Why Your Music Will Go Nowhere On SoundCloud

If your marketing strategy is, "Hey, thanks for the follow. Go check out my music on SoundCloud." I want you to stop and think for a second here. Seriously, stop and think. I'll even put a realllllly long ellipses in here for you............

What makes you think this will EVER get you a full-time career in music?

And please realize I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just tired of seeing artists waste their time doing something that doesn't generate them nearly enough revenue to pursue their dreams.

There is absolutely no music business model in this approach. You're taking all your hard work you put into recording and writing your songs into the gutter. On top of that, you're pretty much throwing all the money you've invested into your music into the furnace.

Last time I checked, the reason you spend money is to make more money back.

Let's be clear. I'm NOT saying get rid of your SoundCloud by any means. I'm saying you have to have a BUSINESS model working through your SoundCloud to be able to get life long fans.

If someone can get all your music for free off SoundCloud, why would they go purchase it off a 'Buy on iTunes' button below the song?

Now I know some artists say they just want to get more exposure by giving their music out for free, but there has to be a better purpose for you to give out your new music releases for nothing.

And this whole notion of, "If people like my music they will buy it," has to go.

You're most likely not at the stage where you're going to get enough people to buy just because they like it.

Wake up and face reality. The only way you're ever going to learn how to make a full-time music income is through marketing.

Something that's confused me is how an artist can spend hundreds of dollars on recording costs and literally do NOTHING in terms of learning how to market their music.

People buy because of the marketing strategies put in place to get them to buy. Not JUST because they like your music.

Think about it. You'll LISTEN if you like someone's music, but in this day and age, there has to be something more about the artist that you like to get you to actually buy it.

And, "Hey, go buy my song on iTunes," isn't marketing. It's a waste of your time.

But I find many people are doing this because they claim not to know any better about marketing. I would count this as a valid excuse, but there are so many marketing resources out there for artists for this excuse to hold it's weight.

Artists get mad at me saying that, but it's true. There are so many books and courses out here for artists to take to learn how to market their music correctly.

If you're not making a FULL-TIME music income there is literally no excuse not to pick up a book. (Unless, of course, you really don't want to do music)

If artists spent more time simply DOING the things that will help their music career, they'd make it a lot easier on themselves.

The, "It's on my to-do-list" people are bound to fail. That's just the way it is. There's some things you just get done. Learning how to market your music is one of them.

It's not an, "Oh, I should look into that", sort of thing. It's an I'm going to do this TODAY sort of thing.

The day I learned that is when I was really able to pour some fuel on the fire for my music career.

I've been able to triple my music business in the past couple of the years and the projections for years to come look good because I know how to market my music (this starts by making good music).

There is one other thing music artists have to realize.

The internet is ruining your mindset. Everyone wants everything to be free nowadays.

Let's just face the facts though. (The quicker you learn the facts, the faster you'll be able to achieve success)

NO ONE is going to give you their BEST products for free. Get over it. If you want to get ahead that's something you're going to have to embrace.

I may give away a ton of great info on my blog, but you better believe the marketing information that can really get you ahead is either in my book or in my course.

Now, to a lot of artists credit, I'm really glad that the reviews on the book have been great. Keep them coming please!

But, I've literally had people call me a scammer because I'm selling a book (Not to mention there's not ONE bad review on it). Just because an artist doesn't give a crap enough about their music career to spend $15 on a book that'll help them get wayyyy more results than they're seeing right now doesn't make me a scammer.

Even if it's $15, artists act like they have to 'plan' to purchase it.

Like I said before, that's just a no brainer thing you do, there's really no hesitation for things like that whenever you want to sincerely get ahead in music.

We indie artists have to start putting things into perspective. You buy things that accelerate growth! This is business sense, not just music sense.

The reason I pay for Facebook ads? It accelerates growth.

The reason I pay for marketing for Twitter? It accelerates growth.

The reason I pay for my email list provider? It accelerates growth.

The reason I pay people to work on my business with me? It accelerates growth.

The reason I bought books and courses on music marketing? It accelerates growth.

If I hadn't bought them, I wouldn't be as far as I am now. 

Much like Spotify, if you don't know what you're doing with the marketing, SoundCloud can really screw you over.

You can end up with 10's of 1,000's of plays, but if you don't know how to market to make a full-time income who cares?

The sooner you realize your marketing is just as important as your music, the better off you'll be.

You don't get over 4,000,000 hits by simply saying, "Hey, go check out my music." Marketing is a complete science. Either you adapt, or you get left behind.