If you’ve ever wondered, “Does SoundCloud count my own plays?” you’re not alone. It is a question that many musicians struggle with as they attempt to analyse their statistics. Not seeing much, if any, growth after spinning your own tracks over and over can be frustrating and misleading. Spoiler alert: SoundCloud does not include your own listens. But that’s a sort of good thing. In this article, we’ll explain how tracking plays on SoundCloud actually works, why self plays are filtered out, and we’ll also share smart, proven strategies to grow your audience authentically and increase your visibility the right way.
What is SoundCloud’s method for tracking plays?
SoundCloud only counts a play when a listener has heard at least 30 seconds of a track. But that is only the start of it. Plays are filtered through SoundCloud’s backend algorithms to weed out suspicious activity, like bot plays or accidental clicks. This play verification system is important for the integrity of the platform. It makes sure that the numbers you see represent real people listening through real humans, which is more useful for learning about your audience and your music’s reach. That too also enables creators to steer clear of inflated stats that can result in misguided growth decisions.
Do You Need to Play Other People’s Music?
The short answer? No. Your own plays do not count towards SoundCloud. The platform is built to scrub self-plays using different identifiers, such as account activity, IPs, and device IDs. So, if you’re refreshing your own track in the hopes of getting your play count up, it simply won’t work. At first, this system might seem discouraging, but it actually has an important purpose. It guarantees that each play registered on your track is a real, outside listener. It creates cleaner stats (and insights) for creators focused on authentic growth and engagement.
If I Play My Own Track Over and Over, What Will Happen?
And if you’re playing your own track on repeat, don’t look for any miracles in the play count department. SoundCloud’s anti-fraud detection is designed to identify the same behaviour over and over being used again by the same source. Too many self-plays will be identified and excluded from your stats, and risking a warning on your account. If a song is played many times in a row from just one IP address or user device, that counts as artificial engagement and is filtered out in the name of fair competition. Don’t depend on this method, build a real audience through organic outreach and intentional promotion.
Tips to Increase Your SoundCloud Plays
Quickly Boost Your SoundCloud Presence with Smart Strategies
Gaining traction on SoundCloud can be challenging, especially when your own plays don’t count toward your track’s visibility. One effective strategy artist often turns to is to purchase real SoundCloud plays through reliable, third-party services. This approach provides the initial momentum needed to catch the attention of both listeners and the algorithm. Trusted providers like Media Mister specialize in delivering high-retention plays from real users, backed by secure payments and a money-back guarantee. By helping tracks appear more popular early on, these services can boost credibility and trigger SoundCloud’s recommendation system all while ensuring the artist’s account remains fully compliant and safe.
Metadata Can Strengthen Your SoundCloud Presence
Metadata makes a larger impact on discovery than many artists understand. SoundCloud uses your track titles, descriptions and tags to understand what your music is about and when and where to play it. Improving visibility through optimizing this metadata. Songs should be in clear, keyword-dense titles that evoke the genre and attitude of your song. This includes adding keywords, such as instruments, tempo, sub-genres, or themes to help SoundCloud get your track categorized properly. Descriptions should provide context song lyrics, collaborations, production notes. When someone searches for your genre of music, focuses on the same thematic aspect of a target audience or demographics niche, a well-optimized track will show up more likely in search results and [read more about] recommended lists, making it easier for potential listeners and curators to find your work.
Simple Effective Hacks for Growing Organically
Building organically on SoundCloud does require work, but can provide you with results that last. For the time being, collaborate with other artists to access new audiences. Collaborate with others on your music, or repost tracks from creators in the same genres of music. Vibrate in SoundCloud communities & submit your tracks to independent blogs, channels & curators. Post snippets of your music to social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok and drive users to your SoundCloud page. And don’t forget about the need to engage your listeners. Such interaction, including replying to comments, reposting fans’ shoutouts and thanking audience feedback, is what turns casual plays into lifelong fans.
Build Stronger Fan Engagement
Plays aren’t the only metric that matters. Comments, reposts, likes, follows etc. provide much better insights into how your audience engages with your content. The “Fans” dashboard on SoundCloud will allow you to see where your biggest listeners are doing and what content they’re most engaged or reacting to. Leverage this information to improve future launches. If there’s a genre, style, or approach that seems to land more with your audience, lean into that. It allows you to establish consistency, burnish your brand, and produce more of the content your fans really want. Also, use the dashboard to schedule relevant shoutouts, exclusive content, or promotion activities to hone in on fans who have interacted with you on other platforms and have a high chance of being retained.
Conclusion
So, does SoundCloud factor your own plays into the total? No and that’s by design. Self-plays mix gets filtered off allowing artists unbiased feedback from real listeners. As such, SoundCloud provides a safe haven for growth, education, and connecting with true fans. If artists really want to avoid bad stats, the answer isn’t almost certainly not in trying to manipulate stats, but to create great content, to optimize their metadata, and to build strategic relationships. You can buy real SoundCloud plays from Media Mister for a quick start, with safety, quality, and faster visibility. The key takeaway? Make it about authentic engagement, data-driven growth, and top-notch music nothing beats the real deal.