SoundCloud maintains its position as an exceptional platform where emerging artists can discover and promote artistic identity and make their name known through the saturated competition and noise. While many other platforms have made their efforts, SoundCloud remains the most popular site for most underground artists to reside in due to the platform’s attention and commitment to developing their artists.
Once again, SoundCloud has announced its fifth-year flagship, First on SoundCloud, an all-encompassing, 6-month artist accelerator program for 2023. With that, SoundCloud has chosen to support the careers of 5 rising artists. Precisely for this year, selected Next Pro artists would include wolfacejoeyy, DJ_Dave, Nitepunk, Sojabrat, and sim0ne. This lineup represents a broad and eclectic evolution of sounds, identities, and backgrounds from all over the map, Brooklyn bass to Algorave.
SoundCloud’s First On SoundCloud Now Powered By Sony Audio
In addition to the already astounding program, this year’s First on SoundCloud comes with a notable development, SoundCloud’s partnership with Sony Audio. Sony has been renowned for years in the industry for its expertise, especially for producing music-focused hardware and software.
Sony’s involvement in the program means that these selected artists would be able to receive and work with state-of-the-art tools and software to support their creative pursuits. They would also receive end-to-end support in their endeavors, meaning their creation-to-consumption processes. Furthermore, Sony’s worldwide presence will also be leveraged to promote and amplify these artists whilst creating learning opportunities and experiences for them to take away, including marketing knowledge and others.
While it may seem a little one-sided for SoundCloud and artists, this partnership actually comes with a long-term goal for Sony. Jordy Freed, Head of Brand & Business Development + Partner Marketing & Strategy, Personal Entertainment Business in Sony Corporation of America shared Sony’s approach to the partnership that continues to focus on its business of selling to musicians.
From the business perspective, Sony is reintroducing itself to smaller artists over current superstars and major labels. By having direct engagement between rising artists and Sony’s team, Sony would not only be able to establish its name for future superstars but also be able to create and refine its products to develop solutions to cater to the ever-evolving demands of the music industry.
Training Upcoming Artists To Superstars: What Is First On SoundCloud?
First on SoundCloud was initially introduced in 2018. Since then, the discovery program has helped propel the careers of many artists into the global spotlight. To name a few, Grammy-nominated artists Baby Rose and Kehlani, chart-topper Lil Tecca, DJ Cuppy, Che Lingo and others have all been a part of this program and now have promising careers as musicians.
Every year, the program develops and is unique. SoundCloud not only sets milestones for these selected artists but also actively assists in achieving them. In 2021, several noteworthy achievements occurred. SoFaygo achieved his first milestone to connect with fans as he performed on a sold-out live show in his hometown, Atlanta. Charmaine hosted a one-of-a-kind music video release party in Toronto, and Payday held the first-ever interactive fan event at an LA skate park.
