SoundCloud is quickly becoming a go to tool for independent artists, finally providing a useful social network for artist’s to share their work and gain new fans.
For years, various sites have been attempting to become the “standard” music-based social media network, and it looks like at least for now SoundCloud is in the lead. At the end of last year, the site’s co-founder announced that the site now reaches 180 million users a month. Additionally, users upload more than 10 hours of music to the site every minute.
Many people have played tracks from the site without even realizing it because the songs are easy to embed on other sites but there are tons of ways you can leverage the SoundCloud site itself for use, as well.
Build a Following on the Site
Creating a profile is easy, and can happen in just a few minutes by following a few simple instructions on the site. But just like any social media platform, engaging other users is the key to a successful and interactive profile on SoundCloud. Simply posting your songs is not enough.
You need to build a user base. One of the features that’s making the site so successful is the ability of users to not only comment on a posted song, but they can post “Timed comments,” which provides feedback at a specific point of a song.
One of the keys to success with SoundCloud is to attract users both from the site itself as well as other websites. You can promote your page on other sites like Facebook and Twitter, but the aforementioned ease of embedding tracks on other sites is a great way to attract users from all over the web.
Allow Users to Download Your Songs - Occasionally
While there are artists that make digital downloads of all their songs free to web users and make money from other sources, this is far from the norm. But that’s not to say that it’s not a great idea to give your fans a freebie every now and again.
While the majority of songs on SoundCloud are streamed, you can make them available for download, as well. This can be like a reward of sorts for those users that follow you, and it’s a good way to encourage your followers to keep coming back to your page.
Learn More About Your Audience
This is best used by artists that have already been on the site for a while and built up a successful follower base. Upgrading to a pro account, which has a monthly charge, allows you to see stats about your page and your audience, including play counts, download counts, location information of listeners and who your listeners are.
This information can be used to see who you are reaching with your music and who you need to reach out to, and can be a great tool to increase an already sizable audience.
Certainly it’s hard to say if SoundCloud will remain the go to music social network of choice it would seem that MySpace certainly plans to give it a run for its money but as of now can be a great tool for many independent artists.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
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3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
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5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
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7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
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