Sharing to socials is a cheat code
by Mixcloud
If you’re looking for more listeners, sharing your mixes to social media is one of the easiest steps you can take.
Voices Radio Breakfast host @mariahanlon ’s seen the quick impact this can have. This year alone her profile’s grown from 98 followers to 528 (that’s a whopping 438.78%) thanks to sharing one link on Instagram Stories.
Now, not everyone might have a beautiful social media profile with 4,000 followers but that doesn’t mean sharing your mix on the following channels won't bring a new audience to your musical world. If you don’t have social media try these:
Whatsapp 📞
Most of us have failed to notice the fact that Whatsapp is a social media app. In China WeChat, their Whatsapp alternative, functions just like a social app. I began using my broadcast messages to get my weekly radio show out there and it’s become one of the main ways people stay in touch with my show. Give it a try - and be prepared that whilst some people will love it, some of your friends might not.
Email 📨
Starting a newsletter might not be your first line of communication but if you’ve built up contacts; from gigs, promoters, record labels and musicians, a mail out might just be a great idea.
If you don’t feel like that then there’s your email signature. You know that bit at the bottom of your email where your phone number and name goes. Why not add a hyperlink to your show down there?
Reddit 👾
Forums are a great way to find your crowd. There’s a forum for every genre and every sub-genre. Connect with people. Share your show. My advice: add context. So many people share their show with very little info about what makes it special. The large word limits on forums means the floor is yours to get a solid pitch to avid music fans, so go for it!
Have you found an effective way to get your shows out there? Please drop some hints below
Comments
ai dont care .. i just love music
Ive asked for this previously without any result. Why is it that the "Exclusive" button is buried 2 levels down where I can untick it to open programs up to any listener? So with 800 odd programs I have to go into each individual program, navigat in and out to open it up. Life is too short for this when you could simply have an untick button for exclusive on the profile page. Better still highlight a number of programs and do a bulk untick?
How bout it?
@mixcloud we need social media posts, not ‘anti-social’ media, so why can we only use big tech social media platforms directly?
As long as you know your place and stay in your own lane im cool with that. What you need to do for all your creators is a couple of very simple things. One, when we listen to our mixes do not count our play count. Two, Do not show us what we have listend to. Show us all the people who have listened to our mixes. You need to differentiate between the listeners and the creators on your platform, please. You think you could do these two simple things without charging us? I understand we can turn off play counts. And if we have pro we can kind of see who all are listening to our mixes. I'm not talking about that so please do not respond with that garbage, thank you.
I have a WhatsApp group for people I know for my programmes, how do I make it , or indeed create a new WhatsApp for an open audience
There is a lot of feedback to this post and it is generally comforting to see Mixcloud responding and engaging with almost every comment, even those that are a little off-topic, good and bad. There are many sites where admins are very silent.
Thanks @djphase6 - the feedback we get here really informs how we prioritise improvements to the site. Along with interviews with our users, surveys and other research methods, this is one of our best resources for generating ideas that make Mixcloud a better place. When people are respectful of course! Thanks for your comment, Elliott
@mixcloud Interesting article! The idea of sharing mixes externally absolutely works; we see that ourselves with KCS @kitchencountersessions Most of our genuine listeners come from our website and newsletter subscribers who click through to MixCloud. So the “cheat code” of bringing listeners from outside platforms is definitely real.
However, that also highlights a bigger question: what is MixCloud doing to bring listeners to creators from within the platform itself?
We currently have around 1,500 followers, but the majority of those do not translate into actual listening. A lot of interaction here seems to come from creators following other creators. People click, favourite, repost, maybe listen for a few minutes, but rarely return to the mix. I can confidently say that out of those followers, only 10% are real listeners. I know this very well because, while I have a few hundred listens on the sets I do for KCS, my personal channel here doesn't get anything close to those numbers because I don't have external promotional tools like a website.
This creates an odd situation where creators are effectively responsible for bringing the audience, while MixCloud’s internal discovery still heavily promotes big-name DJs who already have massive audiences elsewhere. Yet the platform itself is largely supported by Pro creators who are paying subscribers.
It would be great to see more active discovery features highlighting those creators, the people actually investing in the platform, rather than primarily promoting celebrity DJs who don’t really rely on MixCloud. Why not actively give more exposure to a Pro creator who does good live shows? Or to a channel that puts out unique sets? There are plenty of creators here on MixCloud who create some fantastic sets. After all, I guess listeners come here for that and actual mix of something.
I created an AWOL account to experiment with storytelling around mixes and wrote a blog to accompany one of the sets. But the post system is very limited; it doesn’t allow even simple formatting like bold or italics for track names or key moments. Small tools like that could really improve how creators present their mixes. The majority of the feedback I got was that while it was interesting, it was annoying to look at plain text without any formatting, especially on a phone.
MixCloud is still one of the best places to legally publish DJ mixes, which is why we are here. But if sharing externally is the “cheat code”, it would be interesting to know what MixCloud itself is building to help listeners discover independent creators within the platform.
Thanks @AWOL22 for the genuinely constructive response. In answer to your big question: we celebrate all our creators and communities on our blog, social media and paid adverts everyday 24/7. Without our creators Mixcloud is just a thing we built, not this global community of music lover. So that's why we celebrate creators big and small across those channels to show the wider world this is where real music lovers are sharing the best records on the planet. We can always improve our marketing strategies and will take this and all the other comments as evidence of a need to try more strategies aimed at listeners.
Your point on active discovery features is interesting. Would you be interested if the work we did on the blog (to tell the stories of low-profile creators) featured more prominently on the platform? Any more you can tell me on this idea would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Elliott
Mixcloud needs to have a google TV app, every other platform is on there such as Soundcloud, Deezer, spotify even TuneIn.
I can basically access every music streaming platform on my Google TV except Mixcloud.
Come On team why are you always chasing and not leading
Bottom line for Mixcloud now a days is, we have to pay to play!
Hey @jason-sanders sorry you feel that way but it's not factually true. Whilst we don't charge for your basic tier usage, most community radio stations will charge you for a regular show. For them pay to play is nothing new, that's how they stay alive. We charge a lot less than small station subs to connect you with listeners around the world. That said, you only have to pay for Pro if you want to use the features we've built. You can still upload ten mixes or tracks, build a fanbase and top the charts on the basic tier subscription without paying a penny. If you have more specific feedback on this issue i'd like to know. Thanks, Elliott
@mixcloud So that's not true at all, Radio station in the USA charge you, NOT in EUROPE ! And I don't think that's different in the rest of the world. 😎
that's also the reason why we do not us your platform anymore...
All our other platfroms are 100% free, some even pay you for the work.
anthe other hand, you getmoney on the work of others (that don't get payed for they work!). How do you call that ??? I call that Slavery, sorry.
@tormentor_radio @tormentor_radio I apologise if I made an incorrect assumption. The five community radio stations i've played on here in the UK and the US-based station i'm a resident on have charged me subs even for a single show. I may have wrongly assumed this applies to most community stations around the world, definitely not all of them. My point is, we're not an outlier.
Mixcloud provides a service where DJs can share their radio shows with the world and be rest assured copyright costs are covered and the rights holders of the songs get paid. Calling that slavery diminishes those actually in slavery by trivializing the commodification of human life and we don't tolerate that here. Please think sensitively when commenting in future. Thanks, Elliott
Oright mate, I'll bite. When Mixcloud began there was no charge and we our post were unlimited. All mixes loaded were top tier HQ sound as well. Why has that changed? We the creators are who make your platform. Then you have your listeners who are looking for good music to listen to. We are not the same. Soundcloud has been and is still a totally free streaming service. Your no different then them. I chose Mixcloud over SoundCloud simply because i had more followers on your platform first. And that happened by chance, nothing on yalls end before you start taking credit. We contribute to your platform while you take away options we had when we first signed up. Facts!
Then if we want some of those options back you tell us to pay for it. Just as a drug dealer gives it for free at first. Then statrs charging once they got yeah. So kudos to you Mixcloud 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 In using the same business model as a low level drug dealer. @@@
@jason-sanders You're not wrong, there were no upload limits or charges when we first started. But then royalty and hosting costs rose and the service became untenable. Soundcloud did also introduced a free tier limit (3 hours of content). Hosting HQ sound is part of the hosting costs, hence why that became part of the Pro tier subscription.
We're not here to take credit for the community or work creators have made here, we want to support and celebrate as best we can. Our focus as a company is to continue building tools that make growing a community a reality for DJs whilst ensuring artists get paid. We've been doing that for 17 years and introduced the Pro tier in 2022. It wasn't a 13 year plan to start charging people after sharing it for free. We had to see the value in the service we've built to continue doing it and many DJs have come to recognise the value of the service we provide.
I appreciate that you've been supporting us for a long time, so thank you. We're always up for hearing what we can do to improve the service for yourself and your listeners. However, I'd say we're more like a record dealer and you're welcome to sit in the shop and listen to the tunes for free. Thanks, Elliott
You need a tiktok share button too
Social media sharing of live stream URLs isn’t helped much by the quality of the “embeds” that Mixcloud provides. They are so bad that it is necessary to delete them before posting.
(1) The image is a nonsensical crop of just part of the image for the stream. It looks ridiculous (on all platforms that we have tried, at least).
(1) The blurb is not about the stream but is instead an awkward advertisement for Mixcloud itself: “Broadcast live to your community of fans and tune in direct to creators from every genre”. Ewww... 😬
Boostered number followers looks nice, but makes zero difference if they're not listening to uploads or joining DJs in their lives😌
Well good news, Mixcloud will promote other RANDOM mixes while burying uploads from people you follow now, their latest innovation is to put live and "recommended" horseshit OVER your library.
Would love to see a language filter for creators on Mixcloud! It's really hard to discover shows in languages other than English right now. A simple tag like "broadcast language" in search would make a huge difference for non-English speaking communities trying to find — and grow — their audience. 🙌
Mixcloud time to look inwards going by general comments. Loadsa disgruntled members and I'm one of them. Mixcloud has become a massive echo chamber. One click and whoosh I'm following hundreds of members I will never go and check out. My profile is now bloated with over a hundred extra followers in the last months. Good news? Nope as not one of them has even bothered to check out my profile and mixes. Echoo oh oh oh
Hey @mcgoo1888 - in reference to the new Spotlight feature: many profiles, like @DeLaCasa_Radio have reported improvements to their listenership from the feature. We're still monitoring this but the current data is positive. We understand not all followers will listen straight away. We're improving the feature so creators can understand where these followers are coming from so as to connect with them more easily. So far, we're happy to see it helping more users become connected through recommendations as opposed to impersonal algorithms. Are there any specific changes you'd like to see on the feature that can help us improve? Thanks for your feedback, Elliott
When will mixcloud update the ability to post to more than Instagram directly and include additional editing features other than altering the colour.
They are in it for the money actually. Remember when
all accounts were free?
Hi @MentalDecay - which other avenues would you like to share to? And any particular editing features for socials sharing? Thanks in advance, Elliott
🤘🐱🤘
True .. Thanks for the tips.
This is all very well and good, and the extra tips are appreciated, but what steps are Mixcloud taking to bring in the general public? Where are you advertising worldwide? It still feels like Mixcloud is a lot of creators with hardly any organic listeners.
Hi @BewareTheRadio - we're always advertising on social media and creating content with the Mixcloud community that shows the depth and breadth of how culture lives on the platform. Please visit our social media pages on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok if you'd like to see how we're bringing new listeners in by telling great stories. Thanks, Elliott
@mixcloud I hear you, and I see impressive follower counts on Instagram and Facebook, but engagement there isn't in line with those headline figures. I also don't understand why Mixcloud only follows a tiny proportion of your followers there. It would be good to have more integration with Bluesky nowadays, where your presence is minimal. What I was really thinking though is advertising outside of social media - TV campaigns, newspaper articles, partnerships, sponsorships, billboard adverts. How is Mixcloud reaching out to people who aren't active on social media - and specifically, reaching out to potential listeners rather than creators?
@BewareTheRadio We nagged @Mixcloud into joining Bluesky and to their credit they eventually gave it a try but it was little more than dipping a toe in the water: just some posts about their own shows and zero interaction before giving up. I would understand their disappointment about lack of an instant large following on “alternative” social media platforms (although there is a certain irony in not wanting to invest time in a platform that isn’t the biggest?), but for many of us, the major “social media” platforms have for a long time been just too odious and unproductive to have anything to do with.
Whilst posting on social media (even Bluesky!) can attract listeners, which was of course the point of the OP, you are right, B!tR, in pointing out that it does little to raise of Mixcloud itself. However, Mixcloud has been around for a long time now, so had there ever been funds for an advertising blitz, I think that would have happened by now.
@BeachyHeadRadio It's deeply frustrating, particularly because it's in all our interests for @Mixcloud to get their own promotion right. We'd all benefit if Mixcloud could manage to raise its own profile and attract some organic listeners. Currently it feels like we bear all the burden of bringing in our own listeners. Otherwise it's just creators checking out other creators.
Correction, Use Signal messenger rather than Facebooks whatsapp service. There no ads or any rubbish. Plus federated platforms such Mastodon and Pixelfed offer more organic and better ways of sharing without ads, trackers or suggested rubbish.
New shows use to be automatically shared on social media, what happened ?
Hey @djsuperjaimie - the team's informed that these integrations were shut down by each of the social media sites around the time of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal. We used to be able to post automatically to Twitter and Tumblr too but these also got shut down. Out of interest, which social media site would you be automatically posting your shows to if you could? Cheers, Elliott
@mixcloud Instagram and Facebook
I'll repeat this for the 1000th time. For live streams, it would be really cool if your followers were notified when you went live. That's kind of the purpose of having followers. That's something Mixcloud can do but won't. As far as promoting uploads/mixes, yes, self-promotion on social media is logical.
Hey @djdreamdoctor - we do send push + email notifications to your followers when you go live as long as they have them set to on. Are you talking about another form of notification? Thanks, Elliott
@mixcloud Is this true? Does that happen only on the phone app? What about desktop/laptop users? If it is true, then that's great.
@djdreamdoctor Hey @djdreamdoctor it does only happen on the phone app and via email. It's our assumption that people aren't sitting on Mixcloud all the time waiting for a live, they're more likely to receive live notifications through their emails and phones on the app. Thanks, Elliott
@mixcloud Elliott, that might be a bad assumption. Some desktop users probably are invested in the platform enough at least to have a browser tab open much of the time. Not the majority for sure, but probably some. Some people might be listening to another Mixcloud stream, maybe just as background, but would appreciate a notification when one of their favorite creators goes live.
@mixcloud It has been my experience that people do not receive emails even if their notifications are turned on. If that is no longer the case then this is great news ! I'm going to test this out at my earliest opportunity and confirm with you.
@mixcloud I have verified this with another streamer. Nothing has changed. His followers DO NOT receive emails when he goes live even though their notifications are turned on.
@Gil_on_MX Twitch send a notifician and I quite like it as a listener but not as a creator lol. If I don't want notifications I can turn them off.
How about giving us some better customisation options for the post to Instagram Stories option?
Yes! That can definitely improve. What would you like to see in that regard @decoyaudio ? Thanks, Elliott
@mixcloud choice of colours, adjustable preview clips, and choice of waveform designs would be a great start.
@decoyaudio great shout
This button doesn't even work for me. It just doesn't load Instagram, so I have to copy the link and create my own visual.
I'm an older fogey who mainly uses Facebook to advertise my weekly Mixcloud shows. I don't just target my own feed and immediate 'friends.' I also post in various internet radio groups. Facebook music groups tend to not appreciate people cluttering the feed with self-serving ads. I even created my own group with 100% open access. My weekly 'hits' and 'follows' are growing. I don't think I'll ever reach the numbers that some Mixcloud casters reach, but my content is probably less appealing to the big numbers.
Are we following each other's Facebook pages?
@djdreamdoctor I do follow the pages of 'casters that bring content that I'm interested in.
@lspin Same.
Do you have any advice for people with no social media? Who don't want social media and prefer to avoid that whole false toxic atmosphere?
Create your own website with eblasts people can sign up for. Also, I saw another commenter recommending using internet radio groups. Might be worth looking into
Hi @Chappellinho as stated above, my top choices would be to start an email newsletter or use forums like Reddit. My main advice is to find people who love the same sounds as yourself. Use the genre pages on Mixcloud and reach out to radio stations. You could go old school and ask your favourite local music venues if you can put a small poster up on the notice board advertising your show. Any of those sound appealing? Elliott
@mixcloud thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm a bit of a Luddite to be honest. Mixcloud is my go to for online presence and i like to stay pretty anonymous. I'm happy playing music and if people like it great. If not it's cool. It seems everyone wants to know my social media and look aghast we we don't have any. We do use resident advisor which i'd recommend. Happy with word of mouth and being unknown! 😉
Wow thanks for the tip guys! What would we do without you lol. You actually get paid to write this? How about you jokers just run the website, that too much to ask?
Hey @megabrain - sharing to social media is a simple thing that a lot of people forget to do. Part of running a platform is reminding people such things are easily available to them. If your brain's as mega as you claim it to be, please suggest something useful I can get on with. Thanks, Elliott 🧠
@mixcloud Megabrain 😅
I don’t use social media so I’m knackered !
Nice to see others who don't crave fame.
Hey @richard-stevens definitely not! There's always email, blogs, online forums, radio stations and real world spaces like gig venues or record stores where you could advertise your shows. Hope that helps, Elliott
@mixcloud thank you for the advice , maybe Mixcloud could randomly pick and feature somebody’s mix at events like Glastonbury etc during off peak hours
@richard-stevens We'd love to have a stage at Glastonbury! For now though we do feature people's mixes on our Staff picks playlist, on the blog and on our own social media. Thanks for the ideas, Elliott
rocket science, boosting on socials and mixcloud would do the trick better
🚀