Brutal is my first impression.
With our recent release of You Light The Way we ran a Facebook Ad Campaign to promote its release. Facebook Ads is by far the quickest way to get new releases out to the masses. Of course, that depends how big a budget you want to apply to what ‘masses’ – thats a blog for another day.
Anyway, with the FB campaign running, we have seen a good response with plenty of Spotify saves, follower additions and Playlist ads. One playlist catapulted us forward racking up 100s of plays (real) over the course of an hour. Quite impressive!
So, that got me thinking to what other playlist submissions we can apply for. SubmitHub is a well known Playlist Curator, Artist, Influencer market place type environment.
Think…
Independent artists have a tough time as it is. Imagine now being judged by so called ‘influencers’, curators of playlists etc.. Basically, the premise is you ‘pitch’ your song to Curators of popular playlists for inclusion. Sounds easy right? Well the process is pretty straight forward (isnt free) and you have to choose your curators carefully.
The curators have 72hours to listen to the track and write a reply as to yes its included or no it isnt with a reason why. So far, its been quite a brutal assignation of our track. Astonished to hear people reject due to the mix (it was professionally mixed and mastered) through to ‘we didnt get the change in melodies between the verse and the lift’ – what? Jesus, good job I didnt send them a Morrissey song isnt it? The track clearly covers to distinct moods… darkness into the light… its pretty simple.
So, what have we learnt from SubmitHub.
- Grow a bloody thick skin as you get criticism from unqualified people who think they are better than you.
- Independent artists really do have a tough time being heard.
- Independent artists are real humans trying to be heard. They have feelings, hopes, dreams and aspirations. Sadly, those feelings are often hurt by idiots.
My summary is – be super prepared for hardcore rejection from SubmitHub. When you get an add to a decent playlist it really does propel your stock as an artist, but the cost is your mental health being trampled on by unqualified idiots who sadly run spotify music playlists.
We carry on!