Setting up a Presave Campaign for Your SoundCloud Release
Published on 10.08.2025 by TF
For most artists, the hardest thing to do is to get people to stream their song after it drops. But that’s just one part of the problem. Getting your fans to be excited about your music before it comes out is where the real problem lies. That’s where pre-save campaigns can help your marketing plans.
On platforms like Spotify, going for pre-save campaigns is common. But that’s also because Spotify is designed to work well with these kinds of plans. They help artists lock in early support. In turn, this signals to the algorithm that a track is gaining popularity.
But on SoundCloud, it’s not that easy. SoundCloud doesn’t have a built-in pre-save feature. If you’re dropping music here, you’ll need to start getting creative.
That doesn’t mean pre-save campaigns are hopeless on this platform. You can still run a great pre-release campaign that builds hype and gets streams on drop day. All it takes is some planning, using the right tools and having a clear idea of what your rollout will look like.
As you read on, we’ll walk you through how to do all of that. Through this step-by-step guide, you’ll be able to make your SoundCloud releases count.
Why Pre-Saves Matter on SoundCloud
Most artists think of pre-saves as a Spotify or Apple Music type of feature. But SoundCloud artists can benefit just as much from early momentum.
That’s because SoundCloud’s algorithm is all for engagement. It looks for songs that are bringing in plays, comments, follows, and reposts. The songs that can maximize these interactions within a few hours of release are often the ones recommended in people’s feeds.
When your track gets pre-saved, it’s a way of locking in day-one listeners, and that gives you a surge of activity as soon as your tracks drop. The earlier you can get your listeners to tune in, the better your song will do when it comes to the algorithm. Early interactions boost your ranking with the algorithm, and that gets your song automatically promoted to even more listeners.
If you link your SoundCloud release to your social bio or smart links, that traffic can also move right back to your accounts on every other platform. It’s a simple way to turn your casual listeners into more active fans.
For smaller artists or DIY campaigns, these early interactions can help. It can be the difference between getting your music recommended or being buried amongst all the other songs released on SoundCloud. Even though SoundCloud doesn’t have pre-saves like Spotify, the plan is the same. Get more early engagement and let the algorithm help you!
Does SoundCloud Support Pre-Saves?
Unfortunately, SoundCloud doesn’t come with a pre-save feature like its competitors: Spotify and Apple Music. You can’t just go into SoundCloud for Artists and set up a release to be pre-saved. But that doesn’t mean your pre-save campaigns are useless.
Plenty of third-party tools let you mimic the same idea. These tools make their own pre-save style landing pages. These pages collect followers and send out reminders once your music is released.
Unlike Spotify’s features, this won’t save the song in someone’s SoundCloud app, but it does help you bring in fans right before your song is released. For most indie artists, that can help a lot because the goal isn’t just a saved track. It’s to get your listeners to show up the minute the song goes live.
You want hype. You want traffic. And third-party pre-save campaigns can help with that!
Tools That Let You Create Pre-Save Style Pages
When you go looking, you’ll find plenty of tools that can let you create pre-save pages. Some of the most popular include:
- ToneDen – Best for mobile use. Allows email collection and sends reminders.
- SmartURL – Best for global audiences. Let's you redirect fans based on device or region.
- Hypeddit – Best for music marketing. Let's you trade email addresses for downloads/pre-saves.
- Linkfire – Best for collecting analytics. Let's you promote across multiple platforms at once. Not suitable for beginners.
All of these platforms let you create a central link. With this link, fans can pre-save your music, where they’ll just be getting alerts when your release day comes close.
Most of the tools include:
- Email Capture Fields
- Calendar Reminders
- Push Notifications
- Email Notifications
- Redirect links toward the SoundCloud Track
With these tools, you can create an advanced touchpoint before your song is released. That way, your marketing doesn’t start from scratch when your music drops.
These tools don’t just simulate what a pre-save campaign looks like. They’ll also collect useful data and make it easier for your fans to engage with your music.
With these, your campaign will look just as polished as it would have been on Spotify.
Setting Up Your Pre-Save Campaign
Setting up the campaign isn’t just for major artists. You can launch your plans in just a few hours as long as you pick the right tools and have an idea in place.
Step 1 – Choosing a Tool
Before anything, you’ll need a platform to host your pre-save page. Each tool that we talked about works a little differently, but they all offer similar and useful features.
Start with whichever fits your technical skills and marketing plan the best. Most tools offer free plans that will help you cover the basics of your campaign.
Step 2 – Creating Your Landing Page
Once you’ve picked a pre-save tool, you’ll need a landing page. On this page, you’ll have to add the basics. This includes:
- Your Release Name
- Cover Art
- Short Description
Here, you’ll have to ensure that things look clean and interesting. The goal is to get people to start pre-saving and not look around.
Step 3 – Customizing the Message and Branding
Once you’ve got a landing page, you’ll need to ensure that it feels like you. That means uploading your logo, matching the fonts, and adding everything that reminds your fans of you. Here, it’s all about maintaining visuals and keeping your brand colors in check.
If your song release comes with a specific vibe or mood, the landing page should reflect that. It should feel like a part of the same story.
Step 4 - Setting Up Email Capture and Notifications
Most pre-save tools let you add a form that collects email or offers push notifications. This is an optional feature, but it’s great to have.
The emails that are added to this are saved and become part of your list. You can then contact these fans before your song drops.
Don’t make the process super complicated. Just let the users send in their emails naturally.
Step 5 – Adding Links to Other Platforms
Even if SoundCloud is your main focus, it shouldn’t be the only way your fans should connect with you. Some may prefer other apps like Apple Music, and some may even like Spotify more.
Add buttons or smart links for all other platforms where your track will be released. This keeps the pre-save landing page useful even after the song has been released.
When to Launch Your Pre-Save Page
Timing your pre-save campaign is just as important as setting it up right. Dropping it too early, and you’ve got no one paying enough attention. Drop it too late and you’ll miss out on the true potential of this feature.
For most artists, the best release time is 1-2 weeks before the song is dropped. This window gives them enough time to promote their music.
If you’re already following a teaser or snippet release plan, adding a pre-save link is the perfect next step. It gives your fans something to look at while they wait.
Think of the pre-save as a short reminder that’s meant to create hype. It’s no long-term campaign. It’s there to build interest and collect some engagement until the actual release.
Promoting Your Pre-Save Campaign
Once your pre-save page is live, you’ve got to get your fans to find it. Just posting it once isn’t enough. You’ll need to get as many of your fans on it, and that means putting the link where they’ll see it. That could mean everywhere!
Start with your Twitter or Instagram account. All of these social media platforms connect you with different audiences that like your music. Getting all of your fan audiences interested is what you should be looking to do.
Don’t forget your YouTube or TikTok accounts. Your pre-save link can be teased with clips or snippets to make your content look new and interesting.
Your pre-save campaign will only work if you can get people to click, and that means you can’t be shy about sharing the link often. But remember to change how you market it so you don’t sound like a spamming robot.
Final Thoughts
Pre-saves aren’t just a Spotify or Apple Music thing. Even if you’re releasing music on SoundCloud, you’ll need to build anticipation, and for that, you’ll need a pre-save landing page. Tools like ToneDen and Hypeddit make that an easy task for many artists.
Having a proper pre-save campaign requires a little bit of setup, but once it’s done, you’ll start collecting attention until your music goes live. That means getting more plays on release day and more interactions.
For a good pre-save campaign, you don't need a big following. All you need is for it to be set up right. With a proper plan, this can add that instant engagement and create a lot of hype for your new music.
In the end, SoundCloud doesn’t have its pre-save campaign feature, but that doesn’t mean you can’t set one up yourself. With the right tools and strategy, you’ll be able to make your song release worth it every time!