5 reasons you should start putting more eggs in Twitter’s basket.

For a while Twitter has been friends with music sites like SoundCloud, Youtube, Spotify and many others.  They’re finally putting those countless social engagements to work in the form of their new #Music platform.  Available now online and for iOS, #Music collects the most popular songs being tweeted about and ranks them in a chart format.  Not only that but you can see what artists are starting to trend and which are being newly discovered.  Naturally, #Music also offers suggestions about which artists you should check out.

This is all fine and good for a quick pick-me-up when you’re not sure what to get your ears on, but the real advantage goes to musicians.  Music discovery is becoming more and more important with all these streaming services and music community sites.  The challenge for new musicians is to learn how to use these tools to their advantage to gain more new listeners and retain current fans.   On that note let’s dive into some strategies for #Music that can help you grow your listener base.

Listeners come to your SoundCloud profile for many reasons: a search for remixes, specific genre tags or a related track recommendation (thanks to the new SoundCloud). Once they arrive you probably have a few chances to make them stay:

1. Images – One of the first things I notice (and probably most people) is the images that the user uploads.  Using album art says that they’re serious or professional about their craft.  A picture of him or herself allows a stronger bond between artist and listener.
2. Titles - Does this user have an identity?  Do they use their real name?  Do they use track titles or instead do they describe the genre they are writing in?  All of these influence the perception of the listener.  It may seem obvious how you want to name your tracks but take a second to think what types of track titles speak to you most when you visit other profiles.

As an artist you have an art to uphold.  You don’t want digital music marketing to compromise your ideas and style in place of accessibility.  I get that.  But I only get that because I am an artist too.