SubmitHub Review: How I Got Featured on Blogs and Spotify Playlists

As an indie musician, you’re constantly looking for new ways to get your music out there.

But you don’t want to hire an expensive PR agency.

And you want real fans to connect with your music, not fake streams.

Enter SubmitHub.

I’ve been using this platform to promote my music for a while with some success.

So in this SubmitHub review, I’ll share my experience and give you a basic intro.

What Does SubmitHub Do?

SubmitHub is a platform that connects musicians with curators and influencers. It’s a way for musicians to get exposure for their music. 

You can submit your music to:

• Bloggers
• Spotify playlisters
• Record labels
• SoundCloud curators
• YouTubers
• Twitch streamers
• Radio stations

As of this writing, there are just under 2,000 curators, over 600k musicians using the site, and over 20 million submissions. 

Here’s how it works…

You, the musician, find curators based on genre and your preferred type of curator. Then you can submit your song to multiple places at once. 

With each submission, you can include a note, which could be more background on the song, where the song’s drop is, or whatever else you want.

You can submit your music using Standard credits, which are free, or you can use Premium credits, which you have to pay a small fee for (more on the cost later).

According to SubmitHub, the Premium credits “get a quicker response, a guaranteed listen, and feedback even if it’s a ‘no, thanks.’”

These credits also move you to the top of the curators’ lists with the other Premium credit users, above anyone else who has submitted with Standard credits. 

So curators give Premium credit users top priority. 

My Experience With SubmitHub

From February 2020 to May 2021, I released one song at a time, about every 4-8 weeks. I did this to focus on the quality of each song.

And the process of releasing each song involved submitting it to curators on SubmitHub. I only submitted to Spotify playlists and music blogs. 

I released a total of 10 songs, although I submitted just eight of those. Apparently, I didn’t submit the first one (don’t know why), and the ninth song was slow and sparse so I figured it wouldn’t do well.

Out of the eight songs I submitted, five were approved for either a blog writeup or inclusion on a Spotify playlist. 

Over the course of this project, my songs got three blog write-ups and were included on 16 Spotify playlists. 

Granted, the same blog featured my songs each time, and I’m not sure about the quality of every single one of the playlists. 

But…

These were my first real reviews of my music (other than interviews I’ve done). Some of the highlights of those reviews are:

• “[Not Gone] is one of the most intriguing folk tunes I’ve heard in all of 2020”
• “[Dancing On Magic] has some energy to it that stands above the crowd of folk music right now”
• Included on the “Outstanding New Artists to Watch in ’21” list

As for the Spotify playlists, even if the engagement wasn’t career changing, it still showed the algorithm my music was worth spreading.

Because of that, my Spotify follower count and monthly listeners have increased since using SubmitHub.

The SubmitHub Submission Process

Once you hit the “Submit A Song” button, you’ll choose one of your songs. You can upload or import the song from a link (I usually paste a SoundCloud link).

After filling in some info about your song, you’ll see this screen where you choose the type of curator you want to submit to…

[IMAGE]

Next, you’ll choose the type of credits you want to use. As you can see, Premium credits guarantee a response from the curator and your submission gets moved to the top with the other Premium credit submissions.

This way, you know the curator actually listened to your song, instead of it getting lost in the ether somewhere.

[IMAGE]

Then you’ll choose the options for your submission.

You can require feedback (which I always do) and decide what permissions the curator has if they accept your song.

[IMAGE]

Finally, you get to the screen with all the curators. In one of the previous steps, you will have chosen the genre of your song, and the list of curators will reflect that.

Under each curator, you’ll see a description, rating, and how many songs in your genre they’ve accepted.

As an example, let me show you Ear To The Ground Music, a blog that featured a few of my songs.

Here’s what their description looks like…

[IMAGE]

And below that, you can see their stats and ratings, like “Influence” and “Quality.”

These stats help you decide if the blog is worth submitting to or not.

[IMAGE]

If you want some strategies for using SubmitHub, check out the Ari’s Take review of SubmitHub.

He interviewed the founder, Jason Grishkoff, and got some really interesting insights.

The post’s takeaway is much more pessimistic than this SubmitHub review, but it’s still worth a read.

SubmitHub Cost

You can use SubmitHub for free by submitting with Standard credits. They give you two for free every so often.

But where I’ve had success is with Premium credits.

Here’s what those cost:

[IMAGE]

You need one, two, or three Premium credits to submit to a curator, so $6 can get you a few submissions. That’s a fair deal for the service SubmitHub offers.

Pros and Cons of SubmitHub

Here’s a quick summary of the pros and cons of SubmitHub…

Pros:

• Submit to multiple curators at once
• Get guaranteed feedback
• Each blog is rated based on influence and overall quality
• Find curators that match your genre

Cons:

• Only beneficial if you use Premium credits
• Not all curators have quality blogs/playlists/etc.

Final Thoughts

Even though SubmitHub is really only beneficial if you use Premium credits, they’re not that expensive to buy. 

When I look at the low cost of credits, the convenience of batch submissions, and the success I’ve had with this platform, I say go for it. 

I’ve gotten blog write-ups and Spotify features. And I know you can get there too. 

Not every curator is going to vibe with your music, and that’s fine. That’s how music works. It’s subjective. 

But the cost-to-benefit ratio is in my favor, so I’ll be using this platform for future projects.

My SubmitHub review: give it a shot. Your music is worth it.

SubmitHub Review: How I Got Featured on Blogs and Spotify Playlists

Comments

[Caleb J. Murphy]

Hey, folks! MTT posted this before it was finished (hence the missing images). To read the full review, you can go here: https://www.musicianwithadayjob.com/submithub-review/