Being a musical artist is in many ways like owning a business start-up. You create, publish, sell, negotiate, make profits, and market yourself like a business. Unlike a new business it can be tough for an artist to measure success. This is where SoundCloud metrics come in handy. Let’s take a look at some key SoundsCloud success indicators and see what they really mean.
Plays and Vanity Metrics
Everybody loves plays! Pfft… They are “vanity metrics.” Plays or Streams are the kind of numbers that you would tell your friends about to impress them. They are often manipulated to make a song appear popular and don’t really show what a listener thought of the track or if they even finished listening to it. (How many tracks have you seen with a million plays and no reposts? Something is wrong there…) In many cases, plays can be considered a vanity metric for these reasons.
Music is an experience. In order to determine the importance of it, a listener has to be engaged in the experience. A “play” says nothing about the experience of the listener or if they actually paid attention to it. Therefore, other engagement types are probably better indicators.
Likes and Reposts
The more effort and personal investment a user has to give to perform an action in response to a song offering the more engaged a user has to be. By this definition likes are better than plays but cheaper than reposts. Likes only require a single mostly anonymous click. A repost is a much stronger response because the reposted song appears on the reposter’s profile. It reflects on their reputation as a music connoisseur. They are vouching for your style and talent as an artist. Your viability as a star; that is a big deal.
Comments
Comments are a considerable endorsement. A comment is the most time consuming action because it requires typing, thinking, and sometimes even grammar… By this definition comments represent commitment, reputation, and of course, effort. This could make comments one of the strongest indicators for hyper-engaged fans; even when they are negative. The downside is SoundCloud comments are as likely to be spam as they are real. It’s important to monitor them as they come in to keep your audience legit. Make sure you respond to every legit comment to make Superfans out of the commenter. (Even if they hated your music.)
Followers
Followers are the most valuable metric and the hardest to obtain in large numbers. Your followers are your fanbase. They represent a direct measure of your popularity. A large follower metric is the key to success with each song premiere because your loyal followers’ streams create exponential promotion.
Summary
The truth is every artist should work to develop all metrics in good balance to show strong engagement from real fans. This is the best way to look at metrics. Supreme{PR} can help you develop this type of promotional balance and grow a real fan base over time.