Driving Digital Download Sales via the BUY button on SoundCloud
(By Oliver Cox)
You might think of SoundCloud as a medium for publicity, but with the ‘buy’ button and the right tweaks, SoundCloud can generate hard sales.
SoundCloud allows all users to set up a ‘buy’ button that appears below your tracks, which, when clicked, will direct users to your track on iTunes or Beatport, for example. Using ‘buy’ is the perfect way to roll publicity and sales into one experience and, because the modern user is so busy and distractable, any time and effort that you save them will directly contribute to increased sales.
What Is It?
As featured above, the ‘buy’ button is used by many SoundClouders to generate sales. Using this feature is simple: if the track is for sale or download, go to your settings and access the ‘meta’ tab. Then, add the link to your track on, say, Bandcamp and you’re ready to go.
Remember that you don’t necessarily have to have your music available on a top site, nor do you have to sell it. You could, for example, offer a free download on your blog. Either way, the central principle is the same: long term contact between users and your music is the name of the game, and this is a fine way to facilitate it.
How Useful Is It?
If possible, use the buy button. SoundCloud is the top way to introduce people to your music, and innumerable people encounter music on the site that they come to love, so giving them the opportunity to download your stuff is top priority.
The conversion rates (the percentage of people that listen to a track then buy it) for the buy button aren’t published openly by SoundCloud, but some of its press gives us a good idea. Darren Herrings of Motive Unknown wrote for SoundCloud that his stuff on the site converts at 1-2%.
This may sound small, but, from a marketing perspective, it is excellent. According to Bryan Eisenberg, Google’s adverts for travel convert at 1.45%, and SoundCloud is a social medium, not high-powered marketing content. So, SoundCloud converts well and, unlike Google AdWords, won’t cost you a penny to set up.
How-to: Marketing
Now that I’ve convinced you that you should set up the buy button on your best tracks, how can we increase that conversion rate?
One of the top ways to get people in the mood to click ‘buy’ is to advertise in the track title the fact that they can do so. Displaying ‘Download’ or ‘Free Download’ will catch the user’s eye as they scroll through pages of SoundCloud, which is especially important as, at least for now, the buy button is tiny.
This next tip is for Pro users: as SoundCloud explains, go into settings and by changing ‘buy link title’ you can set your own text. In the example below, Groundbreaking emphasizes his good will and stands out by saying ‘Name Your Price’ rather than plain old ‘buy’. A phrasing like this is perfect, also, because it puts the power in the hands of the user.
Now that you’ve got good content on your SoundCloud, tweaked to convince people to download, a surge in interest around your account will create the perfect circumstances for your music.
Soundudes is the tool for this purpose, based on an algorithm that analyses your SoundCloud and follows the people who can help you to grow your network. These new connections are proven to like and repost your music, multiplying your followers and the number of people who will click ‘buy’. You create the material and present it well, and Soundudes will send you the traffic.