Soundcloud is a wasteland

[bpmorton]

I was thinking of signing up for a Soundcloud account to post up my music but Soundcloud is an absolute F***ing mess.

Trying to find anything to listen to gets me the same D&B/R&B/Hip-Hop type uploads. Jazz/electronic/ambient all the same.....To me Jazz is like Charley Parker and Wes Montgomery...nothing close in the jazz section ( more D&B). Electronic would be something like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze.....Not so here in Soundcloud. Ambient would be something like Steve Roach or Michael Stearns. Again, ambient is filled with D&B. How would someone ever find your music amongst all the other stuff? Also, everything sounds muffled and low-fi. What compression settings do they use?

[Benedict]

Hi

Welcome to the post-90's where every form of music was usurped by electro trying to justify its validity (as Rock did before) by claiming to be any/every genre. 

For music you will find Bandcamp a better proposal. The platform is more supportive of the artist as an identity and isn't constantly trying to move people around like the MySpace/Facebook formula. Of course as an artist you need to generate your own traffic. There is also some decent music there.

[pLansford]

SoundCloud is a wasteland and that's why I deleted my profile with over a couple hundred followers.  Yeah a couple hundred ain't shit but hey I made music for years to get those followers.    All of the genre labels have gone to shit throughout the entire spectrum and no matter the genre you want to claim.  I think the best way to connect with people is to be direct otherwise it's all nonsense.  How do we be direct?  Music forums are great, sending demo's to labels, chatting with the guy at the bar or even a coworker.  And when they ask what kind of music I make, I'll tell them to make up their own damn minds.

[raymondh]

I *like* Soundcloud. That platform has done a huge amount for me.

While I understand your frustration of finding the music you like on Soundcloud, it is still a great platform to post music that you can share and get feedback. Specifically;

- You don't just post music onto your Soundcloud account and then see what happens. You advertise it (as Benedict points out) e.g. using this Forum (Music section), Twitter, Facebook etc, so you direct people specifically to your page and music. Or use Soundcloud groups, which are pretty good. 
- The ability for people to post comments on your timeline is really powerful. It's important that you reciprocate to those who take the time to post comments (I have some catching up to do on that!). I don't know of any other streaming service with this feature.

I have several sites, Bandcamp, Youtube, Reverbnation, Mixcloud and Soundcloud, and for me, Bandcamp is best presented/organised especially for finished albums, but Soundcloud is my goto 'patch' for uploading and getting feedback.

[SoundStruggler]

For everyone who prefer the retro style of electronic music I have some great play lists on my YouTube channel. It covers some of the best songs that I've managed to dig up from the 1980's up to resent time.

Also on my SoundCloud page I have followers/people I follow that make great music that differs from what you mostly hear today.

I myself is making a genre called New Beat for instance, though I guess there aren't anyone here interested in that.

I only have 45 followers, but I'm not making any effort to promote myself as for now it's just a hobby. I'm still learning this stuff.

[bpmorton]

Thanks for the info, guys. I really need to stay positive. I'll take another look at Soundcloud and also Bandcamp.

Brian

[Data_Shrine]

I like to use Soundcloud to listen to music while working.

I can search a band, listen to their materials, or search a genre... a lot of bands put up full live shows there too.

And bandcamp is a must for the underground

edit: not a big fan of paying for Soundcloud though...

[forensickbeats]

I would not browse World War Spam soundcloud, but rather find producers (in forums, etc...) whose work I dig then follow their accounts only.

[dvdrtldg]

If you're looking for new music, get on to Twitter.

All it requires is a bit of time searching out artists and labels to follow, then start checking out the recommendations or new releases that they're tweeting. Some of the stuff will be on Soundcloud, some on Bandcamp, some will be good old fashioned physical media. I have a Twitter account dedicated to music, and it's put me onto more great stuff over the past few years than I would ever have found otherwise.

[Soft Enerji]

SoundCloud has gone downhill in a major way in the last few of years. The site used to cater for the "little people" but as usual greed got in the way and more and more SC has become aligned with the professional music industry. The advent of the "New" SoundCloud pissed lots of folks off at the time, it looked better (perhaps) but a lot of the functionality of the old version was gone. When they finally shut down the "Old" SC, most of us pissed off people had grudgingly moved over anyway. I came close to dropping to the free version when my subscription was due earlier this year but decided only to drop down to the Pro account as I didn't have time to work out which tracks to keep and which to delete. I've got about 9 months to work that out now and then there's a very good chance SC can kiss my ass goodbye (as far as a paying member goes).

I have a Bandcamp page which was going along nicely before I started with SC but have let that slip over the past few years. I plan on getting that back on track............I just need to get some time management strategies in place. As this is my first post on here in a few days, that, to me is obvious

To the OP. If I were you I'd still go ahead and start a page. Any way of getting your music out is good.

Cheers

Mark

[bpmorton]

Yep went ahead and made an account and posted some music. I will see how it goes...it's just a hobby, why the hell should I complain?

Brian

[Soft Enerji]

Yep went ahead and made an account and posted some music. I will see how it goes...it's just a hobby, why the hell should I complain?

Brian

I should also have noted above that SC is just like any other social network in that if you want it to work for you, you've got to work with it.

Anyhoos, I for one am glad you've joined in.

Cheers

Mark