Ok, I have been on Soundcloud for about a year and a half now. I have tried Facebook Ads, posting on Twitter, trying to get playlisted, etc etc etc, but so far what has worked best for me is RepostExchange.
The concept is quite simple, but it is also well done and more importantly, it works... I am surprised Soundcloud hasn't actually bought them yet.
When you repost someone's track, you get credits. With those credits, you can start a campaign or you can request someone repost one of your tracks in exchange for credits too.
How many credits do you get? Well it depends on how many followers you have. The more followers, the more credits you get per repost. Also, a repost from someone with a lot of followers costs more. This helps you target your reposts. You can also view the genres of the users to make sure your music will appeal to their fans.
Believe it or not, I have also come across some tracks that I like that I would not have discovered otherwise. There are times I have been tempted to repost solely for credits, but for the most part I keep it honest. I won't repost something I genuinely don't like.
RepostExchange also sets some reasonable limits to prevent spamming (only a certain number of campaigns and requested reposts at once, only a certain number of reposts per day). For the most part though it incentivises in a good way. Need more followers? Try requesting a repost from a smaller artists. The more followers you have, the more credits you will get. Need to reach a wide audience? Request a repost from a bigger artist.
Also, you are incentivised to actually make good music. Good music will get reposted more often and the faster you are reposted, the faster you can actually spend your points. You cannot simply buy your way to popularity with credits because you can only have so many campaigns and repost requests at once.
Want to earn some credits? Well, you actually have to listen to music, but you might actually find something decent and help support and up and coming new artist at the same time. You can also buy credits, but you are limited on spending unless you make really good music that gets reposted quickly...
Oh, and BTW here is my referral link!
