Essential Next Pro features that every creator needs to know.
Last week, we shared five essential artist tips tailored to help creators find success on SoundCloud, including must-know pointers around distribution, mastering and replacing a track’s audio file. This week, we’re back with five more savvy scoops that artists spoke with us about to help you integrate SoundCloud tools and features into your daily workflow, and get the most out of the platform’s resources. A SoundCloud Next Pro subscription gives you access to a customized SoundCloud for Artists experience, helping you elevate your career and build community throughout every stage of your musical journey.
Whether you’re a seasoned Next Pro user or just getting started, we’ve compiled a list of five essential Next Pro features you should know about.
Don’t miss a comment. Comments on SoundCloud appear at the point on the waveform where a user first starts typing, offering a direct window into when a listener connects with a particular moment on a song. These time-stamped comments can be reaffirming for artists; Wet’sKelly Zutrau shares, “I love how you can kind of even understand a bit more why someone made the comment they did, like, ‘Ohh chills, right there!’” Mentioning another user by their @’ing their profile page is a powerful way to build a connection with fans, and a simple thank you or returned comment can go a long way. With Next Pro, you can also enable Quiet Mode, through the ‘Permissions’ tab, which allows you to choose whether or not to allow comments on a track.
To learn more about managing or replying to comments, click here.
Direct people to download or link to where they can easily buy your music. When you upload a song, you can enable or disable downloads for your listeners through your track’s ‘Permissions’ tab. When an individual track is available for download, a Download button will appear and users will receive a copy of the original file format (WAV, mp3, etc.) that was uploaded to SoundCloud. With Next Pro, clicking on the ‘Metadata’ tab will give you the option to add and edit a custom ‘Buy’ button that will direct fans to other marketplaces or websites where they can purchase or download your track. By linking fans directly from your SoundCloud profile, it enables you to promote your preferred links and takes the guesswork out of where and how fans can buy your releases.
Find more information on how to enable or disable downloads here, and how to create
a Buy link here.
Distribute your music to 60+ stores. SoundCloud is the only streaming platform that also helps amplify the reach of your singles, EPs and albums, acting as a distributor to over 60+ of the top streaming platforms and social networks around the world. When you distribute with SoundCloud, there are no additional charges for things like storage and backup, sending releases to new stores or access to audience insights – plus, we’ve made splitting pay between your collaborators as easy as can be. Artists like Chicago rapper femdot. and Brooklyn-based LA artist Kinneret both turn to their personalized dashboards for monetization, advanced insights and unlimited uploads, as well as have leaned into the fact that there are no limits to how many tracks you can distribute with Next Pro.
Integrate a Songkick link to your profile description on SoundCloud here.
Spotlight your tracks for listeners to enjoy first. The Spotlight feature, available exclusively to Next Pro subscribers, allows you to pin up to 5 items (either tracks or playlists) to the top of your profile page. This highlights what music you’d like listeners to spend time with first, whether that’s your most popular songs, your newest releases, featured collabs with other artists or playlists you create or curate. (Speaking of fan favorites, hit the ‘Popular tracks’ tab under your artist banner to figure out which songs have been streamed the most.) By curating the tracks at the top of your page, you can spotlight the songs you’d like fans to interact with first.
Read more about how to customize your page and use the Spotlight feature here.
Use the Fans tool to identify potential collaborators. Using the Fans tool – which is currently in Beta and located in the SoundCloud For Artists dashboard – you can filter listener data by the type of account. When you click ‘All listeners,’ a drop-down menu will give you the option to sort by verified artist accounts, artist accounts or by all followers. With direct insight into which fellow artists have been listening to your music, you can see who may be interested in getting to know you better or potentially collaborate in the future, as well as discover music from other artists. For glitch-pop artist Braden Ross, a DM led him to collaborate with Bootleg Boy on promoting his music, whereas Sweden-based duo Flora Cash actually met on SoundCloud, first by commenting on each other’s music and then sharing tracks they liked. Gain deeper insight into your artist community by checking out who is listening, and DM other artists directly from the Fans tab to send private demo links, invite them to a show or possibly spark a new musical collab.
Learn more about using the Fans tool here.
Stay tuned next week for more of our favorite tips, and subscribe to the Sound Advice newsletter for a weekly dose of ideas of how to engage fans and turbo-charge your artist profile. See all of our Sound Advice columns here.