There is a etiquette on how to solicit someone with your new music, be it on Facebook, Twitter, email or SoundCloud.
The proper way to do it is contact the person and ASK if you can send them some music.
You do not blindly send a email with links or attachments. You do not post on someone’s Facebook wall. You do not send a Twitter direct message. You do not post a comment with your music. You do not send a private track on SoundCloud. If I didn’t request it, it is spam. It will get deleted.
Sorry, but I need to call out a group called FireFarm on SoundCloud who just sent me a private track. I should say sent me and 43,242 other people the private track. This is called spam. Did I request your music? No. Do I know you? No. Am I following you? No. Do you even know if I like your style of music? No.
I am going to give FireFarm the benefit of the doubt, that they did not know that by default SoundCloud sends private tracks to people who do not follow you. Check out the default email settings in SoundCloud.
Why would the default setting be email messages right away from anybody?
SoundCloud Default Email Settings
Time to update my SoundCloud settings.
If you are going to use a third party website such as SoundCloud to send out tracks, make sure you understand how they work. And when you want to send out tracks, ask for permission. Don’t become a spammer.
So that’s what I’ve been doing wrong!? I stopped sending those emails out last year and decided to focus on other things.
I should point out that there’s people selling e-books, & courses that specifically say you ‘can’ & ‘should’ email people. I know I know, but that’s mainly where I got the idea from.
(not naming any names)
Great article tho!
Emailing people is perfectly fine, if they opted in to receive emails from you. You should never email or message people who never asked to be messaged.
Thanks for the tip, I wondered how I was getting private tracks from people I’ve never heard of…
Part of the problem are the websites, they actually do things which unknowingly encourage spam. Soundcloud could fix the problem. Facebook could make it easy to invite only friends within a certain radius of the event. Often the spamming happens because nobody knows they are doing it.
Do you have any talent or do you just make money telling other people shit they should and should not do?
I am not a musician, but that has no relation to what I am discussing. You don’t have to be a musician to understand marketing and promotion. I am a fan of bands, and spend ALOT of my money supporting bands.
What about sending an email inviting all those that have left a comment on my tracks in the last 4 months to join my newly set up mail list, and connect through other networks. I made a list of 150 people that left a nice comment so am starting to send out the emails by DM, one by one, but there is a lot of copy paste…
I think it is legitimate, but I am afraid that SC will block my account if I send these all in one go (150 messages in a couple of hours)… I stopped at number ten, will do the next ten later etc… But I’de rather do them all in one go…what do you think?
Be careful, that could be considered spam. Just because they left you a comment does not mean they are giving you permission to email them. Personally I would look at it as spam. I don’t want email from everyone I leave a comment. And the fact that the message is copy and paste, the same to everyone shows no personal connection.
I actually do have connection with them through previous comment exchanges or comment replies, sometimes DMs, and they are all followers that I follow. But I just don’t have the time to email them all a personal message. I make small adjustements though the core of the mail like the name or if I remember something about them (Some interaction were more meaningful than other). But those which were not, I don’t care: they spammed me
(comment = ” nice”, I leave them but don’t respond)
So how do I communicate to them the existence of the new mail list? I think it is legitimate – they left one or more comments on my page, for me It gives me the right to send them once or twice a year a message.
I think you are wrong: There is Span and Spam . Abuse of it is bad, but one needs mass mailing…
If you don’t message, you have no way of being seen! And I need to save teh time for making music than emailing personal msg to 150 people… Sorry, I don;t see any other way and have to go forward with my plan. Hope you are not one of my followers lol! Be well and thx for your answer.
I am just telling you that technically what you are doing could be reported for spam. They did not optin to receive marketing communication email from you. You can only send mass emails if people said they wish to receive them. You are free to do what you feel you must, just letting you know what could happen.
Hi Michael,
Well, I just sent 2 more message (so 12 in total) and I got a warning. I am starting to feel paranoid, and am starting to consider stop promoting online all together. The people that have been exposed to my music love it! but I can’t get more exposition, because each time I try to communicate, this kind of stuff happens. While we receive spam emails continously from big companies. I am fed with up the Internet today, where the big guys full of bucks always win… I remember being warned on FB because I was sending legitimate emails. I had to stop writing to my friends… There is a cancer in social networks now, and those that pay are the real artists.
Btw, I forgot to thank you for responding so promptly on christmas eve! So thanks 🙂 !
Am a little calmed down now 🙂
” You can only send mass emails if people said they wish to receive them.” I return the question:
How can one communicate “Do you want to receive mass email ?”, i.e. a Newsletter if you are not allowed to send them an email once…… Chicken and the egg…
Ask them to join your email list in the comments.. you have one on your website?
Again me, been checking your website ( I landed directly on this page when I started having doubts on what I was doing and made a quick search on the web). Hey, there are quite a few tips here, thanks for sharing!
Thank you, hope some of it helps.