SoundCloud’s ‘First Fans’ can help every musician find 100 new fans

SoundCloud is adding “First Fans,” a feature that will recommend new tracks within the first few days of release to 100 listeners who the streamer’s algorithm has determined will appreciate them.

Tech from artificial intelligence and machine learning music tech company Musiio, which SoundCloud acquired last year, is helping to power the new offering.

“Getting zero plays on a track you’ve worked hard on can be frustrating,” SoundCloud says on its First Fans Help page. “That’s why we’re working on a new feature called First Fans – an update that makes it easier for real people to hear the music you upload on SoundCloud.”

“You think something’s wrong, or that the distributor must have messed it up, so you email them..but after a few days they say it was delivered properly,” writes Tracy Chan, SoundCloud Chief Content Officer. “And you still have zero plays. How could this possibly happen?”

Sadly, it happens a lot.

According to data from Luminate, 42% of tracks of 66 million tracks on music services have less than ten streams, and 24% have no streams at all. On average, 120,000 tracks are released on streaming services every day.

SoundCloud is testing First Fans with a select group of Next Pro artists and says it will expand availability soon.  As they test the new feature, they may adjust the number of people it surfaces new tracks to.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.