Cloudkillers Rant

lostnthesound

Burns Easily in the Sun
VIP Junglist
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Location
Washington DC
Recently I've noticed some new users posting throughout the forum, which is awesome. I also notice they have tracks in their sig with a TON of comments. I'll curiously click on their song to see what all the fuss is about and quickly realize that it's, for lack of a better word, shit. Then after scrolling through the comments I notice that not only were the vast majority of these comments created at the same time, but a majority of said comments are identical...some even identical from the same "user." Alas, another "producer" using Cloudkillers to make his or her self feel like they've accomplished something or are on their way to being "the next big thing."

After doing some digging, it seems that Cloudkillers is part of the unfortunate age of what is now being dubbed "internet promoting," which essentially consists of having your tracks force fed to other people in addition to outsourced help that gets paid to literally write comments. Did I mention that you can actually pay to receive more comments?

I've read on other forums where defenders will say "it's a good way to have my music heard by a lot of people." Bullshit. Chances are they're listening 15 seconds (if that long) and then typing in a mindless comment with little to no value.

So why am I ranting about this topic in the first place? To put it bluntly, artistic integrity. While we all would love to make millions and become rich & famous, the reality is that won't happen. If your single driving force behind making music is to gain popularity or get paid overnight, you're in for a rude awakening. Having a thousand comments on your track will not make your dick bigger nor will it make you stand from the crowd...actually, it will make you stand out from the crowd, but for all the wrong reasons. I'm no record label owner, but I believe that if you send a soundcloud link of your cloudkiller-filled track to an A&R rep for a big label, they would think you're too lazy to attempt to put in the work to promote your stuff through good ole' fashion human interaction and networking.

Maybe I'm way off base, but I for one started making music for the simple fact that I like making music. I love the creative process, the learning, the struggles, the satisfaction from listening to rough a copy of an early tune and hearing the final master. Will I send it off to labels that I think will fit their style for consideration? Sure, when I feel the tune has a chance. Will I post it to soundcloud? Damn right. Will I be heartbroken if there are no comments, listens, etc or if a label rejects my submission? No. It's all part of the genuine, real life experience which in itself is part of this game called production.

I'm no Andy C. I have yet to have any tracks signed. I am humbled whenever someone provides me and/or msmith222 with feedback on a track or shares praise for a tip we've posted. If I'm ever wrong about a post and corrected, I'll be the first to admit the mistake/error. One thing I can say with the utmost certainty (and I'm sure I'm not alone) is that I work as hard as my life's time allows to pursue music either through production, djing, or discussion with other members of this very forum. I don't do this because I have to, I do this because I want to and love to. I will never beg for track reviews, soundcloud follows, facebook likes, or post on an famous producers public social media page to "pleaz listn and reviewz my trackz dude!!" Why won't I do these things? Artistic integrity.

Those of you cloudkilling your tracks, more power to you. Just don't count on me ever reviewing your tunes or having any respect for your work. And at the very least, disable your comments when posting to the forum because you're killing the loading time.

Just my .02. Sorry for the lengthy rant.

Would love to hear others thoughts on this. And if any cloudkiller producers want to chime in and enlighten me, I'm all ears.

Cheers.
 
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Quite a strong point of view, but i agree with you largely. Well written as well :)
 
Quite a strong point of view, but i agree with you largely. Well written as well :)

Cheers Saint. I typically keep to myself when it comes to a lot things, but this cloudkilling shit is a fad that really grinds my gears.

Thanks for the compliment about the words as well!

Cheers.
 
i notice this on SC a fair amount.

to be fair especially in a genre like dnb having shit loads of comments will not get your tune signed.

nice post
 
Couldnt of said it better myself. Another pet hate is those people who put "yo dude nice tune, check out mine at soundcloud.com/themorepeoplewhoclickplayonmytracksthecooleriam.com" gets right on my tits. Personally i think alot of the the people couldkilling there tracks are insercue about there music and somehow think comments mean its good. I would happily take 1 comment from someone who actully has a clue or some passion over 1 million comments from mindless mugs anyday of the week!

PS: Ive only ever had 3 comments on my tunes. 2 where from people trying to get me to look at there tracks and the other one was my mate calling me a "cunt" :(
 
agree with you but wall of text was difficult to read.lol

most comments ive had on a tune is about 20 or so an thats the one in my sig
i hate all the comments good tune check mine etc really useless bollocks (and i wont check there tune.)lol
i did sign upto that cloudkillers thing but wen i got on it it was aload of bollocks do i didnt use it
 
I couldn't agree more. I like making music because frankly, I like it, makes me happy and it keeps me alive, I'm not doing it to make money, nor to make someone else happy.
Soundcloud just makes it easier to put an example out instead of having to go through the trouble to upload a 100mb wav file to a filehost etc.. imo.
I came to this forum to help improve myself so I can more enjoyment out of things and maybe meet some new people who share the same love for music.

You have so many people who want to be the next Skrillex or Netsky that it's just horrible to see.

(My apologies for any grammar errors, drunk etc.. )
 
I couldn't agree more. I like making music because frankly, I like it, makes me happy and it keeps me alive, I'm not doing it to make money, nor to make someone else happy.

Same here. I get comments every now and then and tbh every one is special because somebody actually took the time to leave a comment. Even if it's not some sort of constructive criticism and just a "sick track mate" it's fine with me. I delete those "Cool track, check mine" comments though, utter bullshit leave your promotion some where else. 9 times out of 10 I think we all go to the persons page who left us a comment anyways and check out their stuff if we aren't familiar with them already. I've also had one or two comments left before when it was obvious that people didn't even click play, wtf?!

This seems to be somewhat of a growing trend though :/ More and more I'm digging through SoundCloud and finding tracks with a ridiculous number of comments on them, tbh I don't really understand why comments are publicly viewable anyways - annoying as fuck when you are listening to the track and can't see the waveform because it's just a blue bar, much less actually read anyones comments because the timed comments section is so damn over populated. Just been turning off the comments lately.

Perhaps they've come up with a block for all this stuff in that new "Next SoundCloud" thing, signed up for part of the beta today, currently full though :(
 
cool post OP - now check out my post

LOL

Totally agree - i hae never told anyone to check my stuff out on their tracks - I mean its just fukin rude.
They trying to ride off your track - fuk that.
its sad - and youre right -they think they will be millionaires through internet "likes" - meh

But i will say "good tune" on someones track tho if its good and i cant think of anything else to say - sorry <3
 
Very good post, no one of those people listen your tune, I think they just comment something typical for every tune they can in order to get same useless shit comments for themselves. That's just how I think those comment services work and never would I PAY to get fucking COMMENTS that is just absurd, you think those people actually like the tune?

Getting "fans" with money.. As I said top post and pos repped,

PEACE!
 
Nice post!

I signed up for cloudkillers a while ago to check it out.
and there was one function which I thought was pretty handy.
You could pay someone points so that they would give feedback on your track, and in return you could offer a service for points to give feedback on another track.
So I gave some feedback on other tunes and I recieved some feedback.
A few people actually gave me very good and constructive feedback, but the majority was just crap.

So I decided to quit.




another thing on mindless selfpromoting:
I recently bought 2000 twitter followers for 5 bucks xD
 
I trolled some friends with it.
I don't really use twitter but they do so I decided to use twitter while they were around until someone said "I thought you didn't use it? "
so i was like: well I started using it recently, it's kinda cool. I already have 2000 followers.
and they're like: wtf =O
 
I trolled some friends with it.
I don't really use twitter but they do so I decided to use twitter while they were around until someone said "I thought you didn't use it? "
so i was like: well I started using it recently, it's kinda cool. I already have 2000 followers.
and they're like: wtf =O

wow, that's REALLY cool

and +1 OP I agree with everything you said

Lets let the music do the talking
 
cool post OP - now check out my post

LOL

Totally agree - i hae never told anyone to check my stuff out on their tracks - I mean its just fukin rude.
They trying to ride off your track - fuk that.
its sad - and youre right -they think they will be millionaires through internet "likes" - meh

But i will say "good tune" on someones track tho if its good and i cant think of anything else to say - sorry <3

Well played sir. :)
 
i feel your pain, but i realized a long time ago we are all in it for different reasons. Some people want to make something to sooth your soul, other people want the prestige of calling themselves a producer, and to feel that they are :big: I dont mind its just like in life we all strive for different things, some of us want material wealth whilst others just want to find that inner peace, etc. It doesn't effect me either way, its just the way some peoples minds work. Where i find a nice melody some peoples minds find a marketing opertunity. Its a shame that so many people with egos come into the music game, but hey you do what you need to do, and in the end youll end up where you need to be.

In the end, its self evident in the music, Im sure you can tell who makes good music just like i can.


I think we are at a major threat of being pulled into a false illusion that soundcloud is important to our music, I have had stages of spending far too much time on it such as other people, and it effects how you write music also. It all starts in the studio and not on soundcloud, so i think sometimes some people could do the favor of logging out and spending more time on the beats. Im glad to see a lot of real producers in here, and bulletstorm im laughing at you pretty hard again. lol.

---------- Post added at 17:56 ---------- Previous post was at 17:52 ----------

hehe cloudkillers.... ironic name isnt it!!
 
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I'm gonna chime in on this debate. I personally would rather have a track on soundcloud that has a couple of good, honest, constructive comments rather than 600 "nice track check mine" comments. This is why I'm here on this forum, because I know the majority of the people here are genuine and in it for the same reasons as me.

Unfortunately, this problem is not limited to soundcloud. How many of you have a Facebook page or account dedicated to your music? And how sick are you of being randomly dragged into shit groups that are just filled with people spamming links and widget players of their own stuff over and over again? It's essentially the same thing.

All this being said, I believe if you want to get your sounds heard by others (which lets face it, we all do to some extent) then you have to network. But I think there are right and wrong ways to go about it.

1- posting on other peoples tracks is a good way, but do it honestly, only post on the track if you genuinely have something constructive to say, and don't beg them to check your tracks! Chances are, they might be greatful for the honest feedback and give your page a glance anyway.

2- build up a rapport with other producers, not just here but on soundcloud, Facebook or any of the other social media sites you use. Find people that are on the same level as yourself and start discussing tricks and tips. The more you chat, the more likely they are to spread the word about your music to their friends and fellow producer circles.

3- don't be tight with your music. You want people to hear it as much as possible, so stop worrying about people ripping it from soundcloud. If its not being released, why not offer it up for free download? People will grab it legitamitly, maybe throw it on their iPod? A friend may hear it and asked where they got it. Hey presto, comes back to you!

4- adding to the previous point, get in touch with a lot of dj's, give them a bunch of your stuff, they may not play it....but then again, they might. More exposure for you!

5- use Facebook, it's very under rated, as long as you avoid spamming it religiously on everyone's wall! I'd suggest belonging to a couple of select groups with like minded people and posting them there, on your wall and your fan page if you have one.

6- link your social media sites together. Makes it a lot easier to get your sounds out there, I simply upload a track to soundcloud, and it automatically posts then onto Facebook and twitter. Also by posting on Facebook, the same post gets automatically replicated on twitter.

7- get involved! Spend time giving others what you want in return. Honest feedback, tips and tricks, linking their music on your sites, maybe collabs too?!

These are just a few ways I do things, and so far it seems to be working pretty well. I'll try and think of some more tips on networking soon.
 
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