Building a real audience for my music. Real Vs. Fake Fans?
(By Oliver Cox)
Plenty of companies offer all sorts of SoundCloud goodies with no effort on your part, for a fee—let’s see how it works and whether it’s the right choice.
So you’ve probably heard of fake likes on Facebook; SoundCloud isn’t free from this sort of skulduggery. Companies pay people (or use bots) to engage your tracks when they actually have no interest in what you do.
How it Works
Like Facebook likes, all the interaction on SoundCloud are available for sale. A site like SoundCloudr’s services start at 1,000 plays for $25, and 150 followers for $35. Then, under-wage workers, often from countries like India or Bangladesh, will be paid to set up accounts and follow yours. Alternately, coders will create bots that navigate SoundCloud automatically and like what they’re told to like.
Almost as good as earning real interactions with the quality of your music and the energy that you put into creating a network? No.
Is it Worth it?
I strongly believe that any number of fake likes couldn’t come close to the value that one real fan offers you as an artist. A fan that actually enjoys your music will be likely to buy each new release. Once you get on the front page of Beatport, you’ll have a ready-made audience, waiting to buy your music.
Meanwhile, a real SoundCloud follower will share your tracks among their followers again and again, because they actually appreciate your music, not because they’re paid to do so one time only. These true followers sound great right? But they’re hard to track down, which is the whole reason why people are tempted to buy fake likes in the first place.
The Soundudes manifesto is that artists should be able to reach real followers, quickly, easily and legitimately. To do so, the Soundudes algorithm does the research and takes action that’s guaranteed to boost your following and overall engagement. Soundudes will find those evangelists who will promote you for the sake of the music.
As we’ve seen, you could get a far greater advantage by using Soundudes – fake likes are too useless, and won’t get you far in the long run. Meanwhile Soundudes can help you create a vibrant network while pleasing the angel on your shoulder.