So, you want to learn how to make money on Soundcloud, right?

First of all, I would like to congratulate you for this idea. Not many people have this kind of creativity when it comes to making money.

Needless to say, that’s why most people are miserable at their 9 to 5 job. There were numerous studies that showed more than 50% of people hate their jobs.(1)

The thing is that most of them don’t do anything about it. Leaving that aside, the music industry has changed a lot in the past decades.

Nowadays, independent artists can make their own money without working with well known music producers.

So, if you’re here to learn exactly that, you came to the right place! By the end of this article, you will know exactly what you need to do in order to make money with Soundcloud.

Also, you will learn what not to do so that you don’t get disappointed.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ON SOUNDCLOUD

Companies like Soundcloud have definitely changed the game. They basically mixed music with social media.

On Instagram, you like and follow people so that you can see their photos and lifestyle. On the other hand, you like people on Soundcloud because you want to follow them for their music.

Not too long ago, people weren’t making any money on Soundcloud. That’s why nowadays it seems very hard to make a living off of this platform alone.

In the past, Soundcloud was just a useful platform where artists can build a following and monetize it somewhere else. Luckily, the platform recently added a feature in order to help artists monetize their following faster.

This feature is called “On Soundcloud” and it’s what we will mainly focus in this article.

ON SOUNDCLOUD

YouTubers mainly make money from their ad revenue. Whenever someone clicks on their video, an ad is played and the content creator gets paid based on how many people view the ad.

“On Soundcloud” works very similar. It allows artists to include ads before and after the songs.

This is a huge game changer for artists, as they can make money without dealing with music producers and brands. It isn’t unheard of for artists to basically get scammed by these producers by signing contracts that don’t benefit them at all.

It is a well known fact that some producers take advantage of the artist’s talent and lack of legal knowledge. Soundcloud offers a better solution for musicians to make money while doing what they love.

The best thing about it is that the money from the Soundcloud ads go straight to the artist without dealing with another company. It’s basically a transaction between an individual musician and Soundcloud.(2)

Also, there are different levels in regards to “On Soundcloud”. The more views you manage to get, the higher you go in the ranks in terms of earning potential.

PARTNER LEVEL

The “partner” level is the first tier for artists wanting to make money on Soundcloud. It’s free to join and you can take advantage of the following features:

• Maximum 3 hours of music on your account
• Stats that are meant to help you with building n audience
• Access to an insider mastermind where you can receive help from other people with growing your brand and audience

Unfortunately, artists at this level can not monetize their songs with ads in any way.

People usually use this because it’s free and they can easily build a following that they can monetize on other platforms.

PRO LEVEL

At the “pro” level, you are allowed to post 6 hours of content on your profile. There is also a “pro unlimited” version where you can post … unlimited content.

As you can imagine, this level comes at a certain cost. The “pro” tier costs $4 per month, while the “pro unlimited” one costs $8 per month

However, you do get some cool things if you decide to pay.

• You can market your best songs by posting them on your profile, so that people can see your best work right away. This wasn’t possible at the “partner” level.
• Advanced statistics and tracking. You will be able to see from which countries your followers are listening from, as well as where they found your music. This can be very useful, as you can double down on your most successful platforms in order to get people to listen to you on Soundcloud.

PREMIER LEVEL

You can only make money on Soundcloud by being a premier member. At this point, you will earn 55% of the advertising revenue that the platform makes from your songs.

The “premier” tier is the highest level in regards to Soundcloud artists. You can get access to the features it offers only by invite.

There is no way to get to premier level by paying. However, if you do get invited, here are the benefits:

• You receive an account manager that helps you increase your audience size and optimizes your profile
• You will be able to advertise your music, so that more people can find you and increase your clout.
• You will finally be able to get paid. Only premier members are allowed to have ads in between their videos.

As you can see, making money on Soundcloud is possible. However, it’s definitely not easy.

You need to be a premier member in order to qualify for payments. Untill then, you are basically just building a following (which is still ok).

If you have marketing skills, you will still be able to monetize your following in a number of different ways (more on that later).

However, we will first talk about a couple of things you can do in order to have the highest chance of getting accepted in the premier program.

• Communicate with your followers and be friendly. Do your best to not come across as entitles
• Listen to other content creators and try adding value to them. Maybe you give them some good advice that they never thought of
• Make your profile look as good as possible. Try having a professional appearance, but also look approachable
• Don’t forget to include some tags in your songs. The more, the better. This is how you reach a large number of people and increase your follower count
• Join a ton of groups and be sociable

Most of these tips can be summarized in one sentence: be friendly and enjoy your time.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you don’t manage to get accepted into the premier program, you will not be able to monetize your songs with ads. However, there are a ton of other ways to do it.

If you already have an audience, then you already won half of the battle. Building an audience online is one of the most difficult and important things you can do.