What Artists Should Know About SubmitHub

What Artists Should Know About SubmitHub

In March of 2016, I published what quickly became my most popular post: These 59 Music Blogs Will Listen to Your Song, Guaranteed. Four years later it’s up to 1100+, and also includes radio stations, YouTube and Twitch channels, Spotify playlisters, and Instagram influencers. Jason Grishkoff, the founder of SubmitHub, walked me through the submission…

My Promote on SoundCloud Beta Results

My Promote on SoundCloud Beta Results

Three weeks ago, I received the following email from SoundCloud with the subject line “You’re invited to an exclusive promotional opportunity.” I immediately created a campaign to promote the opener from my new album: As it currently stands, creating a campaign is relatively straightforward, though the option to choose between simple and advanced targeting is…

Spotify PR Spotlight: Virtuoso Music

Spotify PR Spotlight: Virtuoso Music

It’s always a good sign when a Spotify PR company rejects your song. It means they’re selective, a prerequisite to establishing fruitful relationships with influential curators. Virtuoso Music rejected my first submission, so I sent them three more. To my relief, they approved one of them: We really love “In Motion” and we think that has a…

I Bought 16K SoundCloud Plays

I Bought 16K SoundCloud Plays

I would never buy fake plays, and I strongly suggest you don’t either. You risk getting your material taken down, your account suspended, or worse. When I received an email from Vicky Edward of Midnite Blaster, an electronic music marketing agency based in Melbourne, Australia, I was skeptical. She assured me that their SoundCloud promotional service is…

How to Promote Your Music with Feature.fm Smart Links

How to Promote Your Music with Feature.fm Smart Links

You’re probably familiar with song share links that direct fans to the music service of their choice. For example, here’s one for my last single: There are several free and paid options. I can’t say that I’ve tried them all, but I’m partial to Feature.fm Smart Links. It’s comprehensive yet easy to use, and offers several advantages…

Playlist Push Revisited

Playlist Push Revisited

Playlist Push promises to help independent artists get their music on Spotify playlists, and gives playlist curators a way to monetize their music discovery. As of this writing, they have 242 curators across 60 genres with a total of 8 million followers. Campaigns start at $185 and run for two weeks.  The price increases with genre popularity,…

Patreon, Year Two

Patreon, Year Two

Patreon consumed my last year. Between launching my page, promoting it, and delivering on what I promised to patrons, there was little time left for other musical or marketing activities. These days, most of what I make from my music comes from patrons. Starting at $1 per month, they get exclusive first access to new…

ReverbNation’s New Crowd Review, Reviewed

ReverbNation’s New Crowd Review, Reviewed

Which of my unreleased songs will people like? I have no idea. Friends and family aren’t much help either. Fortunately, I’m able to get unbiased feedback from fans of my genre through ReverbNation’s Crowd Review, which has been completely overhauled since ReverbNation’s acquisition of Audiokite last November. To call this market research simply “helpful” would be a gross understatement. My…

Why I Chose Patreon

Why I Chose Patreon

I haven’t bought a CD since 2011. If it isn’t on Spotify, to me, it doesn’t exist. Once you’ve experienced the convenience of having the entire history of recorded music in your pocket, why would you go back to schlepping files around? 50 million paid subscribers agree. Thus, it is with great sadness and a…

What Artists Should Know About MusicSubmit

What Artists Should Know About MusicSubmit

MusicSubmit is a music submission platform, similar to recently reviewed SubmitHub, but with a broader reach. They too cover music blogs, but their primary focus is online radio. CEO Michael Corcoran credited me with 25 “Best Shot” submissions to give MusicSubmit a spin. Now sit back as I share my journey from painful anonymity to online radio glory. Approximately. Step 1:…

Is Radio Airplay Still Worth It?

Is Radio Airplay Still Worth It?

Jango is a free internet radio platform similar to Pandora. Feed it an artist name and it generates a playlist of related songs. Radio Airplay injects songs from emerging artists into those playlists. I started using Radio Airplay a.k.a. Jango Airplay when it launched in March of 2009. Over the past seven years, my songs have racked up 340,246 plays at a…

These 59 Music Blogs Will Listen to Your Song, Guaranteed

These 59 Music Blogs Will Listen to Your Song, Guaranteed

UPDATE: I wrote this in March of 2016, and it quickly became my most popular post. Four years later SubmitHub has over 1100 curators including radio stations, YouTube and Twitch channels, Spotify playlisters, and Instagram influencers. Read about my latest experience, including tips and tricks from SubmitHub’s founder, here. I hate submitting my music to blogs. Hate…

What Artists Should Know About Feature.fm

What Artists Should Know About Feature.fm

UPDATE: Since writing this article, 8tracks disappeared and recently relaunched, so I’m not sure how much of this still applies. You can also promote your song on Feature.fm through Deezer. Read about my experience with that here. Right now my favorite Feature.fm feature is Smart Links. Every musical artist wants their work to be heard….

Crowd Review Track Smarts: SoundOut vs AudioKite vs Music Xray

Crowd Review Track Smarts: SoundOut vs AudioKite vs Music Xray

UPDATE: ReverbNation acquired Audiokite in November of 2016, and improved upon it with their new Crowd Review product, which I review here. This is the story of a mediocre song. An objectively mediocre song. My song. Curse you, data! If you’re looking for unbiased feedback on your latest track, you’ve got five options. Well, five-ish. There’s SoundOut,…

What Artists Should Know About Next Big Sound

What Artists Should Know About Next Big Sound

Perhaps you don’t sell too many albums on iTunes, or have that many SoundCloud plays or YouTube views. But maybe, just maybe, your music is really popular in some far off corner of the digital universe you never even knew about, and all that “exposure” you’ve racked up over the years is paying off behind the scenes….

That's all, folks!

That's all, folks!