The ULTIMATE SubmitHub Guide in 2023

[@AndrewSouthworth]

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[@GoranBackmanMusic]

You're doing God's work.

[@mrarticle622]

I feel like even Michael Jackson would have 99% decline on submithub with feedbacks like “wow this is the best track I’ve ever heard but my pop playlist is not too pop for your non enough pop track that’s too pop”

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Lmao he probably would have rejections, but considering most people get 20% approvals I like to think he’d beat the average.

[@NijahovaWorld]

@@AndrewSouthworthi have gotten 68% approval overall

[@FluoLente]

SubmitHub used to be amazing (and I love the whole crew!), but it has been slowly trending poorly over the last couple of years. To no fault of SubmitHub, the curator quality / Spotify changes have really devalued the platform overall. Non-editorial Spotify playlists get 10% of the plays they used to because of the changes to search ranking, so the exposure from even the larger curators is pretty low. Curators also started using the automated expiration feature to remove tracks after 1 week, where normally a placement was 4 to 8 weeks and would generally be better for artist linking. It varies significantly genre to genre, but it has just been worth less and less for a lot of artists. I used to curate on the platform too, but it was just too difficult to keep high levels of engagement on curated playlists.

[@shoegazeforever8810]

If you have songs that sound much the same as a lot of stuff out there then SubmitHub might give you some good results. But can you imagine what SubmitHub curators' would think if these iconic artists and bands were starting out today?: Lana Del Rey - Video Games Curators: "Why doesn't this dumb b.... understand that a pop song must have a drum beat in it?" My Bloody Valentine - Loveless album Curators: "This is just noise!!!" (Most curators do not have the brain capacity to process an MBV song) Billie Eilish - "What Was I Made For?" Curators: "Has this girl got asthma?"

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Yeah. Most music is rejected because it simply doesn't fit into the playlists the curator has. Most curators fall into one of two camps: 1, they're music artists or label owners that love music and have some playlists they grew for their own stuff that expanded over time or 2, young people who accidentally grew a big following on Spotify playlists or social media or something. If I have a pop playlist that mostly features upbeat happy pop songs, and then Lana Del Rey or Billie Eilish send me their new slow depressing dark-pop ballad i'm going to reject it. It doesn't mean its bad, it simply means it doesn't fit on the playlist.

[@yusnotyus]

applied to some 40 curators last week, not a single approval. my song is really not that bad. The stats don’t add up, I should’ve gotten at least 1 or 2 approvals, but not a single one. I will try again using a different song, and different genre, but it’s really getting old. I do think knowing your genre is key to success. also, I think you’re severely underestimating the influencer angle. to have influencers with thousands of followers make little videos with your music is a huge opportunity. they could make something along the lines of doggface69 or whatever his name was, the guy who used the fleetwood song in tiktok and next thing you know your song is a viral hit. You just have to find the right song with the right lyrics and tell influencers what you want them to do, and you could start a trend.

[@BeyondMediaVideos]

I used SubmitHub for the last time last week all the playlist are in super narrow genre profiles. I spent hours researching the curators and the appropriate playlist and writing personal notes to curators but only get accepted 1-2 out of 30-40 submissions. Trust me it's a waste of money. Money better spent getting ads through FB learning phase. Nope I'm done.

[@Tommyalpaca]

Bruh truly, I was only submitting to surf rock playlists and they were all like this is too retro🤔🤦🏼‍♂️ the people with those playlists don’t actually know what they’re talking about😂

[@OfficialLeahJude]

”Downtempo, metal, jazzy, K-pop with trap drums. Music I can drink an expensive champagne to only! And also, I’m out of town” 😂

[@wormsali]

I usually get a 20-50% approval rating. I do old-school style hip-hop

[@NALYRO]

This is the biggest mistake that artists mostly make regarding the SubmitHub platform. Curators get mostly 0.50USD (1 credit) - 1USD (2 credits) or 1.50USD (3 credits) and for that price most artists always expect that they will be added to the best playlists and receive at least 1k daily streams... For average 1 credit or 1USD to the curator you should be happy that you get at least those 200-300 streams per month, because it's already made you more royalties than that 1 credit costs to you. I agree, we all want to get good streams, but think on the other side, that for such a price you are actually getting decent, many artists don't even get that.

[@Yungeenkam]

But thats only if they accept the person music which is 7/10 most likely not gonna happens and barely give you feedback on the song that was submitted

[@wormsali]

​@@Yungeenkamnot for me bro. I get about a 20-50% approval rate. I've spent a few hundred dollars and gotten thousands of streams and listeners that carry over month to month. I also end up in many other user playlists that I DIDN'T pay for coming from listeners adding me

[@wan]

My acceptance rate has been pretty decent submithub, however despite that it results in low streams. A playlist can have 20k followers but only get me 200-300 streams in a month. I have barely seen it affect my algorithmic plays either.

[@socratesalopece4913]

200-300 streams from a playlist is low?

[@wan]

@@socratesalopece4913 for a "public" playlist it's low, for a private one it'd be high. I'm talking about public ones

[@NALYRO]

This is the biggest mistake that artists mostly make regarding the SubmitHub platform. Curators get mostly 0.50USD (1 credit) - 1USD (2 credits) or 1.50USD (3 credits) and for that price most artists always expect that they will be added to the best playlists and receive at least 1k daily streams... For average 1 credit or 1USD to the curator you should be happy that you get at least those 200-300 streams per month, because it's already made you more royalties than that 1 credit costs to you. I agree, we all want to get good streams, but think on the other side, that for such a price you are actually getting decent, many artists don't even get that.

[@wan]

@@NALYRO the maths on that is inaccurate, it didn't cost you just the 1 credit to get those streams. It costs you the failed attempts as well. You can't spend $100 get 1000 streams from 3 curators and say it cost you 3 credits when it cost you $100. At that point Facebook ads is better

[@NALYRO]

@@wan Facebook ads are better only if you have at least 0.05 USD per click. For example I never got good results from Ads, not even 1000 streams for 100 USD for 1 week. On SubmitHub my approval rate is always at least 60-70% from 50-60 sent curators and makes at least 10-15k extra streams per month to push a little bit my song, so guys, I don't really understand how you can be always rejected, there is 2 cases only, trash song or you really don't check detailed who you submit to. I always research at least 2 hours of every curator before submitting, to do a right campaign and get as much as possible a better approval rate.

[@vishalnaidu]

Aside from SubmitHub being worth it or not, this is a great video for understanding whom to send to and increase your chances of getting playlisted. Thanks for that Andrew.

[@jamaalwashington1983]

bro you're the only channel that matters in this field. everyone else is just talk but you are all SHOW. thank you

[@joeyjax]

Great video review, answered a lot of questions! Very good stuff, thank you!

[@louisedge2382]

If you have one approval and you aren't madly off in direction genre wise. Keep going back to them. The only way to win with submit hub is really pinpointing your specific genre to the right people. Oh and make beautiful music, I would say that the latter is much more important for the success of your song regardless of submit hub.

[@marcusbishop8936]

Andrew, I agree with you and take on board a lot of things that you suggest and recommend, but I have honestly never had any positive thoughts about submithub at all. 95% of the reviews I see are people complaining about it and quite frankly, I can see why. Half-arsed curators are the main problem. You’re paying for a service that is not a guarantee to be beneficial to your career. The credits system baffles me. Either you have them or you don’t. Premium credits are a joke and the whole business model of submithub only emphasises the main problem in the music industry, there are too many people looking to make money out of music for the wrong reasons. I find it incredible that standard credits and premium ones are a thing. Curators are only going to pay attention to the thing that makes them more money, otherwise what’s in it for them? Likewise, if us musicians have to pay to even get our music to them in the first place, then what’s in it for us? Seriously. It wasn’t like that before the internet. Credibility was created by the people who worked their arses off making contacts in the industry and getting their product into the limelight, not by a quick $20 deal. Music publications should especially not be gatekept in this way. For example, the whole point of a music review in a magazine is that it is an unbiased and therefore, credible review written with genuine thoughts on the creation. As soon as you introduce money, it completely defeats the object of what the magazine was trying to do. All credibility gets thrown out of the window because an amount of money will start to showcase objectively crap music and a give a biased, overly positive review with it. This is the main problem with the music industry and exactly the reason why independent musicians struggle. Because companies have taken advantage of the age of home recordings and DIY, self-managed artists and created these quite frankly stupid business models of gatekeeping music magazines and playlists. We need to stop thinking that this is a good way of getting somewhere with our careers, because 9/10 times, it isn’t. Do not fall into the trap of paying your way onto magazines and playlists. You’re sitting there wondering why your song isn’t getting picked over a song that just isn’t as good as yours when you’ve submitted yours for free, they’ve paid more! Don’t pay ffs. Just research, contact and connect. 100x better than doing all of this.

[@yusnotyus]

you’re right that money should not be involved in the curating or evaluating of music, but you would be shocked at the number of articles that were written about my music between 2010 and 2014 that are no longer retrievable because the blogs websites went down. it costs a lot to run a music website successfully: domains, hosting, staff, advertising, etc these guys need to get paid. I don’t mind blessing these guys with a little change. what I don’t like is that they hardly listen to the music with an open mind and are pretty much all stuck on only wanting what they want to hear. There’s no chance you can listen to 20 seconds or 90 seconds of a song and determine if you like it or not. most of the greatest music out there was rejected almost immediately upon first listen at the time it was released. Submithub should require all submitters to listen to a submission twice. and prevent them from rejecting a submission within 24 hours of receiving it. the problem is that there must be so much shit music out there being submitted to these curators, they can’t keep up. the entire model is problematic if you ask me.

[@marcusbishop8936]

@@yusnotyus that’s why subscriptions to magazines exist though right?

[@stratosphereproject]

I just delete my submit hub last week because the feedbacks are so bad it's like throwing the money through the window

[@Somephase]

Did my first campaign this weekend & it was whatever tik tok has been a better option

[@MajorMoment]

The key to succeeding on SubmitHub is understanding high rejection rates are *TOTALLY* normal, even if you're being very selective, which you should be. We've recently ran a campaign on a song that became our most successful to date with approval rate around 40%, we even got to #1 spot on their "Popular" chart in Rock / Metal. The feedback we've received was mostly ok, but it happens that occasionally it's trash and occasionally it's surprising the curator is declining when from our perspective the song fits their playlist perfectly. Don't let the poor feedback discourage you, your music is not for everyone (plus, from what I can tell, it's not in the most mainstream genre), and all curators are subjective after all, and it often boils down to not only whether they liked the song but also whether it fits whatever playlist / blog they're curating. SubmitHub is ok for supplemental promo, but definitely should not be your main focus. ✌🏻

[@stratosphereproject]

@@MajorMoment rejection from curators is not actually the problem, my genre is power metal and there’s a few curators into it so I manage go through hot or not to get some leadings and good quality feedback and it was aweful

[@mixourband]

@@MajorMoment Now tell us something we don't know.😂

[@MajorMoment]

@@mixourband ok. I would say, with all due respect, focus more on production & tighten songwriting a little. Yes, you're in power metal, but there are ways you can make it sound more modern, if you want.

[@sanosketheboss]

A guy rejected my submission for a blog post for an absurb reason but the only thing I really regreted was not checking out his blog to see the kind of songs his reviews typically because my God, not to even mention the average readers on his site 😂. If you can get your premium credits back after being rejected, it would have been fair. Instead, it is almost like a gamble and to be honest you are better off running ads with the money. If you are even into the niche genre or experimental, chances of getting approval is extremely low. In all fairness, some curators give good reasons why they rejected your song, but like 80 percent of others clearly haven't made anything musical in their lives.

[@socratesalopece4913]

Do you want your fans to only be people who "have made something musical in their lives" ?

[@sanosketheboss]

@@socratesalopece4913 No, that is not what I meant. I was referring to the way they critique your songs and most times give inconsistent feedbacks. From them not picking your song due to subjective reasons and not necessarily because it wasn't good enough, to reasons like not selecting your song because they didn't like the kick , or they would have preferred more bass in a particular section without regarding how that alone might change the overall dynamics from the engineering perspective. To also something as silly as the song is too "Dramatic." Going back to the drawing broad as an artist becomes a problem because maybe the song being "Dramatic" was how you intended it to be. If it was something very specific like for example, feedbacks on the overall song quality or maybe the vocal performance or even it simply wouldn't fit their playlist , an artist can understand. But when they mention like it was too dramatic , it doesn't make any sense.

[@Thoracius]

It's kind of on you if you submit it and don't even research who you are submitting it to...

[@christianstewart1066]

This is a fabulous video Andrew. A lot of help for me as I just finished my first solo piano album and am looking for input on how to promote it. Thank you!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thank you! Glad it helped!

[@waypapamuse8582]

This was an excellent video. very helpful. Thank you Andrew. What's funny is that I am about to release a song called "Sunshine." Great minds think alike? lol Question though, since my song is not yet released, I have been sending emails out with a link to a Google Drive folder that contains an .mp3 of the song, a press release and the cover art. If I upload the unreleased song to Submit Hub, I assume there is no way to share the artwork or the lengthy press release about the song? I've always been told that the best time to promote a new song is before it comes out, but is there a better way to do this? Soundcloud & KZbin allow private / hidden hosting of your song, but most radio stations, for example, actually want a copy of the song and they are not able to simply stream it. Any suggestions?

[@lauranegrin6316]

I spent 60$ on Submithub and didn’t get any playlists unfortunately

[@dizzler-beats]

If you spent 60$ on Ads instead, you would have gotten at least 120 people listening (0.5$ conversion), a bunch of people saving and listening for months to come, and probably even earned a few fans that will wait for your future releases. But even if your Submithub campaign was successful, once you are getting kicked off the playlists, your plays will go down to 0 again...

[@BigBlueBazooka]

I wasted money on submithub too, KZbin and spotify ads are significantly better. Submithub is worthless

[@yeadogthazmyboi]

@@dizzler-beatswhere do you recommend buying ads to promote a song on Spotify?

[@thepocketjoys]

Super helpful, thanks for this video!

[@snoozefighting]

Thank you

[@DeadzoneMusic]

Curators say they "accept" genres they will never actually accept, just so they can rack up those credits by rejecting your music

[@AndrewSouthworth]

You can see the approval rates they have per genre though. If you see they reject 95% of songs in that genre you can skip submitting to them.

[@GALEXIspacemusic]

#question When submitting to Submithub, for a Spotify, what is the best time to (re release) to do it? We release our next single on March 24th and it is March 8th today... I was thinking this could be good, yes?

[@winterburnwinterburn]

Dude, your videos are great, but you spent the last few years showing how playlist promotion is not good for music (low saves, and when you are removed from the playlist you lose all those listeners). I understand you need to pay bills, but why would you support this platform after all the data you have that showed us?

[@THINGpromotions]

I just got recently this comment from submithub curator ''amazing track but sadly 0,5 db lower volume level'' like wtf really. Money wasting site sadly, fb ads for own playlist !

[@karlosmartos4646]

I had someone who said :" wow great track overall and this was a really close call but i decided to not add it to my playlist, better luck next time". They do this so you send them a submission again next time because you think it was so close this time then they have to accept next time (spoiler : they wont)

[@THINGpromotions]

@@karlosmartos4646 so true sadly

[@sanosketheboss]

@Karlos Martos For real 😂. You can't make this shit up 💯

[@kateobeirne-y7c]

quick question: when do you submit to releasehub? After the song is released, when the release pre-save link is live or as soon as possible?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

They have a queue system so you can submit weeks in advance if you want with no issue. For blogs do at least 2 weeks before release, for other stuff i'd say a little bit before release or release day or after - doesn't matter as much.

[@Syrin23]

Our band was on tour with Echosmith, Poppy, Meg Myers and Ava Max this past year. Would you mention that in your promotional pitch? In talks with equally big or bigger artists for our fall tour

[@minime.ge_]

All i’mma say is ik submithub isn’t it because the same curator/blog who denies me on submithub will approve the song through another medium

[@AndrewSouthworth]

It depends on what the situation is, but many blogs will cover music for a fee. Meaning you can pay many blogs for a guaranteed feature / review. Then on SubmitHub they'll accept submissions but they'll be very picky. Alternatively sometimes sites have different curators on each platform. So their individual tastes and approval rates can differ.

[@minime.ge_]

@@AndrewSouthworth i mean yeah paying is always an option i guess. But to your second point if you know the curator/blogger you should be able to put which tastemaker you feel will like your song by name and typically they will honor that. I’m not saying this as someone with a bad approval rate on submit hub either i’m currently at 27% But what i do notice is that it seems their system or curators (idk) places a lot of value on maintaining low approval rates. which became evident when you start getting negative feedback only to get approved minutes later through a “s/o” with the exact coverage initially asked for. or they reach out to you through different means (or you reach out to them whichever). I’m not saying it’s the entire base of curators on submithub, i’m not saying submithub is a horrible service in general. it can be great a lot of curators have given me objective feedback and great coverage. but for new artists wishing to secure coverage i would not suggest it as the first place they go. Bc from what i can see maintaining approval rates is a major factor for a lot of curators. (I’m obviously not talking about the stereogums or earmilks of the space) and more importantly there’s virtually no way for you to build a relationship with the curators prior to that first approval and even after it’s fairly limited

[@thereesebonneau]

Hey Andrew I have a question. What’s the best way to get cheaper ad results? I’m m running ads very similar to yours and my ratio is like $1 per conversion instead of 24 cents. Is there something wrong I’m doing ?

[@MrAlwaysOnTen]

Your ad sucks, what countries are you running to?

[@plrc.artist]

They should have a situation whereby i can upload my song and it should automatically tell me what playlists i am eligible to submit to?

[@sdda35]

Do you recomend doing this for an artis in Israel, who needs only plays is that country? The lyrics are in Hebrew, that's why. Is there a way to target curators based on country or language? Thank you.

[@siloamusic3283]

Huge value, thanks Andrew! Gonna apply that for my first song 💪

[@evoj.]

Very good stuff here Andrew. Been tinkering on Submit Hub recently and all the thoughtful insight is much appreciated. 🙏🏻💥. -Evo

[@aguponcefractalblow4761]

Thanks for the info, really dinamic and useful!!

[@TheBCompany]

Never going back...85% of curators are not consistent and many don't really know music very well, even in the niche.

[@socratesalopece4913]

Do you want your fanbase to be only people who "know music very well"?

[@TheBCompany]

@@socratesalopece4913 irrelevant. The curator feedback is telling. I'm a promoter, not an artist, so yeah, it matters.

[@socratesalopece4913]

@@TheBCompany It's relevant if you care about the curator's opinion. And their 1$ worth of feedback. What really matters for me is to get advantage of the curator's audience to make a song reach more people.

[@TheBCompany]

@@socratesalopece4913 only if the feedback is positive and made public would that work.

[@thereesebonneau]

Andrew please please help/respond I lm so confused. I’m running Facebook conversation ads just like you’ve shown with the same countries and the I’ve got great results on Facebook and TonDen. But my Spotify hasn’t updated?? I’m curious if the ads working or not ? It says on tonden AND Facebook that it is but Spotify isn’t updating accordingly?? I’m gonna try to wait one more day to see if numbers Change but if not I’m totally lost here

[@FIREMANsuperhero]

My theory is that Submithub and Groover are just side money for the curators that take payola. Over the years, I've submitted to nearly 40 recipients on Submithub and about 30 on Groover. Only got 2 placements from Groover curators, which generated less than 100 streams... Curious to know what your results are. Perhaps you only get results if the curator has heard of you before?

[@alexdiakonov5218]

How many minimum monthly listeners should a playlist have for sending to be reasonable?

[@EnriqueLazaro]

Hey Andrew, Can you tell me why Submithub rejects me as a curator? They don't give any reason. They let you try again after a month, and they reject me again.

[@djwhodey7825]

SUBMIT HUB IS A SCAM THATS WHY

[@ASHWYN]

They did it to me as well, if you have your name in your playlist they might reject it. Also don't place your songs in the top while pitching it.

[@LTTurnerJr]

Great info, thanks for sharing. :)

[@dennisnardantonio1380]

Excellent presentation!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thank you!

[@angryoharas]

Thoughts on "New Artist Pro" on Daily Playlists?

[@piyasirimusicproduction]

Very useful! Thanks

[@JWLZofficial]

Do you find more success in submithub or Facebook ads?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Facebook ads 100%

[@harryzguitar9919]

Really great video

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks!

[@thelostboymusic]

thanks for making this 🤘

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Glad it helped!

[@Righteous_Reck]

really great video thanks

[@adrian14752]

Tried this, got rejected from 12 curators. only spent $24 but oh well worth a shot i guess

[@GMighty]

Keep trying

[@djclandestino51]

Será que dá certo um funk brasileiro

[@LaurenLanzaretta]

Coupon didn't work

[@slObird]

You are a life save. Thank you. And you're very cute.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

haha thanks!

[@thesuncollective1475]

Submithub is great. The feedback made me a better Producer and got my acceptance rate up.

[@djwhodey7825]

🤡🤡🤡

[@oneironautproduction]

😂

[@novarobotslofi6596]

Yea i gave up on submithub a while ago. It got old quick paying money for someone to basically just say i suck & reject me.

[@djwhodey7825]

SUBMIT HUB is a SCAM.. I like most of your videos but submit hub is straight trash.. HUGE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY

[@SyncrisisVideos]

Saying "get gipped" or "get gyped" is a bad habit i also have of being raised with hateful words. Something to consider.

[@charlesmcbride4097]

Let's cut through all of the confusion and address the "elephant in the room". Why, on God's green Earth, should talented people, who create musical works out of thin air ,and are gifted enough to perform them, 'submit' their works to other people who have no such Talent for the sake of their untalented opinion, to see if those people will submit the works to OTHER untalented people, who use the works for their OWN benefit, while paying the artists little or nothing ??

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Pretty often curators are also other musicians, artists or producers. But even in cases where they aren’t, they have access to an audience that people want to reach. The end user isn’t an untalented person using the song for their own benefit. They’re just music fans. If you want to reach those music fans that they have access to, you ask the person if they’ll share it. If you don’t want access to those people, don’t ask them.

[@jerryk3280]

It is pretty discouraging many talented artists have to pay more money after the whole music production process which either requires them to pay for the engineering/mixing/mastering proceses OR take on those duties themselves which still requires the purchase of equipment, software etc upfront. It's back*sswords.

[@BigBlueBazooka]

Submithub is crap, anything that gets accepted will garner almost no streams, the playlists are probably followed by bots. Stick with KZbin and Facebook ads.

[@karlosmartos4646]

i spent 80$ once and got on 2 playlists. They got me roughly 250-300 streams but once they kicked me off after 1 month it literally went to 0. No saves, nothing. It was wasted money

[@socratesalopece4913]

@@karlosmartos4646 250-300 streams for a month is nothing? Not sure you can achieve that with 80$ ads. But maybe I'm wrong!

[@tecno8335]

Waste of time. I dont feel like paying 10-15$ to a bunch of people just to get song feedback. Scam. Invest elsewhere yall.

[@nograverecords]

Your videos are great but submit hub is NOT.. Don’t blow your money on this site for them to tell you how awful your music is! Cheers!