Unique Listeners
Category: Soundcloud
What is Unique Listeners?
The number of distinct people who played a track, regardless of how many times each of them played it.
Unique Listeners explained
Unique listeners strips repeat plays out of the picture. A track with 5,000 plays from 400 unique listeners has a devoted small audience, while 5,000 plays from 4,600 unique listeners has broad but shallow reach. Both can be healthy, but they call for different next steps: the first suggests deepening the relationship through releases and mailing lists, the second suggests giving new arrivals a reason to follow. The ratio between plays and unique listeners is also a useful integrity signal, because purchased engagement tends to produce implausible values at both extremes.
Why Unique Listeners matters for independent artists
Understanding Unique Listeners helps you make better promotion decisions on SoundCloud and other streaming platforms. On Reposter Network, artists apply concepts like this every day when they trade real plays, likes and reposts with other musicians instead of buying fake engagement.
Related terms
- Play / Stream: A play (or stream) is counted each time someone listens to at least 30 seconds of your track on SoundCloud.
- Audience Overlap: The share of listeners two accounts have in common.
- Listener Retention: How much of a track the average listener actually hears before leaving.
- Follower Quality: How likely your followers are to actually listen, engage, and return for the next release.
Read more
Browse the full music marketing glossary or read the guide on SoundCloud repost networks.