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Music Industry

The Complete Guide To Using SubmitHub

Photograph of the blog post author, Maria Hanlon

Maria Hanlon

18.5.2023

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submithub

What Is SubmitHub?

SubmitHub is a submission site founded in 2015 by Music Blogger Jason Grishkoff (who is also known as Indie Shuffle). Jason was on a mission to connect artists with curators as effectively and easily as possible. 

SubmitHub allows you to filter who to send your music to so your song ends up in the right place. For curators, this means getting sent music you’ll actually like.

Over 2,728,000 songs have been shared to date, however, the competition is tough, and even the most successful artists can’t please everyone. It’s important to remember, music is subjective, and no two curators will hear a song the same way.

At this point, you might be wondering how SubmitHub works. Let’s look into that next.

how does submithub work

How Does SubmitHub Work?

SubmitHub was built for musicians and creators, allowing you to easily send your music to curators using either standard or premium ‘credits’. Each curator can request between 1-3 credits.

If you use premium credits, you’ll get a decision within 48 hours. To earn credits as a curator, you need to listen to at least 20 seconds of a song, and if you don’t like it you’ll need to explain why. Although 20 seconds might seem short, the average listening time by bloggers is actually around 2 minutes.

If a curator is a fan of your song, they’ll let you know when and how they plan to share it. You’ll be able to chat with them directly about the release and share any helpful information for their coverage. The current approval rate is 18% for premium submissions and 5% for standard submissions. As we mentioned earlier, 2,728,000 songs have been approved and shared and the competition is fierce, so don’t be disheartened by rejection!

Is SubmitHub Free?

SubmitHub’s pricing system involves credits, see the pricing structure of SubmitHub below:

  • Standard credits are free.
  • Premium credits begin at $6 for 5 credits.
  • You get bulk order discounts. The different tiers are as follows: $80 for 100 credits, $27 for 30 credits, & $10 for 10 credits

There are also SubmitHub coupons and promo codes that you can find online to get a discount.

But is SubmitHub worth it? Keep on reading as we reveal more!

is submithub free

Are The Curators Industry Professionals?

Often the feedback you receive when your song is declined will be useful, other times it might not be. It’s important to bear in mind that most curators are doing this as a hobby and might not work in the music industry. Also, sometimes it’s hard to find the right words to give feedback on the song. Besides, music is about personal experiences, and what you like, others might not.

Now you know how SubmitHub works, you should be well-equipped to start submitting!

How To Submit A Song To SubmitHub

How it works:

  • Upload your song on submithub.com and use a link from SoundCloud, YouTube or Spotify.
  • Choose curators. Filter them by genre to find outlets that will like your music.
  • Submit! Outlets typically respond within a few hours.
how to upload a song to submithub

Does Using SubmitHub Guarantee Placement?

Using SubmitHub does not guarantee placement. Everything depends on if they like your song or not.

SubmitHub’s mission is to connect curators with people who want to get their music heard. Their aim is to make the process transparent and work to improve the chances that you’ll actually hear back after sending your music in.

Is SubmitHub a scam? We don’t blame you for being cautious however the fact there are no guarantees you’ll be approved is one of the things that makes SubmitHub totally legit. Any service that sells placement in a playlist or blog is likely faking its numbers. On SubmitHub, it’s all about showcasing the best new music.

How Do Chats Work?

SubmitHub has a helpful chat function for you to use. There are public chat rooms, and you can have private chats with users and outlets. It’s easy to access chats, just head to the top bar of the website and click the ‘Chat’ tab.

You can also hide chats by archiving them. You can find the archive button in the top-right corner of your chat sidebar.

recording studio

What Is The Genre Match?

The ‘Genre Match’ is SubmitHub’s best attempt at sharing your song with curators who will love it. When a curator joins SubmitHub they get to choose the genres that they want to receive. They can select a maximum of 50 genres from over 150 options.

As they start rejecting and approving songs, SubmitHub gets a better idea of which genres are their favourites and which they like less.

If they approve 5% of their songs on average, but 15% of their songs in Genre A, then we can deduce that Genre A is one of the genres they’re more likely to share.

Similarly, if they only approve Genre B 1% of the time, we can tell that it’s not a genre they’re often going to say ‘yes’ to.

Several other factors determine how likely they are to approve a specific genre, including comparisons to peers and how many genres they have selected overall (for example, a curator who chooses only 5 genres instead of the maximum 50 is probably very keen on those 5).

But what about for artists? When you submit a song, SubmitHub asks you to choose up to 3 genres. They then look at all the curators who accept at least 1 of these genres and rank them from high to low depending on their history within that genre.

If they give them a ‘genre match’ score of 8/10 (or higher), it means that they gravitate toward the genres you’ve selected for your submission. If they have a genre match score of 4 or lower, SubmitHub recommends you skim over them unless you think there’s another reason for submitting to them.

Is SubmitHub For You?

Does SubmitHub work and is it for you? Let’s face it, SubmitHub isn’t for everyone. You’ll need a thick skin as rejection is common, but don’t take it to heart, even the most successful submissions still get rejected by most of the outlets they send to.

There’s so much music out there, and not everyone will like everything. curators in particular are tough to please. Although, if you’ve got a well-produced song that you’re proud of and think is ready for the world to hear, curators are often a great way to get a better understanding of the audience that will (and won’t) like your music.

If you have an unfinished track or are looking for a second opinion, sending it to the curators probably isn’t the best idea, as most of them are looking for finished products. You could try sending it to record labels instead as they’re often keen to work with artists who haven’t yet released their material.

We get it, SubmitHub might not suit everyone, so here are some SubmitHub alternatives in case it doesn’t feel like the right fit for you: Groover, Send It Right and Musosoup.

submithub artists

That’s Everything You Need To Know About SubmitHub

That was our guide on SubmitHub, we’ve covered how SubmitHub works, how to submit a song and if it’s for you! We hope you’ve found it helpful and now know if it could work well for you as an artist or curator.


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