If it is not a problem now, it will be in the future. Unnatural subscriber growth is against the terms of service of ANY social media platform. The effectiveness of download gates will only decrease more over time, because algorithms will pick up on sentiment.Ī download gate is unnatural subscriber growth The accuracy will only improve in the future. The comments on download gated songs are mostly hollow comments, because they are extorted.ĪI algorithms can pick up on connotations and emotions, like the natural language algorithm by Google. This engagement statistic applies to Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, but less so on Soundcloud at this point, but Soundcloud is heading that way.Ĭomment via a download gate is not engagement It’s thinking two steps ahead and, to be honest, most people don’t. This is why there are so many people see the increase of followers as growth (and not engagement rate). Measuring engagement before and after the download gate is difficult (if not impossible) to do on social media. You basically ruined your social media account, because recovering from that is really difficult. So you think you may have grown (you doubled your amount of subscribers), but you made it more difficult for yourself to grow in the long run.

The social media algorithm sees that as your content being bad (at least: worse than before), so it will promote less. When from my 2000 followers only 120 consume my content, my engagement rate drops to 6%. That is the same engagement rate when 200 out of 2000 followers consume my content.īut when I gain followers (by buying them or forcing them via a download gate), I may grow from 1000 followers to 2000 followers, but my engagement drops. I also talk about this extensively in my book: What big tubers don’t tell youĪ social media algorithm promotes content based on a percentage of your followers that engage with your content.Įngagement is consumption, comments and likes pols etc.Ī youtube video that is watched by 100 of my 1000 followers, 10% of subscribers consume my content. Let take a look at how do social media algorithms work? People leave a comment against their will in order to download the song Using a download gate is basically social extortion. leave a comment on on Facebook and/or Soundcloud.follow the producer on Facebook and/or Soundcloud.like the Facebook page and/or Soundcloud track.Let me explain why having a download gate could be the worst thing you can do for your growth on social media.Ī download gate (follow gate or fan gate) is a webpage on which you can download a song, but which forces you to do one or more of the following things for this: What is going on? Are the NO sayers the wisest? Why does roughly half of the users have a negative impact, half positive?

The amount of YES answers are pretty even. I asked in my community tab on YouTube if music producers ever used a download gate for their songs.Ĩ% percent said yes with a negative result. Written by: Dexxter ClarkHow to promote your music online for free? Not with a download gate!īefore I wrote this article I did some research.

Soundcloud download gate