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New features that ensure artists with no plays get heard are just one part of SoundCloud’s campaign to get all music heard on their platform.
Every artist has to start somewhere. The difficulty with the proliferation of digital music platforms is that, despite making it easy to put your tracks in front of listeners around the world, there are now millions of other artists to compete with to get heard.
SoundCloud are on a quest to leave no artist behind. Sometimes that first play is all that’s needed to grab a listener and start spreading the news. With the launch of a number of new features, SoundCloud are ensuring that tracks have the chance to get those first few plays that can build the traction needed to grow naturally.
Emmy Lovell, SoundCloud’s global head of music, says: “These are songs where people have put their heart and soul into trying to create something. To have zero plays is soul destroying for these people.” So, they’re reinventing music discovery.
Earlier this year, SoundCloud revealed their new algorithm: First Fans. It uses AI to detect what kind of music artists are uploading. This means that SoundCloud can then promote the tracks to listeners who they think will like it based on their tastes.
Normally, algorithms require listener data to figure out what those listeners like and therefore who else may enjoy a track. This new method allows them to push songs that no-one has discovered yet. The algorithm pushes the tracks of Next Pro artists for their very first plays.
Last year, Luminate claimed that 45.6 million tracks across digital music services have zero plays. Another 158.6 million had less than 1,000 plays. There are only roughly 184 million tracks available on digital services.
At SoundCloud, they receive 170,000 new files (tracks, mixes, podcasts, etc.) every day. Lovell says of her mission: “I’ve championed artists my whole life. It felt like at a major label there were the chosen few, but SoundCloud is the masses.”
Speaking on their new First Fans algorithm, Lovell says: “Based on understanding the track, they would give the opportunity for it to have 100 listeners – real listeners. Not all of them would listen, but it would be given to 100 listeners for them to listen to. If that did well, it would then go to 1,000 people to broaden it out.”
In addition, SoundCloud have launched their ‘Buzzing‘ playlists for smaller artists to get discovered in. These genre-specific playlists are made to highlight rising starts. They’re available to Next Pro artists and feature tracks that have started to gain engagement; a logical next step from picking up traction through First Fans.
Lovell adds: “It’s our duty to make sure that people discover new stuff. That’s why they come to SoundCloud.”
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