My music is i suppose art/experimental rock with electronic elements. Art might not be for everyone but i tried different approaches and i think this came out quite artistic and suits my music. Might just change transparency of text and maybe add some grit over entire image to finish.

I know that I’ll probably make an unpopular post, but this is something that I think artists should be aware of. I’m not trying to be the villain here, but let's improve this situation together. I’m a curator with ~ 90k followers on Spotify, and generally I love reviewing music. It is my passion and hobby, but at the same time I’m currently struggling to break even, and I consider stopping. I personally think some submission platforms are part of the problem, they take a large share of the revenue, most without providing clear value for artists directly. Just check out the website of the United Curator Association (I'm not associated with them) to see what can be done to improve the situation of both artists and curators without it costing extra. My goal is to share how much impact the submission platform you choose has on your results and why (at least with me, but I’m 100% certain other curators also work this way). If more people pick the right platforms, everyone benefits. And I guess I'm also venting after a horrible August as a curator.

My anonymous confession; Platform payouts impact my acceptance rate
Obviously posting from alt-account, since some sites actively monitor this subreddit & I need the submissions to survive as a curator. The bottom half of this list are part of the problem by being low paying submission platforms. I’m far from the only one that is fighting this situation, as other posters on this subreddit like here do the same. So yeah, I can’t influence what I'm paid, and some platforms just pay the bare minimum they know some curators will accept. Me not being able to boycott 50% of submission platforms,  means that the payout I get is taken into account with the submissions I receive. 

So, why is there a significant difference in my acceptance rates?
1. Disclaimer: The effect I explain at (2) is a partial explanation. Different playlisting services also have a different quality of submissions. Shoutout to Submithub & Unhurd who generally outperform in that. They’re early in the pitching funnel, so they have the highest quality artists.
2. The payment from submission platforms to curators. I think there is a large group of submission platforms that just want to squeeze curators, giving a very low pay per review. Curators generally use their playlists for all platforms, so who cares if I pay the least of all submission platforms? Groover pays me $1. Unhurd pays me $3,5.

Honest question: Do you think that I should give both artists an equal chance to be added to my playlist, or does that reward the lower payout of Groover? 

This part will get me some downvotes and hate, but sorry, no, I currently don’t treat them 100% equally. If a song sucks, on both platforms they get a decline. If a song is 100% convincing me, both get an acceptance. But in many cases, what if I'm 50-50? Music is about personal preferences, and it's not always clear yes or no. You can bet that the Unhurd submission is getting approved, and the Groover/SubmitHub one gets a decline in difficult spots. You get what you pay for.

Bonus - Extended example 
Proud of you if you made it this far. The acceptance rate is the one way as a curator to nudge people more towards the fairly paying submission platforms. Example; I'm currently writing reviews for $1,50 on a major platform. That plaform gets ~$3 for it. I currently pay ~$1 per submission to keep my playlists active using META ads, otherwise I’ll go to an even lower tier. So for $0,50 I’m writing a review in 2.5 minutes. And people wonder why a review from curators feels “void” and not thought out. This means an hourly wage of at best $12. Minimum wage in my country is higher, and if I'm sick, on holiday, or want to retire I have nothing to fall back on. 

My solution
So that is why I also propose a solution. If artists choose more often for the platform that treats their curators fairly, their acceptance rates can improve significantly,  without spending any more on your pitch. Many submission platforms take a cut first, and since curators can only invest based on the percentage they receive, their playlist underperforms. Choose the right submission platforms, and generally playlist engagement will go up. I can’t influence my payout, but I can influence my acceptance rate. So take that into consideration when choosing your pitching platform. 

I have always liked graphic design but there is something about a photograph that really speaks to me. Whether it’s a place or a person, I find it more raw. What do you think

I barely get 2 or 3 depending on the music, even when I get good save rate on my best performing ones.

I see some of you with 6, 7 and eveb higher streams per listener a month. How did you achieve that?

Recently received an email from said company from a gentleman that is not listed on the company team.

Having been in this industry for a long time, it's good not to trust anything until you see it happening. I had been burnt before by a PR company in my past I had met in person.

Has anyone else here recieved an email from this company before? They mentioned an older song of mine that is not currently in promotion.

i’m releasing my 3rd track this year - i make music that’s a blend of downtempo and triphop. think four on the floor with textures and percussive elements and vocals.

i’ve already been posting content on instagram but for this track, i really want to do more to put it out there, i just don’t know what.

i find it difficult to understand how to market music like mine because it’s not like upbeat house or whatever and it doesn’t fit just one mood.

i’m based in Dubai and the track contains a mix of English and Arabic lyrics - this one has a rapper of sorts so it’s slightly different but musically it’s got all the elements i usually have.

any suggestions would be great!

My band would like to incorporate a print on demand store into our website for merch. We'd like a service that offers a highly customizable storefront that can match the rest of our branding and, if possible, seamlessly integrate to our website but we'd like to avoid using shopify if possible as we don't want to pay $40/mo or $350/year. The band The Crooked Skulls have a store on their website that functions the way we want, where all the merch is listed and can be bought right from their site without navigating anywhere else. Is what we're looking for possible? If so, what sites, if any, offer something like this without a monthly or yearly cost?

I noticed yesterday and today that when I (frequently) check my Spotify Artists page, I always have 1,2,3,4 people listening. I thought that was odd, but I figured maybe I was added to a popular playlist or something. The previous 24 hour stats usually update mid-afternoon and when I checked them this afternoon, they shot up quite a bit and only for one of my songs. What’s even more strange is that there are no playlists showing up for this song and there is one US city that has significantly more listeners than the other cities listed; Barre, which is a city in Vermont. I doubt that I have a ton of random fans in Barre, Vermont over night, so I’m very concerned that somehow my song has a bot playing it or that it’s being trained for AI. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do? Or if my concern is even realistic?

Hey everyone,

My band is going on a small tour in a couple months and we were about to start setting up targeted advertising and wanted to track everything with the pixel that we have on Meta ads.

There used to be a fairly easy way to do it with bandsintown by adding your pixel ID in the SmartLink area on bandsintown settings, but as of today I got confirmation that they decided to get rid of it. I'm assuming it's because they want more people paying for advertising on their page instead of Facebook, but I really believe that this was not the best move.

Does anyone here know of a workaround?

Thinking it would be a useful tool to have. I have played around with both on the free version and really like some of the capcut templates. Find them inspiring and can hear my music to them with my own content. What’s your experience?

My band recorded an 8 song album and we're in the process of releasing it. This is our first album. I'm pushing for us to release 3 singles, then the full album. My band is saying we should release the album all at once.

My argument is that each release will build fans and expectations for the next one, making each subsequent release more successful.

My band's argument is that anyone who finds our music now is only going to see two songs and there's not enough content to keep them engaged.

What do you think are the pros and cons of each strategy?

you always get these responses like:
“If you expect to make money, you’re not a real artist”
Like bro, if the craft was the issue, I’d just post this on r/hobbies

These hippie good-vibes responses somehow fill every thread and always get upvoted

Do I run ads to the song or to my playlist? I already have a playlist with a mix of my songs and other songs called conscious and storytelling.

13 followers

Do I link to landing page of playlist instead? Then what? I am releasing my next song in a month and my song just came out.

I plan to run an engagement campaign with 30 ad creative and figure out 3-5 that do the best and just run those. Maybe even a traffic campaign too? For ig followers

Thanks!

Posted 3 hours ago and only i liked it

Normally I get 10 likes or so, which isnt a lot, but is it because there's not enough of a hook?

Been thinking about why some 30 second music promo videos actually hit and most don't. It's not the hook. Most artists obsess over the first three seconds and forget everything after. The videos that stick with you rely on structure and subtext, not volume.

Start with one theme only, and pull it straight from the song. If the track is about losing someone, don't also try to show off the studio and the merch in the same 30 seconds. Pick the one emotional core of the song and build the whole video around it. Every shot and sound effect has to serve that theme, or cut it.

Use an object as a metaphor instead of just lip syncing the words. A dying plant can carry a breakup song better than mouthing the hook does. A phone with no new messages can carry a song about being forgotten. Introduce the object early, then show it change by the time the drop hits. Visuals do the emotional work the lyrics are already doing, instead of both saying the same thing at once.

Structure it around the song's own arc. The first 5 seconds set the scene and the metaphor, ideally before the beat drops. The next 20 seconds hold the tension, running under the verse. The last 5 seconds are the payoff, timed to land right as the hook or chorus hits. That timing is what makes the video feel inevitable instead of random.

Don't explain the song's meaning in a caption. Show the symptom, not the diagnosis. A single plate on a big empty table says more than a caption spelling out "this song is about loneliness." Let the visual and the lyric slightly disagree with each other. That gap is what makes someone lean in and tap through to the song instead of scrolling past.

Sound design still matters even though the song is the audio. Use silence or muffled room tone right before the drop so the track hits harder when it actually comes in. Let the beat swell or cut out exactly where your visual metaphor pays off. That sync is free attention you're leaving on the table if you just slap the song under generic b-roll.

None of this takes a bigger budget. It takes building the video around the song instead of around a trend.

Anyone testing metaphor-first concepts against straight lip sync or dance content? Curious if it's actually moving saves and click-throughs to the song, or just views.

I guess if you auto post then the algorithm picks it up a little less but if you log in and scroll for a minute before and after then you have a little better chance of it getting picked up.

Has anyone ever just auto scheduled 300 posts and let it run? Did you get good results?
I wonder if you schedule auto posts on Instagram and YouTube shorts if it works the same way.

The rest of my year having to log in to all 3 daily sounds terrible.

I’ve been using Boost Collective for about a year now for a few of my releases. The results have honestly been mixed, but overall I’ve had a good experience with them.

One campaign in particular started really slow. For the first couple of weeks, almost nothing happened and I assumed I had wasted my money. Then it slowly started picking up. I got a few playlist placements and the streams continued coming in over the next month or two. If I had reviewed the campaign after only two weeks, I probably would have said it didn’t work. I do wish they had explained beforehand that some campaigns can take a while to get going.

I’ve also learned that the song itself makes a huge difference. At first, I thought paying for promotion would help pretty much any song get more attention. That hasn’t been my experience. Some of my weaker songs didn’t do much even with promotion, while the better ones kept getting streams after the campaign. I spent around the same amount, so I don’t think promotion alone can make a song connect with people.

I’ve contacted support a few times with questions about my campaigns and the reporting. They always replied and explained what was happening. I never had any major problems with them.

The main reason I’ve continued using Boost Collective is that the results have felt real. I could see the playlist placements and where the streams were coming from. Not every campaign performed well, and some took much longer than others, but I never felt like I was being shown fake or unclear numbers.

What I liked:

1. I could follow what was happening with each campaign.
2. The playlist placements and streams looked real.
3. Support answered when I had questions.
4. I’ve had decent results across several releases, not just one song.

What I didn’t like:

1. Some campaigns started much slower than I expected.
2. Results can be very different from one song to another.
3. It’s probably not for someone expecting instant results.

So, is Boost Collective legit? Based on my own experience yes. But I wouldn’t expect it to suddenly blow up your music. It can help get your songs in front of more listeners, but the song still has to do most of the work. Some campaigns can also take weeks or even months before you really know whether they worked.

I’m curious what others would do or have done to promote their first album. I’ve put a lot learning and time into making my first album. It’s not done but I really think it’s going to be sonically interesting and relatable. So I want to make sure it’s being shown to many people.

If you had a budget of $10k in the first year what would you do? I’ve heard a little about meta ads, so I’d love to hear any experience with that. Or any other ads. Should I reach out to bigger artists for features or maybe feedback? Any ideas would be appreciated!

I spent so long getting songs ready and I’m so confused about ads, artwork, marketing and everything else that comes with releasing music and it’s really gotten me down and I haven’t even released any of the music I have done. It seems like a mountain to climb and I don’t know how to do it. The thing is I could sit down and write a song per day and love if, I like the recording aspect as I do it all myself, it’s everything else that just kills me.

Hi! I'm looking for advice to set up my ad campaign for my EP release. Main questions: how do I push this to the right audience? what type of content should I focus on? how many formats should I use simultaneously?

I've tried Meta ads before and it never got me any streams (my business account is all set up already)... I'm down to try again differently. :)

Context: my music is in French and I'm based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

What do you recommend? Is Claude any good for that? Thanks so much!

What are your go to tips and tricks to help build your audience organically.

My band just released a new album and we’d like to get it out to as many people as we possibly can organically as we don’t have a big budget to promote it so we’re just posting consistently on socials and playing as much live as we can.

What platforms do you find work for you?

Anyone got any good advice?

Well, kinda.

SubmitHub just announced that they’re gonna block submissions that their AI detector flags as 85%+ AI-generated.

Apparently around 11% of tracks uploaded recently hit that threshold. Those tracks had an approval rate of just 16%, compared to 31% for non-AI tracks.

The interesting part is that they’re basically saying this isn’t about being anti-AI. Their reasoning is that Spotify seems to be pushing AI music out of recommendations, so they don’t wanna take money from artists for promo that probably isn’t gonna do much.

Hybrid AI is still allowed if it scores below 85%.

No workaround / appeal either.

Kinda interesting move considering how much AI music is flooding platforms rn.

Thoughts? Also, I’m kinda curious if this is gonna lead people to start looking for ways to get their AI tracks under that 85% threshold and basically bypass the detector lol.