Shameless SoundCloud Follow Exchange

[abstractcats]

This is a shameless grab for SoundCloud follows. For everyone who posts on this thread, you must:

a) Post your SoundCloud link
b) Follow everyone else's SoundCloud link on this thread

It's a bit of an experiment to see if this works, but the basic idea is that we all help each other out and attempt to boost our SoundCloud presence with the use of everybody's co-operation.Of course, I'm also hoping that people listen to each other's tunes, comment on other people's music, like their songs on SoundCloud and so on. Also, try to keep it simple. Just a quick comment with your SoundCloud link would be good. Imagine, if only 30 people post here, that's 30 SoundCloud follows for each of us.

In anticipation, I'm expecting a lot of people to jump on here and get worked up about this... Oh well. Gimme a spray if you feel some sort of moral indignation about this. You may also be worried that if you follow people whose music you don't like SoundCloud will somehow get the wrong idea about what type of music you like. You don't have to worry about that because unless you like the most bland commercial crap, SoundCloud won't get recommendations right anyway. Historically SoundCloud has only recommended the most popular artists and probably the ones who paid SoundCloud the most money. But, these days it tries to base its recommendations on tracks you've played on SoundCloud which is stupid because I've played heaps of tracks that I don't like and SoundCloud recommends similar stuff to me.

Anyway, as soon as you post here in this thread and follow me, I will follow you back straight away.

Here's my SoundCloud page:
http://soundcloud.com/syncretia

Stretch, is amazing!

Oh, I don't have a SoundCloud account...

[ntom]

Yeah , cos music is just like collecting pokemon.

Sigh

Getting followed doesnt mean anyone is gonna listen to your tracks. I'd rather have 10 true fans who will buy everything than 10.000 who follow me just to get followed back. This is exactly what killed myspace. People more concerned about ego than actually being passionate about the notes. This is so lame.

Tune out "Youtube" and replace that with "Soundcloud" and take some of the information with a grain of salt since it's in a slightly different context. The main point of this is when he talks about the community and what that does to it.




As per telling people to leave the thread; why? This is a forum, and until a moderator steps in to tell us we can't do this, we have a right to express our opinions in this thread. Secondly, the OP acknowledged the fact that there will be responses like this, and in fact, almost encourages it, so for a knee jerk reaction to people responding as such seems slightly childish.

[faun2500]

Just one last thing before you leave us, could you follow me before you go?

That's effin' classic mate.

Can I use it in a song..?

[2NDMOUSE]

The spirit of the thread

This is a shameless grab for SoundCloud follows...

The rules

a) Post your SoundCloud link
b) Follow everyone else's SoundCloud link on this thread

Your opinion.

This is so lame.

Kinda pathetic really.
How about standing on a street corner and offering random strangers $5 if they'll say "I like you" ?
Thats what this amounts to.
I watched myspace die . I dont want to see soundcloud die from the exact same ego-centric , insecurity-driven thinking , and especially not when I pay a yearly subscription , and actually care what happens to the site.

If you want people to follow you , just make better music. Its quite simple.

[Andywanders]

As per telling people to leave the thread; why?

I assume you're referring to my previous post, which was meant in a light-hearted way, but obviously not received as such. In hindsight, I acknowledge that it could have been interpreted in an aggressive manner, for which I apologise.

Having said that, I do think it's unreasonable to tell people that an idea is "lame", especially when most contributors to this thread are actually enjoying the idea and getting something from it. I for one have been introduced to a lot of new music from this thread, some of which I've enjoyed listening to and commented on. Music which otherwise would have passed me by.

Personally, I would never dream of making such negative comments in threads where original ideas are presented. If I didn't agree with those ideas, or thought they were "lame", I simply wouldn't post.

To me, posting negative comments in such threads would be lame.

This is a forum, and until a moderator steps in to tell us we can't do this, we have a right to express our opinions in this thread.

There's no argument from me on this.

Secondly, the OP acknowledged the fact that there will be responses like this, and in fact, almost encourages it, so for a knee jerk reaction to people responding as such seems slightly childish.

Childish or otherwise, it wasn't a "knee-jerk" reaction. But then there's no way you could have known that. I guess that's you expressing your opinion, and I defend your right to do so.

I hope there's no misunderstanding here.



Now, are we gonna follow each other or what?

[2NDMOUSE]

Yeah , cos music is just like collecting pokemon.

Sigh

Getting followed doesnt mean anyone is gonna listen to your tracks. I'd rather have 10 true fans who will buy everything than 10.000 who follow me just to get followed back. This is exactly what killed myspace. People more concerned about ego than actually being passionate about the notes. This is so lame.

Tune out "Youtube" and replace that with "Soundcloud" and take some of the information with a grain of salt since it's in a slightly different context. The main point of this is when he talks about the community and what that does to it.




As per telling people to leave the thread; why? This is a forum, and until a moderator steps in to tell us we can't do this, we have a right to express our opinions in this thread. Secondly, the OP acknowledged the fact that there will be responses like this, and in fact, almost encourages it, so for a knee jerk reaction to people responding as such seems slightly childish.

Sorry ntom...I didnt see your post until now. We must've posted at the same time and I missed it.
That guy Jon hit the nail on the head in that "sub 4 sub " video when he said

"Its not about numbers ; its about content "

We live in a culture were time is a precious commodity , and because we are working longer hours , we have less and less time for things , and so everything needs to be "instant". Instant food , instant friends , instant audience , instant following , instant gratification.
People want to microwave and speed up everything , but surely it would mean more to an artist worth his salt to be followed by someone who , on principle , only follows good music , and has actually taken the time to listen ?

Sub for sub is cold , mechanical and artificial , and in a thread like this , it may be all happy and smiley for the first 30 people , but already I can see the " im following you but you're not following me back " starting to rear its head , once the numbers start to increase. ?

Im looking for outstanding music , fantastic music. Thats why I'll follow someone. Even though I want people to hear my music , I'll never follow someone just so they can follow me back. Every person I follow makes great music , and they can be sure I've taken the time to listen , and not just follow blindly because im more interested in my own popularity and artificial sense of fake self-worth.

Also....

Lmao.

[ntom]

And don't get me wrong, I think it's wonderful everyone has found new, great artists out of this thread.
So, to me, why is this thread more focused on getting follows than it is to just post your link to your music?

Actually, it's kind of sad that it takes a thread like this to stir that, considering there is a whole forum section dedicated to posting your music for people to enjoy, but, that doesn't matter, we're here now, and so if there is a thread about posting your link to your music; great. But it seems so silly saying I have to follow the other people first so they follow me back.
How about no?
I don't want to play this game, I want legitimate followers who legitimately like my music. I would post my link back in my post if I knew that the people who followed me were people who actually liked my music, but seeing as how this thread has now spawned a great handful of people who will come in here, follow someone and suddenly expect me to do the same when they haven't even bothered to listen to my music.

[faun2500]

For f**k sake stop bring morals to this thread. WE were all very content in here a few pages back.


Just wanted to add, there still loads of great music coming through here!

[faun2500]

Can the original thread started add something to the title please. Something like "read the rules!!", "read the thread" or "Leave your morals at the door"

[faun2500]

As per telling people to leave the thread; why?

I assume you're referring to my previous post, which was meant in a light-hearted way, but obviously not received as such. In hindsight, I acknowledge that it could have been interpreted in an aggressive manner, for which I apologise.

Having said that, I do think it's unreasonable to tell people that an idea is "lame", especially when most contributors to this thread are actually enjoying the idea and getting something from it. I for one have been introduced to a lot of new music from this thread, some of which I've enjoyed listening to and commented on. Music which otherwise would have passed me by.

Personally, I would never dream of making such negative comments in threads where original ideas are presented. If I didn't agree with those ideas, or thought they were "lame", I simply wouldn't post.

To me, posting negative comments in such threads would be lame.

This is a forum, and until a moderator steps in to tell us we can't do this, we have a right to express our opinions in this thread.

There's no argument from me on this.

Secondly, the OP acknowledged the fact that there will be responses like this, and in fact, almost encourages it, so for a knee jerk reaction to people responding as such seems slightly childish.

Childish or otherwise, it wasn't a "knee-jerk" reaction. But then there's no way you could have known that. I guess that's you expressing your opinion, and I defend your right to do so.

I hope there's no misunderstanding here.



Now, are we gonna follow each other or what?

You are a philosopher!

This is a happy thread for happy followers.

[2NDMOUSE]

Can the original thread started add something to the title please. Something like "read the rules!!", "read the thread" or "Leave your morals at the door"

Or "leave your integrity at the door"

[faun2500]

Yes, something like this would be perfect. Thank you fellow follower.

[Syncretia]

ntom - I don't really understand what your complaint is. You posted your Sound Cloud page ages ago which means that you wanted followers. Then, you withdrew your follows and started complaining about the thread. This is a shameless self-promotion exercise. If you're not down with the shame, why do you feel it necessary to complain?

Getting followed doesnt mean anyone is gonna listen to your tracks. I'd rather have 10 true fans who will buy everything than 10.000 who follow me just to get followed back.

I beg to differ. Since I started this thread, I've gained a fair few followers, but more importantly the weekly rate of listens has tripled. 300% increase. That says to me that this exercise is far more successful than even I initially imagined. I agree that followers aren't really the greatest way to measure someone's success, but getting my music in to people's ears is the most important thing in my opinion, and that has happened!

So, I hope that others have also experienced an increase in listening traffic.

Just another point about this. Everyone wants their music heard. That's why we do this. When Skrillex releases a track, thousands and thousands of people pounce on it. Why? Because his music is superior? No, the answer is that he has marketed himself well and therefore has an audience to play to. This thread is merely an attempt to increase our audience base and share our music so that when we do release a track, our cats are not the people on the planet that hear it.

Can the original thread started add something to the title please. Something like "read the rules!!", "read the thread" or "Leave your morals at the door"

Aren't the rules clear enough?

a) Post your SoundCloud link
b) Follow everyone else's SoundCloud link on this thread

The thread is titled "Shameless SoundCloud Follow Exchange". I don't really know how else I can express the necessity to leave your morals at the door in this thread.

[ntom]

ntom - I don't really understand what your complaint is. You posted your Sound Cloud page ages ago which means that you wanted followers. Then, you withdrew your follows and started complaining about the thread. This is a shameless self-promotion exercise. If you're not down with the shame, why do you feel it necessary to complain?

When did "last week" become ages?
When did I say I didn't want followers? You've misinterpreted what I have said. I said I would rather have followers who appreciate my music, not just follow me for the number.
I thought this was about just posting soundcloud links in hopes of getting listens and maybe even getting followers, obviously I should have either read more clearly or you need to clear up what you said (one or the other) But when you told me this is simply about the number and not the listeners, I retracted my link because I did not want to be part of that. As I said before; I'm not going to play this kind of game. I want people to listen to my music and if - AND ONLY IF - they like my music, then I would love it if they followed me.

Secondly, I was following up with responses to me. After you told me what this thread is ACTUALLY about is when I retracted my link and made a response (paraphrasing) that I don't want to play this kind of game.
And from that point on I have been speaking my opinion in response to what others have said to what I have already said, which brings me to where I am at and why it's "necessary" for me to "complain".

--In short, I'm stubborn and when a response has been directed at me to respond, I'm probably going to respond.

And that 300% doesn't all come from your followers, as I said, I listened to a lot of the people's music in this thread, some of it was good, some of it was mediocre, some of it wasn't my cup of tea, some of them I am already following.
I gave you the decency of my listen and a respectful decline to listen to your music, because personally why would I follow someone who doesn't make music I like? I wind up getting a soundcloud page of (as quoting from the video I posted) full of stuff I don't want to listen to because I don't like it.

[2NDMOUSE]

Exactly.
At the start , soundcloud was an electronic music community.
Now , it has russell brand , audio books , and death-yodel-speedcore. I like none of these.
So , why should I follow this kind of thing "blindly" , then sit vack and relish the experience of having a feed full of terrible music I'll never ever listen to ( unless im ever being tortured as a hostage somewhere ).

As for that 300% rise. Maybe you are genuinely good , or , maybe its initial curiosity for a few weeks and will return to normal.
Last week , one of my tracks had over 1000% , WITHOUT any promotion , except for a mention on my facebook page. It had 1500 plays in 3 days , and I did nothing. It wasnt even a full track , as it was a 1 minute clip.
I dont know how it happened , but I didnt need to do this to get that result.

Like I said before , this will only work in small numbers. Its like a pyramid scheme. The more people , the less profit there is.
Who's gonna have the time to come in this thread and add 100 people ?
Maybe there'll be someone , so what about 500 ?
The law of diminishing returns. This is unsustainable.

The main reason I wouldnt do this is because I dont want a feed full of boring , mediocre , "music" made by people with zero imagination. Its not even about production skills. Its just about imagination. There might be some of you who are good at making music , in fact I know there is definitely 1 ( black ghost ) but I followed him because He posted a track in the music cafe before I even seen this thread , but im sure , if you have to resort to these methods to almost "buy" followers , that your music is probably great for sleep therapy , but very little else. I dont want to condemn anyone.....im just tired of spam , and the "numbers game" .

Music isnt a pissing contest.