Mixcloud is an online streaming service where users can upload their live performances, DJ sets or other music.
Similar to others such as SoundCloud, users can follow their favourite artists in addition to sharing their own musical performances.
Last week they announced some updates for pro users who can now better connect with their fans via Mixcloud sending notifications of new uploads via email and website notifications.
Giving a statement on the new features, Mixcloud said that: “Unlike posts on Instagram or Facebook, no algorithm will work against you. And there are various ways you can use posts to grow, engage, and get to know your followers.”
Pro users can also use their Mixcloud account to ask fans questions in a similar way to other platforms such as Facebook, where artists can post a status comment, and fans can respond with their opinions and answers. The website also suggests that this could be a good way to run competitions or announce new sales items such as merchandise.
People can also enable monetization via Mixcloud to make private posts that can only be viewed by followers. The platform suggests this can be a good way to share exclusives with fans, and encourage people to follow an artist’s page if they directly want all the latest info.
They also advertise the fact that all of an artists posts are sent to followers via an email notification, so in effect, you could view your Mixcloud followers as a mailing list. This on paper sounds great, but in reality, if every artist on Mixcloud is prompting lots of email messages, then things sent by the platform could quickly get marked as spam or go to a junk folder. So, it’s still probably best to stick to building a mailing list.
On a whole, this sounds like an interesting update from Mixcloud, which seems like it’s trying to build more of a community feel to its platform. The fact there isn’t an algorithm restricting posts is probably the best feature, as on services like Facebook users have to pay if they want 100% of their fans to see a post. So there are benefits when comparing these new features to sharing a Mixcloud link is a Facebook post.
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