How to Upload to SoundCloud: Complete Upload Settings and Release Checklist

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Summary

Uploading to SoundCloud takes minutes but the settings you choose around the upload, file format, artwork, tags, privacy and release timing decide whether the track is found, sounds right, and gets a fair chance in its first hours. Upload a high quality WAV rather than an MP3, since SoundCloud transcodes the file itself and starting from a compressed file only loses more quality. Use accurate tags, clear metadata, and consider a scheduled release so the track goes live at a time your audience is actually listening, then treat the first few hours as the window where engagement matters most.

Key points

  • Upload a WAV file rather than an MP3 wherever possible for the cleanest starting point
  • SoundCloud transcodes every file automatically, so the source quality is the only quality you control
  • Artwork should be a square image, ideally 3000x3000 pixels, with no cut-off text
  • Accurate tags and a clear title help SoundCloud's recommendation systems and search understand the track
  • Scheduled release lets you finish uploading early and go live at your audience's peak listening time
  • Download and embed permissions should match your actual goals for the release, not just default settings
  • The first few hours after release carry disproportionate weight for how far a track travels

How to Upload to SoundCloud: Complete Upload Settings and Release Checklist

Uploading a track to SoundCloud takes a few minutes. Getting the settings around that upload right takes a little more thought, and it is those settings, not the upload button itself, that decide how the track sounds, how it gets found, and how it performs once it goes live. This guide walks through the process on both desktop and mobile, explains the file format and quality decisions that actually matter, and finishes with a release-day checklist for the hours that follow.

Uploading on desktop

Open SoundCloud in a browser and log in to your account. At the top of almost every page sits an upload arrow icon. Click it and you will land on the upload page, where you can either drag your audio file directly into the drop zone or click to browse your computer's files.

Once the file starts uploading, a settings panel appears alongside it. This is where you add the title, artwork, description, tags, genre, and privacy settings. None of this needs to be finished before the audio file finishes processing in the background, so you can take your time filling it in properly rather than rushing to publish.

Uploading on mobile

Open the SoundCloud app and tap the plus icon, usually in the centre of the bottom navigation bar. Select upload, then choose the audio file from your phone's storage or from a connected cloud drive if you saved your export there. The app will begin processing the file while you fill in the same fields as on desktop: title, artwork, description, tags and privacy.

The mobile upload flow is slightly more compact than the desktop one, so it is worth double-checking tags and genre selection before confirming, since these fields can be easy to skip past on a smaller screen.

Audio file format: WAV vs MP3

This is the single most common question artists have when preparing an upload, and the answer is straightforward. Upload a WAV file whenever you have one. A WAV is uncompressed, meaning no audio information has been thrown away in the process of creating the file, which gives SoundCloud the fullest possible version of your track to work with.

An MP3, by contrast, has already gone through a compression process that permanently discards some audio information to reduce file size. If you upload an MP3, SoundCloud's own transcoding process compresses it again on top of that. Compressing an already compressed file rarely improves anything, and in some cases it introduces small but audible issues such as a slight dullness in the high frequencies or minor distortion around sharp transients like a kick drum or a hi-hat.

If a WAV export genuinely is not available to you, for example if you only have access to a final bounced MP3 from a collaborator, use the highest bitrate version you can get, ideally 320kbps, rather than a lower bitrate file. It will not match a WAV, but it avoids stacking a low-quality compression on top of a low-quality file.

What SoundCloud does to your file after upload

Every file uploaded to SoundCloud goes through transcoding, a process that converts your source file into several different streaming formats and bitrates. This happens so the platform can serve an appropriate version to a listener depending on their device, connection speed and subscription tier, without you needing to do anything.

Understanding transcoding is useful mainly because it explains why upload quality matters even though the platform is going to compress the file anyway. Transcoding can only work with the information that exists in your source file. A high quality WAV gives the transcoder more to work with, so the resulting streamed versions sound closer to your original master. A low quality source gives it less to work with, and no amount of clever transcoding can add back information that was already discarded before upload.

Artwork requirements

Artwork should be a square image. SoundCloud's stated minimum is around 800x800 pixels, but uploading something closer to 3000x3000 pixels is a safer choice, since the same image gets displayed at many different sizes across the platform, from a tiny circular thumbnail in a feed to a large background behind the player on a track page.

JPEG and PNG both work fine as file formats. The main design consideration is keeping any text or important detail away from the edges of the image. The circular crop used in several places across SoundCloud, visible in the waveform player and in feed thumbnails, will cut off anything sitting too close to the corners of a square image, so centring the key visual elements avoids losing them in those crops.

Title and description conventions

Keep the title consistent with how the track is listed on streaming platforms and in your own promotional material. Consistency across platforms makes it easier for someone who heard the track somewhere else to find the same release on SoundCloud, rather than wondering if a slightly different title is actually the same song.

If the track has a featured artist, a common and easily recognised format is the main artist's name, followed by feat. and the featured artist's name, either in the title itself or clearly noted alongside it. This matches convention used elsewhere and avoids confusion.

The description field is a reasonable place to add production credits, links to other platforms where the track is available, and a short sentence or two about the release if you want to give it some context. What does not help is stuffing the description with a long list of unrelated keywords in an attempt to be found in more searches. Search and recommendation systems on SoundCloud do not reward that approach, and listeners who read the description will simply see spam.

Tags that actually help

Tags are one of the more overlooked settings, but they matter for how the soundcloud-algorithm and the platform's search function categorise your track. Somewhere between five and fifteen tags is a sensible range. Cover the genre and subgenre, the general mood of the track, and any distinctive instrumentation or production style involved.

track-tags work best when they describe the track honestly. It can be tempting to add a much larger and more popular genre tag hoping to be seen by a bigger audience, but that audience is not looking for your track and will not meaningfully engage with it if they stumble across it. Recommendation systems pay attention to how listeners actually respond, so tags that attract the wrong audience tend to hurt rather than help over time.

Privacy settings and scheduled release

SoundCloud gives you three broad privacy options for an upload: public, private, or scheduled. Public means the track is visible to anyone as soon as processing finishes. Private means only people with a direct link can hear it, which is useful for sending a track to collaborators or a label ahead of release.

A scheduled-release lets you upload the track privately in advance and set a specific date and time for it to automatically switch to public. This is one of the more useful settings for anyone planning a proper release, since it removes the need to be at your computer at the exact moment you want the track to go live. It also lets you finish all your promotional preparation, from artwork for social posts to lining up reposts, well ahead of time, with the confidence that the track itself will appear exactly when planned.

Scheduling around when your actual audience is online matters more than picking a generic popular release time. If you have some listening data available through your dashboard, use it to see when your audience tends to be active, and schedule the release inside that window rather than guessing.

Download and embed permissions

Below the main upload settings sit two permission toggles that are easy to overlook: allowing downloads and allowing the track to be embedded elsewhere.

Allowing downloads is worth considering if DJs might want to play the track, if remixers might want to work with it, or if you simply want to give fans an easy way to keep a copy. It can also indirectly generate plays later, since a downloaded file sometimes gets shared or played in contexts outside SoundCloud that eventually lead someone back to the original upload.

Allowing embeds means blogs, other websites and some social platforms can feature your actual SoundCloud player rather than just a link. This is a legitimate and often underused source of plays, since embedded plays are counted and shown separately in your play statistics.

Neither setting is inherently correct or incorrect. If you are running an exclusive premiere through a specific outlet, or planning a separate paid download release later, turning these off temporarily protects that plan. If your goal is maximum reach with no restrictions, turning both on removes friction for anyone who wants to help spread the track.

Metadata for rights and royalties

Beyond the fields that affect how listeners find and experience the track, SoundCloud also collects metadata relevant to rights, including artist name, any featured artists, and composer or publishing information where you have it available. Filling this in accurately matters beyond SoundCloud itself, since accurate metadata is part of how royalties eventually get tracked and attributed correctly across the wider music industry. It costs nothing extra to fill in properly at the point of upload and can save confusion later.

A release-day checklist

Once the track is uploaded, correctly tagged, and either scheduled or already live, the work shifts to the hours immediately around release. This period carries more weight than most artists expect, because the platform's recommendation systems look closely at early engagement, plays, likes, comments and reposts arriving quickly after a track goes live, as a signal of whether it is worth showing to more people.

A practical checklist for that window looks something like this. Confirm the track went live at the scheduled time and check the artwork, waveform and playback are all correct. Share the direct link across your own social channels and to any mailing list or group chat where your listeners are actually present. Reach out to the handful of artists you have a genuine reciprocal relationship with and let them know the track is live if they have offered to support it. Respond to comments as they arrive rather than checking back once a day, since active replies keep a track visible near the top of activity for longer. If you are part of a repost-network or similar community, this is the point at which that support is most useful, since credit-based repost activity concentrated in the first hours mirrors the kind of natural early engagement that recommendation systems already respond well to.

None of this replaces the track itself needing to hold attention. Distribution and early engagement give a track a fair chance to be heard, but retention past the first thirty seconds is what determines whether that chance turns into anything lasting. Get the upload settings right, get the timing right, and then let the music do the rest.

Sources and further reading

Quick answers

How do you upload a track to SoundCloud?

On desktop, click the upload arrow at the top of any page, drag your audio file into the box or select it from your computer, then fill in the title, description, artwork, tags and privacy settings before pressing save. On mobile, open the app, tap the plus icon, choose upload, select the file from your device, and fill in the same details on the following screen.

What is the best file format to upload to SoundCloud?

Upload a WAV file rather than an MP3 whenever you have one. SoundCloud transcodes every upload into its own streaming formats regardless of what you send, so starting with an uncompressed WAV gives the transcoder the most information to work with. Uploading an MP3 means you are compressing an already compressed file a second time, which can introduce audible artefacts that a WAV avoids.

Does SoundCloud reduce the quality of your upload?

Yes, in the sense that every upload goes through transcoding into streaming-friendly formats such as AAC and MP3 at various bitrates depending on the listener's connection and subscription tier. This is normal and happens to every track on the platform. The way to protect quality is to control what you can, which is the source file quality, and let SoundCloud's transcoding do its job from the best possible starting point.

Can you schedule a release on SoundCloud instead of uploading it live immediately?

Yes. In the upload settings you can set a private link with a future release date, or use the scheduled release feature to have the track switch from private to public automatically at a set time. This lets you upload early, finish promotion planning, and have the scheduled-release go live exactly when your audience is most active rather than whenever you happen to finish uploading.

Frequently asked questions

How do you post on SoundCloud from a phone?

Open the SoundCloud app and tap the plus icon, usually found in the centre or corner of the bottom navigation bar. Choose upload, select the audio file from your device's storage or from a cloud service connected to your phone, and wait for it to load. You will then see the same fields available on desktop: title, artwork, description, tags, genre and privacy. Fill these in before tapping done, and the track uploads and processes in the background while you continue using the app.

Should I upload a WAV or an MP3 to SoundCloud?

A WAV file is the better choice whenever you have access to one, typically straight from your mastering session. WAV files are uncompressed, so no audio information has been discarded before SoundCloud even receives it. An MP3 has already been compressed once by whatever software created it, and uploading that means SoundCloud's own transcoding compresses it again, which can compound artefacts like a slight loss of clarity in the high end or subtle distortion around loud transients. If a WAV genuinely is not available, use the highest bitrate MP3 you have, ideally 320kbps.

What does SoundCloud actually do to my file after I upload it?

SoundCloud runs your file through transcoding, converting it into several formats and bitrates so it can stream efficiently to different devices, connection speeds and subscription tiers. This happens automatically and you do not need to do anything to trigger it. It is worth understanding because it explains why upload quality matters: transcoding can only work with the information present in your source file, so a higher quality upload gives the transcoded versions more to work with.

What size and format should SoundCloud artwork be?

A square image is required, and SoundCloud recommends at least 800x800 pixels with 3000x3000 pixels as a safer upper option for looking sharp across every size it gets displayed at, from a small feed thumbnail to a full player background. JPEG or PNG both work. Keep any text large and centred, since the waveform view crops artwork into small circles and thumbnails in several places across the app, and text near the edges is often the first thing to get cut off.

What should I write in the title and description of a SoundCloud upload?

Keep the title close to how the track is listed on streaming services and in your own promotion, since consistency helps people find the same release across platforms. Featured artists are usually noted with a standard format such as artist name followed by feat. and the second artist's name. The description is a good place for credits, links to other platforms, and a short line about the track, but avoid stuffing it with unrelated keywords, since that reads as spam to listeners and does not meaningfully help discovery.

How many tags should I add to a SoundCloud upload?

Somewhere between five and fifteen relevant tags is a reasonable range. track-tags should describe the genre, subgenre, mood and instrumentation accurately, since these feed into how SoundCloud's search and soundcloud-algorithm categorise and recommend the track. Avoid tagging with unrelated popular genres just to appear in more searches, because it puts your track in front of listeners who are not looking for it and who are unlikely to engage, which does not help your standing with the recommendation system.

Should I allow downloads and embeds on my SoundCloud upload?

That depends on your goal for the release. Allowing downloads is useful for DJs, remixers or podcast use, and can add plays when people who downloaded the file later share it elsewhere. Allowing embeds lets blogs and other websites feature your player directly, which is a source of plays SoundCloud reports separately in your stats. If you are protecting an exclusive premiere or planning a separate paid download, turning these off until later makes sense. There is no single correct setting, only the setting that matches what you want the release to do.

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About Reposter Network

Reposter Network is a community-driven SoundCloud promotion platform. Artists earn credits by supporting other tracks and spend them to get real plays, likes, reposts and comments from real accounts. Learn more about how a SoundCloud repost network works, browse the music marketing glossary, or join the repost exchange.