SoundCloud have made it pretty clear that they’re operating on a far wider scale these days, having been in the news for their contracts and controversial altercations with various major labels. But while it feels like they might be shifting away from their grassroots it’s-all-about-the-music-and-the-artists, free-for-all platform, other entrepreneurial businesses are honing in.

As Pigeons and Planes have reported, there are websites out there where you can purchase SoundCloud plays, downloads and so on. It’s kind of like paying for Facebook likes, only sneakier. One website, aptly titled WeDoViews.com boast upping your YouTube views, SoundCloud plays and downloads, Instagram likes, Twitter followers, etc. You name it, you can buy it. They’re called “Click Farms”, apparently.

Firstly, the risk of people discovering your use of bots is arguably more damaging than having no clicks at all. Everyone remembers the great Instagram Zombie Apocalypse of 2014, where countless bot accounts were removed, drawing celebrity follower numbers down by the millions. And of course, there were the funny tales of prominent politicians and celebrities paying for Facebook likes, only for it to be revealed that they’d paid their way. Even Tony Abbott was accused, after some questioned why he would have had nearly 400 000 Facebook followers in New Delhi, India.

There are countless websites like this, offering similar services.

We Buy Clicks:

Devumi:

Fast Followerz:

Build My Plays:

AudienceGain even offers to write comments for you.

It’s sneaky as hell, and we don’t recommend it. While I understand that people are after a wide audience and fans listening to their tunes, this is not the way to do it. You can have a million SoundCloud plays and that might get the attention of a few blogs and whatnot, but do you really want that? At the end of the day, if the pull of your track is the fact that it has lots of plays, it’s not going to work. If I listen to a song, my decision regarding writing about it on my website comes down to whether or not I like the song. Not the number of plays.

Surely you’d rather put the effort into dropping a good song, and having people actually listen to it. Numbers on a screen are only that. Nothing more. Those aren’t people listening to your music or watching your video. So what’s the point? You might pay for 5000 downloads, and that might look impressive on a press release – but keep in mind that that isn’t 5000 people actually downloading your tunes to spin at home, or at the club, or anywhere else. So your music isn’t actually getting out there in any way.