Hi folks, I’m thinking about upgrading my Soundcloud account. Ive only got the Soundcloud basic package which is free and I’ve nearly used up all of my free allocated minutes for uploading my tracks. Has anyone already upgraded to Soundcloud Artist or Soundcloud Artist Pro. If so, are these monthly subscription plans financially worth it? And are the benefits as good as what Soundcloud claim? Your feedback on this issue would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
I’m not sure that they are to be honest. I have artist and I have been using the boost function but I’m not really all that impressed. The extra minutes are OK and I have replaced a few audio files but I feel I could have managed with the basic plan. I’ll downgrade once my year is up.
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Hi Michael,
The original reason I upgraded to Artist Pro was because the basic plan had a limit to the number of tracks and I quickly exceeded it.
I only discovered very late on about distribution via SoundCloud, and that’s been quite a good experience. Nice easy process to get tracks out to streaming - if that’s what you want to do.
I had a little panic recently when they made a rumble about payouts, fees and regions and I thought I wouldnt be able to be paid (not that I get a lot but every bit helps, hey?!) because of my region and I also thought fees would erode payouts - But it’s worked out okay. In addition to swift fees they also deduct tax witholding.
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Thanks for your feedback John in relation to Soundcloud Artist. I’m presuming that the boost function boosts the amount of listeners of your tracks. Managing my basic package and removing my tracks as of when I need to is an option so thanks for your wise counsel and I will bear that in mind.
Thanks Eleri for sharing your experience with Artist Pro and making me aware of those payout fees and tax deductions. It seems pretty simple enough. By using Artist Pro have you distributed your music through other platforms yet like Apple Music etc so that you can share your music with a wider audience? Or are you solely keeping to sharing your music on Soundcloud only at the moment. I’m just planning for the future so I’m quite intrigued by what people have done in the past or are currently doing with Soundcloud. Thanks Eleri, much appreciated.
Hi Michael,
I found out by chance about distributing tracks - SoundCloud distributes to all streaming platforms for you which is very cool, Even to the likes of Amazon Music where people can buy your music, digitally.
SoundCloud give you all the money that is earned off of sales, less US tax and payment fees to uk bank accounts. 
Here’s a screenshot of where they distribute to:
Setting up a single for distribution is pretty straightforward. You do need to create album art also which will be shared with all the platforms/ stores, and add information/ details about the release etc and pick a date.
Once your music is ‘out there’ you can go claim your artist profiles in different places like Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify and Pandora in the USA.
Also worth noting that SoundCloud have integrated with Elasticstage so you can ‘make’ an album people can buy on vinyl - this is pretty neat. I’ve not used this yet.
I’m still trying to figure out a lot of stuff but what I also do is (I’m registered with PRS) register my tracks with PRS and then add the ISRC code that is generated by SoundCloud for the track to the work in PRS.
Cheers,
Eleri
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Thats very interesting. I use Tunecore (which I’m happyy with) for distribution so when Soundcloud started doing it I didn’t really look into it. Maybe based on your findings I’ll have a glance as I have a lot of stuff on Soundcloud already.
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Hope it helps. I haven’t tried the distribution Eleri mentions so can’t comment on that. I use Tunecore for distribution and publishing which I find a good system but like you I am still making gentle forays with the future in mind.
The boost is as you say. I get a hundred or so plays with each track but it doesn’t really amount to more than that (that could very much be down to my music rather than the system).
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You’ve provided a great bit of thorough information Eleri. Your resource of information is not only valuable to me but I’m sure will be invaluable to many other composers within the Crow Hill Community. Thanks alot.
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A hearty thanks to you John as well. You’ve provided a valuable insight for not only myself but other Crow Hill Community members to think about. Much appreciated.
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Hey Michael! I’ll share my own experience with soundcloud 
i had good and vad experiences with it.
I love the platform, find it easy to use and used it for distribution and all its features.
But. As there’s pros, there’s cons too 
Pros
- Distribution is very easy, you have access to a lot of stores, and generally if a release is refused you may resend it and it will end up being approved. I loved the interface, its intuitive.
- You get unlimited or double upload time with artist and pro tier, which is nice
- You get some discounts for promotion services, but you could get discount from other distributors too, nothing exceptionnal here.
- You can add download and payment links
- The initial pro boost is nice, you can get from 100 to 1000 views easy without any promo. Does it change anything in the end? Not really lol. Even if you were monetized, it gives almost nothing there.
- You get a star next to your name
and 5 tracks to spotlite on your profile. - Replacing the track without having to delete/resubmit is pretty usefull too.
Cons
About distribution
- Not sure how they calculate the cash back. It is detailed in payment, but i was told general streaming services pays 0.002 to 0.004 cents per stream in average. Yeah, well i got a lot less lol. More like 0.0001 and less per stream
which is, well, nothing. Not sure if its a bug or if i misunderstood something. And this is YT and all the others. Monetizing with soundcloud is a little better, but not much. - The help you get from them is absolutely DESPICABLE. Its ok as long as you don’t run into problems, but i waited 3 months for a content ID issue reply from them, and it wasnt resolved it the end. It happened 2 times on 2 different cases. That made me change to another distributor in the end.
- Their delays are….long. You can expect at least a week and more to pass before getting a reply or a release approval. And when its refused and you got to resubmit…well your release is postponed as well.
About artist pro tier
- Their Ai Mastering isnt worth it for orchestral. It just messes up things.
So in short, if you need more or unlimited upload hours, more spotlit tracks and a little initial boost on your release, go for it.
if your goal is distribution, go with tunecore, landr, or any other. Their are generally cheaper and the support better in my experience.
Bear in mind that this is my opinion, and i had a bad support experience. If support had been good, i would have stayed with them for distribution. Hope that helps
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Hi Michael - depends (as others have said) what you want out of it. Most of the ‘extras’ are pointless to me at least. The boost function seems very hit and miss. Distribution and ability to upload as many tracks as you want is the main driver for me, and the collaboration opportunities across the platform (though you don’t need to pay for that). The distribution is fairly seamless, and works across all major platforms.
TL;DR - if you want unlimited uploads and distribution for a relatively cheap sum (assuming you pay upfront) it’s worthwhile. If you’re signing up for the extras, I wouldn’t bother
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Thanks Matt for your comments that’s great advice. I think I’ve narrowed myself down to either upgrading to Soundcloud Artist Pro or using the Tunecore platform. I know there are other platforms like distro kid etc, however I’m really split between Soundcloud Artist Pro and Tunecore and Landr and I’m finding it really hard to make a final decision. I may well have to take a lucky punt in the near future and make a final decision.
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Thank you Matt for sharing your experience with using Soundcloud and for providing your invaluable resource of information for myself and all of the Crow Hill Community members to reflect upon. Your information provides and even greater depth of insight into the world of distribution of music. Your information is very much appreciated and has been very helpful.
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Depends how you use it. I upgraded to Pro’ due to file/song constraints. For £90 annually it’s a great platform. I have probably about 80% not public which I can share with collaborators my embryonic pieces as well as being able to listen to these songs, usually in my car from my mobile phone Bluetooth to see how it sounds ‘As A Listener’ which isn’t always easy if your sitting in a studio lol!. Boost wise, depending on how good your song is, boost is only going to take you so far IMHO. I’ve had one of my songs ‘Boosted’ and had 2.5k steams but the next one only 300 so I guess it’s a case of admitting the fact that your tune isn’t as good as you think it is. Always a nice indicator before distributing (or not) to Spotify, ITunes Amazon, YouTube etc which Soundloud caters for at no extra cost. So yea, I think it’s one of the best options out there.
Welcome to the Crow Hill community Colin. Thank you for describing your Soundcloud experience and your feedback is very helpful and very much appreciated. I like the way how you use Soundcloud to statistically gauge whether or not your song is any good based on the Soundcloud streaming analysis tools before deciding whether to distribute it or not. That’s a good bit of advice. Bye the way, I listened to a lovely track on Soundcloud today which was titled ‘Bird On The Wire’ by Colin Trainer. Was that your composition? If so, well done. If not my apologies. At the moment I’m trying to micro manage my compositions on the basic Soundcloud package and holding back for a little while on releasing my new material until I’ve finished my research and made a final decision. But Soundcloud Artist and Soundcloud Artist Pro sound very tempting. All the best.
Hi Michael. Thank you for the welcome. Yup, guilty as charged, that’s me Colin Trainer with Bird On The Wire which is one of the few actual ‘Covers’ I’ve done. Leonard Cohen done his version way back in original ¾ timing (Lenny liked a waltz lol!) and covers I’ve heard afterwards all seemed to be 4/4 which was easier as Mr Cohen was more a poet than a songwriter (too many words) I decided to go back to the original ¾ which had the risk of sounding a bit pedestrian as I had to drop the tempo to fit his words in. Glad you liked it
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Hello Michael,
I wondered were all your music went 
. I can’t really add much more to the brilliant advice given, Other then what I use Sound cloud artist for. Number one to share my music from the crow hill challenges, This is why I’m on you tube as well.
Number two to showcase my work to potential clients.
Look forward to listening to your music again .
Michael
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Hi Mick, thanks for reaching out. All of my tracks are still on Soundcloud buddy, however, I’ve put them all on private mode just for a little while. I’ve just remixed a couple of the tracks and I’ve nearly finished composing a raft of new tracks. I haven’t had time to take part in the Crow Hill Challenges lately because I don’t want to lose my focus on what I’m composing and time is very precious to me. Some of the new tracks are solely Crow Hill, and some are not, and some are a mixture of Crow Hill and other music developers. I’ve also decided that I will upgrade to Soundcloud Artist Pro within the next couple of weeks hopefully and once I’ve done that I will put all of the old tracks back in public mode, ok for everyone to hear if they so wish to follow me on Soundcloud. And then after that I will start adding the new stuff a little later bit by bit. I think that I will also eventually upload my tracks to Youtube just like yourself and others on this forum but for now anything that I upload on Youtube won’t include any visuals. Everyone in this chat who has participated by sharing their opinions and experience about using Soundcloud including yourself has provided some fantastic advice and words of wisdom. It’s very much appreciated. It won’t be long buddy. All the best and look forward to hearing your new material.
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Hi Mick I’m nearly done, ok buddy. Over the next day or two 'I’m just gonna test out Soundcloud Artist Pro by making public my older Crow Hill composition called Utopia - Vaults Composing Challenge - Tuned Gongs. I just want to see if Soundcloud Artist Pro makes any significant difference. I’m not gonna amplify and boost the awareness of this track. I just want to test the bear bones. In about 2-3 days all of my old and newly completed compositions will then be available to listen to under my name Michael Urquhart. And once they are all made public I hope everyone enjoys them. All the best.