The Soundcloud Bible 3rd Edition Review

If there’s one thing people find intimidating about a career in music, it’s certainly handling the business side of things. Creating the music may come pretty naturally, but (more often than not), marketing that music and generating income can be daunting and overwhelming.

Fledgling artists are confronted by a host of questions:

• How can I make my music available to listeners?
• How can I gain fans?
• How can I gain attention from industry people and get my career off the ground?

Fortunately for you, there is a wealth of information available to independent musicians in our current day and age. As long as you’re eager to learn and willing to work hard, you can make leaps and bounds in kickstarting your own music career.

One learning resource that particularly stands out is The SoundCloud Bible. An ebook that is comprehensive but also very accessible, it tells you everything you would want to know about using the popular music platform. 

However, the information this ebook has to offer extends far beyond just SoundCloud.Within The SoundCloud Bible, you can find pro advice on a whole host of issues you might face as an independent musician. These include:

• How to brand yourself as an artist
• How to build a fanbase
• How to distribute your music online
• How to license your music and earn royalties
• How to pitch your music to promoters
• And even an overview of how to mix and master your own music

In the following article, we’ll provide a review of The SoundCloud Bible, including an overview of all the topics it addresses. We think you’ll find it an invaluable resource in launching your own music career.

Who Is The Author?

So you’re probably wondering why you should even consider The Soundcloud Bible as a reputable source. As with any resources out there, it is important to do your due diligence first before taking their advice and implementing it.

When we came across Budi Voogt it was clear that he was genuinely out to help artists and share his years of experience in the music industry with musicians.

Budi is the CEO of his own music management agency and record label called Heroic and the managing director of the popular artist, San Holo’s record label bitbird. 

Lastly, he is one of the founding partners at Heroic Academy which is responsible for The Soundcloud Bible.

Through his involvement in the music industry, he has helped many artists grow their music careers charting on platforms like iTunes, landing international tours, worldwide radio play and more!

Often times people with a background like Budi’s would keep the strategies that they use under wraps. Fortunately for you, he is sharing very in depth and actionable information that you can implement today!

Pricing Breakdown

Complete Package

Before we jump into the heart of the content that is provided within The Soundcloud Bible, I’m sure you are curious what the price is going to be. So let’s start there!

The Soundcloud Bible offers 3 convenient pricing options for you to choose from, all with varying levels of features. Obviously, the higher priced options come with more features that might be of interest to you.

We personally opted for the Complete Package for $99 which was the most expensive option.  We found that this was well worth the price considering the amount of extra value they provide you aside from the book itself. The breakdown of what is included in the Complete Package is listed below:

Advanced Package

The next option which is half the cost ($49) is called the Advanced Package. Here you do not get the audiobook and interview options. 

The interviews have a ton of value but if you are on a tight budget this option might be best for you.

Basic Package

If you are really looking to save money and are fine with the bare minimum, then there is a basic option that just includes the ebook.

As we dive into the features that are provided with the more expensive options you will be able to decide for yourself if they are worth the expense.

How Can This Book Help Me?

The SoundCloud Bible provides an unprecedented amount of information to help musicians make their way as independent artists. It covers a wide variety of music business topics, answering many of the very questions you may have yourself. Not only that, but it also provides lots of excellent insight into issues you may not be aware of!

Let’s take a look now at the main topics this book addresses:

How To Make The Most Of SoundCloud?

At the core of this ebook (as you might imagine) is an exhaustive amount of information on how to use SoundCloud. 

For those who may not be familiar, SoundCloud is a website that allows artists to upload their music online and showcase it for the world to listen. It is a socially driven platform, feeding off likes, comments, and other actions from engaged listeners. It is also a collaborative platform, providing easy opportunities for artists to network and partner with each other.

Simply put, this ebook gives you every last pro tip out there on how to make the most of your SoundCloud account. Here is a selection of the items it covers:

• Account types: which one is the best for you
• Profile customization: how to make it stand out and look professional
• Gaining followers: how to grow the number of followers on your account
• Charting: strategies for getting your uploads to register on SoundCloud’s charts
• Playlists: how to use them to maximize play counts
• Reposts: how this powerful sharing feature can skyrocket your play counts
• Statistics: how to interpret them and build momentum with your releases
• Embedding: how to include your SoundCloud music on third-party websites
• Podcasts: how to set up podcasting through SoundCloud

If there’s anything you want to know about using SoundCloud, chances are, it’s covered here! However, as we previously mentioned, the content extends far beyond Soundcloud. Personally, I am not a fan of the title as it is it makes you think that nothing outside of Soundcloud will be covered.

This couldn’t be further from the truth, as you get a number of insights into a number of other important aspects related to growing your music career.

Branding Yourself As An Artist

A common struggle for many artists is understanding how to brand themselves. You may have created your music, but how do you present it to the world? More importantly, how are you supposed to present yourself as a performing artist?

These struggles are typical and The SoundCloud Bible takes extensive amounts of time to address them. Here are some of the questions they answer:

• What band/artist name should I pick?
• How important is that name? Can I change that name later down the road?
• How do I develop my aesthetic?
• How can I be visually unique and memorable?
• How should I present myself online?
• How do I establish my personality as an artist?
• How can my branding be coherent and consistent?

Each of these topics and more, are addressed and all presented with practical advice on how you can take action.

Marketing Your Music

One of the greatest resources The SoundCloud Bible offers is the amount of insight it gives you on how to market your music. Everyone wants to attain success with their music, but oftentimes it is not apparent how to attract attention and gain popularity.

The SoundCloud Bible addresses these issues expertly, giving you extensive marketing advice based on a proven track record. The advice ranges from simple pro tricks to large-scale marketing plans and strategies. Let’s take a look at some of the topics it addresses!

• How to apply traditional marketing techniques to music with the “fan funnel”
• The importance of developing “superfans”
• Creating momentum through a consistent release schedule
• Making the most out of each social media platform
• Giving away music in exchange for fan data
• Pitching your music to promoters and bloggers

Overall, this is an area where The SoundCloud Bible particularly shines. In fact, we’d say all of the marketing advice alone is worth the cost of the ebook!

Distributing & Licensing Your Music

Let’s say you’ve uploaded your music to SoundCloud but you still want to have a broader reach. How do you get your music on Spotify, iTunes, and all the other digital music mainstays? This is where distribution comes into play.

The SoundCloud Bible takes time to explain the different distribution options available to independent artists. Though one of the less extensive sections of this ebook, it still covers the basics of how you can get your music onto platforms like Spotify and iTunes. It also covers how to make money (monetize) your music on YouTube.

Secondarily, The SoundCloud Bible does a very thorough job of explaining how you can license your music. What is licensing, you may ask?

Simply put, downloads and streams of your music are only a part of the potential income you can be making with your music. It’s also possible to be earning money when people cover your songs, play your music on the radio, or even perform your music live!

This is a very complex and potentially confusing topic, but The SoundCloud Bible takes time to walk you through and explain all the different aspects of licensing. Here are some of the topics it covers:

• The difference between musical composition and sound recording copyrights
• The processes of getting paid for the use of your music
• How to land a synchronization deal (e.g., when your music is used on a TV show or an advertisement)
• What legal hurdles you can expect to face

Business & Legal Issues

The music industry is notorious for taking advantage of unsuspecting artists, particularly when it comes to business deals or legal issues. Artists are oftentimes expected to make weighty or difficult decisions about business situations they may not understand at all.

To that end, The SoundCloud Bible devotes a lot of attention to help you understand these business issues. They ensure that you are familiar with all the various business roles within the music industry and are negotiating fair deals for yourself. Below you can find a selection of the topics covered:

• What is an artist manager?
• What is a publisher?
• Is signing to a record label desirable?
• How do copyrights work?

Mixing & Mastering Your Music

Finally, The SoundCloud Bible features a bonus chapter all about mixing and mastering your music, written by guest author Tim van Doorne! If you’re a bedroom producer and are struggling to get your mixes to sound good, the advice offered here is a great starting point.

This is a short chapter, but all of the advice is spot-on and to the point. It covers the following core topics:

• Understanding the “stereo image”
• How to use EQ to clean the mix
• How to apply compression and reverb

General Features

Expert Interviews

This is an option only available within the Complete Package which gives you multiple interviews on topics related to the music industry. Within these interviews, you are exposed to experts within the industry who provide you with valauble gems of information that you can benefit from. Some of the experts and interview topics are as follows:

Chad Hillard, Founder of Hilly Dilly

Interview Topic: Dealing with blogs and understanding the mindset of the blogs you’re reaching out to and how you can increase your success rate with outreach.

Sebastian Barwinski, Artist Manager For Popular Artist Vanic

Interview Topic: This is a solid interview from the perspective of an established artist manager on how to break through the noise within the industry. Huge focus on key personality related things you can do to shift the perception of you and improve the success rate with those you are trying to work with.

In total there are 7 different interviews that every musician can benefit from. These industry professionals do not hold back and share some secrets that you will learn a lot from. The names of these people and their backgrounds in music are listed below.

Audiobook Version

For those of you who would prefer learning through audio instead of reading, you have the option to purchase the audiobook for The Soundcloud Bible within the Complete and Advanced packages.

Checklists, Blueprints & Templates

When it comes to any resource, you want information that is actionable and easy for you to implement. With the Soundcloud Bible, if you choose either the complete or Advanced packages, you are given amazing blueprints and templates that you can utilize. 

These help you to stay organized especially with your marketing and give you insights into what tools successful artists are actually using on a day to day basis.

Aside from that each section within the ebook provides you with a checklist at the end of the chapter to help recap what you have learned and shows you ways to actually implement what you have learned.

General Thoughts & Critisisms

The SoundCloud Bible is quite a long ebook (465 pages), but this is really to its advantage, as it is extremely thorough. As you can see, it covers an extensive number of topics! Reading it from top to bottom will give you a comprehensive understanding of not just SoundCloud but of the music industry as a whole.

To its credit, the ebook is written in a very nice, conversational tone. This makes it easy to read, despite its length. The author, Budi Voogt, is a music industry entrepreneur and makes many points from a personal and anecdotal point-of-view.

In reading through The SoundCloud Bible we found very few items that could stand to be improved, and those few were all rather minor issues.

The first is that some of the information in The SoundCloud Bible is a bit outdated. The latest edition was released in 2016 and the music industry – especially online – has already changed and shifted in some ways. Therefore, certain sections about industry statistics or technical features of particular platforms are not up-to-date.

The second criticism is that this ebook disproportionately gives more attention to electronic music genres than other styles of music. Some of the techniques explained are not suited to musicians of a different genre, while inversely, some approaches that would work well for those genres aren’t touched on at all.

Now granted, SoundCloud as a platform is most popular for electronic music. However, this ebook could serve a wider audience if it gave attention equally to all music genres.

Conclusion

Having considered all that The SoundCloud Bible has to offer, we think this is an unparalleled learning resource for the independent musician. If you want to be a master at using SoundCloud, this ebook has you more than covered. But if you’re looking for more than that – if you’re looking for solid advice covering nearly every aspect of the music industry – The SoundCloud Bible is a go-to resource, without a doubt.

Everything is well-written and easy to understand, even the more complex legal sections. What’s more, the advice in this ebook is based on real-world success and the authors back up all their claims.

In conclusion, The SoundCloud Bible gets our highest recommendation. We think it should be required reading for anyone aspiring to a career as an independent musician.