SoundCloud and Twitter are now more relevant than ever to musicians, podcasters, and public speakers. Pumping up your content on SoundCloud will give you more to tweet about. Having more great content on Twitter brings you more relevant followers – it’s a win on both sides!

The Twitter and SoundCloud partnership is now official with Twitter announcing it on their blog, and SoundCloud following up with an announcement of their own. The marketing of music online may never be the same again!

https://twitter.com/SoundCloud/status/522849568363253761

Online music goes Twittering

This new partnership between Twitter and SoundCloud gives artists the ability to post tracks that they have on SoundCloud right in tweets. Their Twitter followers are then able to listen to those tracks without leaving Twitter. Find a song you like, press play, and you can keep looking through your Twitter account with your own personal soundtrack playing!

One of the first users to be given this was David Guetta. Check out his tweet breaking new SoundCloud and Twitter barriers:

https://twitter.com/davidguetta/status/522843748066013185

The feature isn’t quite embeddable yet, and only works within the Twitter Timeline naturally. Here’s a screenshot of his timeline with the tweet in question:

One click is all you need to listen to the track. No video playing, no being sent outside of Twitter – just the music! Here’s Chance the Rapper with his first tweet using the new Twitter/SoundCloud partnership:

https://twitter.com/chancetherapper/status/522842168050737152

What this partnership does for online music marketing

Many artists are using Twitter to get more plays on SoundCloud, but this may be able to lead to a whole new kind of music marketing. You’ll be able to:

• Get real time feedback on music
• Offer fans new content in a much more immediate way
• Offer a more direct connection between a relevant social media platform, Twitter, and where your music is kept, SoundCloud

SoundCloud has not grown into a perfect social media platform, it is still largely seen as a place where music is distributed. Those on the service have been looking at the pros and cons of getting more fans, but this partnership is a big, fat PRO. This move gives SoundCloud more relevancy in a social media marketing context. Twitter benefits from people staying on Twitter rather than clicking out and leaving. #WIN

The benefits for this aren’t limited to musicians only. Speakers, podcasters, lecturers, and anyone else with any sound to make and broadcast can benefit. A prime example of a more unusual SoundCloud user is NASA:

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/522848781138542593

What online music marketing opportunities does this open up?

Having Twitter around to amp up your SoundCloud music marketing is a huge bonus. Just be sure to use the strengths of Twitter – real time marketing – and come up with your own ideas to capitalize on this. Here are a few ideas of my own to try out:

• Give your fans sneak peeks of tracks and ask for feedback. Do this while you’re still doing demos and you may just make your songs even bigger hits.
• Start thinking of your voice as something that is marketable. Who wouldn’t want to have their own personal version of “Happy Birthday” sung to them by their favorite band? Have a Flock to Unlock campaign, or reward the best retweeter of a certain message.
• Before your tour starts, record a personalized message for each city. Tweet it out during the build up to the show, and ask for retweets to promote it. “Hello, Cleveland! We hope to see you on DATE OF SHOW where we’re going to play your favorite songs and rock you out all night! Retweet this message and get our show packed!”

What you can do with tweets now including SoundCloud tracks directly in the tweet is nearly limitless. Your imagination is all that is holding you back!