There are a few good spots for bands to find info on DIYing their operations, but there are a lot of gatekeepers who feel like more people knowing things just means more competition. I love the chaos, I welcome it even. So I am ready to break that gate or hop the fence or do whatever I need to in order to pass this info along. Today, we’re focusing on SubmitHub.
So uhh… what is SubmitHub?
It’s the most wonderful place on earth. As an artist, it gives you access to a well-organized database of people who want to talk about your music and makes it easy to narrow down the best ones for you to contact. As a blogger/writer, it takes the stress out of your inbox by putting everything in one place and potentially making you a couple bucks for your hard work.
The site has to approve every blog, magazine, playlist, and outlet that applies, so you know they’re all legitimate places to send your music. You can either send a standard submission (which is free but doesn’t guarantee a response) or a premium submission (which guarantees a response in 48 hours or you get your $1 back). You can find anything from local music blogs to radio stations to EARMILK.
Okay, and how do I use it?
It’s honestly super easy, I swear. You make an account, upload the song(s) you want to share, links to your socials, add a bio + some photos… and you’re ready to go.
Then you move on to the list of places you can submit to. You can refine it by:
- genre
- location
- type of outlet
- if they accept premiere requests
- price (some big outlets charge $2-3 for premium submissions)
It’ll help you keep track of who you’ve already submitted to and who is new to hearing from you. You can choose if feedback is important to you or not, or if you’d rather they just listened to your song for longer. Then it lets you know when people start responding. It’ll tell you when they plan on posting, and it’ll send you links directly to everywhere they’ve featured it once the post/playlist is up!
SubmitHub is honestly so easy to use, it’s always a mystery to me when bands don’t take advantage of it. Even if you have a publicist, this is something you can easily do for free — or for a couple bucks — to make some connections on your own as well. I’ve found some of my favourite bands through there (like Arms Akimbo or Fade Awaays).