Soundcloud or Spotify? The best streaming service for music promotion
To be a musician it isn’t only about music production, performing, and being creative in general, nowadays it is also about self-promotion of your releases.
These days musicians are spending 50% of their time making music, and the same amount of time trying to make someone actually listen to it.
To make this process smoother and with greater results, it is important to have a music marketing and social media strategy in advance for your upcoming releases. Kwettr can help you to create, launch, and analyze the promotional strategy.
However, it is also important to decide in advance whether your music will be streamed and promoted on Soundcloud or Spotify?
Both streaming services are massive and have their own unique features, but will it actually be rewarding for your career to promote through Soundcloud or Spotify? Before settling on one let’s find out the pros and cons of each platform.
First, ask yourself where your target audience is.
Spotify is a streaming service for casual listeners and music fanatics alike, people are choosing Spotify to listen to popular music, as well as any other genres because there is a place for literally every genre. Soundcloud on the other hand is being chosen to listen to lo-fi producers and up-and-coming rappers.
What is your positioning in the music industry?
Are you a beginning artist that fits into the popular genres?
Then you will probably get the exposure you need on both platforms. On the other hand, if you are producing in one of the less hyped genres, then Spotify should be your choice because it is popular for all genres and types of music.
Or maybe you are already an established artist with a solid name?
Spotify is the most popular music streaming service in the world, thus you will be able to connect with most of your listeners while providing them with the best quality of your music.
What about quality?
Quality is another aspect you should take into consideration when choosing the platform. Spotify is an obvious leader in this question, its sound quality is just excellent. Spotify offers 96kpbs to mobile device users, and up to 320kpbs and higher on desktop, while Soundcloud clocks in at 64kpbs. If it is important for you to ensure that your fans are listening to your music at its best, then Spotify should be your preferred choice of a platform.
How much will you earn?
As an artist it is important for you to be paid when your music is being played, thus when considering the streaming service, consider the following numbers:
Spotify is paying about $0.00437 per stream.
That is, of course, not a lot of money, and to make at least some decent amount you should really be serious about you pre-release and release promotions because 10,000 plays only pay $43.70 on Spotify.
In this matter, Soundcloud isn’t much better from Spotify, who is constantly being criticized for their unfair pay. Except, in order to be monetized on Soundcloud you, as an artist, should pay first. You need to sign up for a Premier membership which costs are ranging from $8 to $16 per month.
From Soundcloud, you can expect a payout from $0.0025 to $0.004 per stream.
So for every 1000 plays, you’d receive between $2.50–$4.00.
Streaming platforms algorithms
You want to make sure the platform itself will be helping you to promote your new releases. In order to expand your fanbase, and reach the right ears Spotify and Soundcloud, both have personalized music playlists.
Spotify’s algorithms are well-known as being some of the most useful and intelligent out there. The algorithms analyze your music listening patterns and find music that suits your taste. Spotify is making a personalized Discover Weekly playlist as well as Your Release Radar, plus your daily updated playlists. Most of the time their algorithm is doing a great job, and you will gain more and more dedicated listeners if you are a feature on one of those playlists.
Soundcloud algorithms aren’t that sophisticated as Spotify ones. Soundcloud does offer users a personalized music feed of their own. Based on what you listen to, Soundcloud will curate songs in similar genres or by the similar artists that it thinks you might enjoy.
Conclusion
As you probably already guessed, when putting all the important, for the musician, aspects mentioned above, Spotify would be the recommended streaming platform to place and promote your upcoming releases. From high-quality audio resolution to great plans for the listeners, as well as a huge potential for paid and organic promotion. Spotify has everything that you, as an artist, would need from the streaming platform, except for, you would probably prefer a higher streaming rate, but there is no limit to perfection, right?
Spotify definitely already outgrew Soundcloud. As well as, in general, Spotify’s potential is through the roof. From Ad potential and brand recognition to high-level algorithms.
To sum up, for Kwettr, Spotify is definitely a preferred choice of the streaming platform to promote new releases and albums for the clients. Kwettr offers services aimed to increase revenue from Spotify, your promotion can include weekly pitches for features or promotional pitches to increase the number of streams. As well as many other solutions for your music promotion.
