If you’re a music listener, chances are you know about Apple Music’s and Spotify’s top hits playlists: a collection of new music from today’s biggest artists. It’s a great way to get with what’s popular, but it also keeps you from hearing the hidden gems of some small artists.

If you dig deep enough, you might be able to find some of these artists on Apple Music and Spotify. However, both of these platforms require artists to have a label to upload their music, which keeps most people from getting their sound out to the rest of the world.

This is what draws these smaller artists to SoundCloud – a music platform that is sort of a “jack of all trades.” You can find all of the music from the big artists – even some of their music that hasn’t been released to other platforms – but you can also find a plethora of artists who have been sharing their music outside of the spotlight.

Music is a method of self expression for a lot of people, and that intimate, personal sound comes across in a lot of the music that these small artists release. Being able to release music knowing that the world isn’t waiting to judge you, like people are with big artists, makes the music genuine.

And because most of these artists don’t have the access to recording studios and top-level production, you feel like the song is being played for you.

Instead of cutting out conversations and count-ins, covering up mic static, guitar feedback, and the squeak of the strings, a lot of these artists embrace it. The small things that you don’t realize most songs are missing are exactly what make these songs unique.

The playlist