if it is just
for a week).
Next, send a SoundCloud/Facebook message all of the people whose music you used and tell them you
included their song in your mix, and ask them to share it on Facebook and G+.
You can even reach out to friends to get their music to use before you make your mix, meaning you
can get some new tunes from them that haven’t been released yet, which will make your mix more
interesting for people if you tell them about it.
Here’s another useful hint – think about whose music to feature. If you include Skrillex or Deadmau5
music and then message them to ask them to share your mix with their fans, chances are that you won’t
hear from them.
Include people who will be happy that you promoted their music for them.

7. 11. Start DJing around town
Even if you don’t get paid at first (which you more than likely will not), get your music out there by
getting it heard in clubs and bars around town.
Playing out in bars and clubs will help you to make connections, see how people react to your music,
build your fan base and have a blast while doing it! The connections you make from DJing will include
many other DJs, who will play your music in their DJ sets (especially if you ask them to!)
In an interview I did with Papa Skunk, he explains how DJing has helped him grow his fan base much
bigger, and how it has helped him earn some extra money and make great connections along the way!
12. Think about what to write in your new song’s SoundCloud description
One thing that The EDM Network’s SoundCloud promotion channels do to get more ears on the music
they post is this:
Tell people to click the repost button if they like the song! Here’s an example of what they did with my
track ‘Android Love’ on Glitchhop – The EDM Network (near the bottom of the picture):

8. Encouraging people to share your music will result in more shares than not telling them to do so, and
this will lead to more followers.
13. Join SoundCloud groups
Just like using G+ and Facebook communities, another thing you can do is use SoundCloud groups to
share your music and get more ears on it.
Just search for groups by genre and other related keywords, join them and start sharing your music in
them. I recommend you to join around 100 groups. Why? Because you are able to share each song with
up to 75 groups, even with a free SoundCloud account!
Focus on groups that have a large number of members and are closely related to your styles of music.
The bigger the group, the more people will hear your music.
14. Consider going pro
So far, all of the points I have explained require no money (except if you decide to get a logo done on
Fiverr.com)
However, you may want to think about upgrading your plan to make use of longer upload time. This
can be very useful if you start posting DJ mixes. The other advantages of going pro are the spotlight
feature and statistics (which I don’t think will help you grow your audience, so I’m not recommending
it).
15. Offer your own tracks for remixing
by making it obvious in the title of your track that you are offering the track for remixing, you might
get some unexpected and pleasing results. If people are remixing your tracks and sharing their remixes
with their fans, that will in turn help to get your name out there.
16. Never fake it
Perhaps you’ve heard of the amount of people who spend money to buy fake likes and followers on
SoundCloud, Facebook and other social sites these days. In fact, according to Aaron Simpson of
Simplify Recordings, the problem has become an epidemic in the music industry.

9. At the end of the day, it is blatantly obvious when you are taking shortcuts to appear to be more
popular than you actually are, and when people smell a rat, it’s not a god look.
Sure, everyone wants recognition for what they do, but people respect recognition that’s earned, not
bought.
Check out this article on 5Chicago.com about it.
In conclusion, you’ll hopefully see that the benefits you’ll get out of SoundCloud are directly related to
how much effort you put into it (in much the same way as the rest of life!)
If reaching your first 1000 followers is your ultimate goal at the moment, hopefully these tips will help
you. Stay positive and happy producing and promoting!
Thanks for reading this far! Leave a comment in the box below and let me know any other ideas you
have to grow your fan base online!
Additional Resources
beantownboogiedown.com – seven tips for more listeners
soundcloud.com – building your community
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