Source
r/makinghiphop•
RoketScience

Do hip hop producers care about stats?

Im in the process of building a website for musicians that pulls data from SoundCloud and builds a stats profile (not linking bc I think it’s technically self promo, but feel free to PM). I’ve reached out to a lot of musicians so far and I’m having zero luck with hip hop producers. Most of the people that respond are edm-y. Do you guys care a lot about your stats? I’d love to hear any personal thoughts on the whole thing or like, where you guys get stats from currently.

Posted Oct 16, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

922
Trades_soundcloud.com/earosebeats•

I think you have to be at a certain point to care about stats. Like, you have to have a lot of fans and have steady growth to really care about it. And most producers don't get that because the audience for beats is really small. It's basically just other producers and rapper. Most producers care more about placements than views and so the views are just a means to an end. The only producers that care about stats are usually type beat producers, who are looking to sell something to as many people as possible.

12
RoketScienceOPProducer/DJ•

Thanks for replying! Where do you think that point is? Is it a certain number of followers on SoundCloud?

1
Trades_soundcloud.com/earosebeats•

For views, I suppose it would be at however many views it takes to be noticed by a somewhat popular rapper with some money. Hopefully that'd be under 10k views but idk how much rappers dig for good beats/producers.

For subs, the goal is having enough subscribers to be able to have weight in deals with other artists. I have no idea what number that would be because I don't know what's feasible for a producer. Maybe a couple thousand subs on YouTube? Idk how that converts into SoundCloud followers.

Producers don't really get a lot of fans tbh so this is a hard question to answer. People don't care about beats like they do about rapping because your average Joe considers it a partial product, and that's fair enough because some beat makers do indeed make very minimalist and boring beats that don't stand on their own without vocals. Anyways, a producer's popularity comes from word of mouth from highly regarded artists. You're supposed to work your way from the bottom up to the top in terms of popular rappers. So, I guess maybe producers are supposed to reach out to rappers instead of the other way around? Idk I still have no idea about the business side of things lol

3
banksbyrobhttps://soundcloud.com/electrictaffy•

I just looked at my SC stats 10 mins ago for the first time in about 4 years sooooooo nope. but I probably should idk.

6
RoketScienceOPProducer/DJ•

Do you just not ever think about them or do you feel like they don’t matter?

1
banksbyrobhttps://soundcloud.com/electrictaffy•

A little bit of both when I first started I would think about it a lot but then I was like who gives a bleepity bleep no one was listening anyway. Stats don't make my music Ha.

3
RoketScienceOPProducer/DJ•

Gotcha, thanks so much! I’m curious, would you consider yourself someone who’s trying to “make it”?

1
banksbyrobhttps://soundcloud.com/electrictaffy•

Not "make it" but I definitely want to continue if that makes any sense.

2
drbobbybannermpcwww.soundcloud.com/drbobbybannermpc•

Nope, but that’s just one opinion.

3
RoketScienceOPProducer/DJ•

Yeah that’s what I thought. Would you mind saying a little about why?

1
drbobbybannermpcwww.soundcloud.com/drbobbybannermpc•

Well when I used my SoundCloud often I kept thinking purely about the plays and downloads. Sometimes i just stopped thinking about how I could improve my style, make it more interesting, or anything to enhance the quality of the song. I just wanted to see the numbers rise like some form of achievement hunting. Or I would get bummed out seeing others soar with plays while i stayed low. For a few years now I’ve concentrated solely on outside experiences and connections as opposed to the internet grind. That’s just my experience with it.

2
RoketScienceOPProducer/DJ•

Ohhh I see. That makes a lot of sense, thanks!

1
skinnythegod•

We care about beatstars stats lmao

2
ChillerCondorsoundcloud.com/kingchemist•

i would be down for stats like that, and i think enough others would be too to make it worth doing! sent a PM

2
[deleted]•

Serious ones are, but that's the same in any genre. Stats tell the real story of your traction; if you're able to provide that understanding without worry of manipulation through botting, you've got a winner. If it's cool, mind if I pick your brain on the methodology of data collection? I'm a digital marketer by trade with specialty in big data collection and analysis.

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RoketScienceOPProducer/DJ•

Totally! Feel free to send me a PM!

Edit - wait did you make an account to comment on this post? Neat!

1
P3SHsoundcloud.com/severedheadphones•

I occasionally look at my stats but I dont know why I bother as they rarely change, suppose I just do it when I'm bored

2
Tiptup300•

Are you able to produce a top monthly chart for certain tags or location of artist?

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RoketScienceOPProducer/DJ•

As far as tags go, totally. We've been running into an issue though where tags are like, pretty much useless because so many people use so many different tags. What tags would you like to see charts for?

1
Tiptup300•

Locations

I live in an area where I do weekly top charts for Bandcamp, I just goto the location tag best selling and then copy paste to Facebook.

Sc doesn't have anything similar.

It helps that bc automatically adds users locations to their tags.

2
RoketScienceOPProducer/DJ•

Yeah this sounds like it would be totally doable - we'll definitely add it onto our roadmap.

1