Submithub

This service is among the oldest and most renowned in the industry. They emphasize their commitment to quality, analyzing data to assess the caliber of curator playlists. Clients who’ve used their services know that they request data from Spotify for Artists to perform this analysis. They likely employ additional tools to ensure that curator playlists have grown organically, avoiding suspicious spikes in followers that might suggest manipulation.

What works good

Submithub offers an intuitive interface, allowing you to easily filter curators by genre, type, opportunity rate, and more. This makes setting up a campaign quick and efficient. Another beneficial feature is the 72-hour response window for curators, providing artists with swift feedback and the potential for quick playlist placement if you’re fortunate.

Although you might occasionally receive odd feedback, many curators are experienced artists or sound engineers, so you can often receive relevant and constructive feedback.

What doesn’t work so good

SubmitHub’s acceptance rate is notably low. While one might expect the quality of playlists to compensate for this, my experience has shown otherwise. Whether a playlist has 200 or 100,000 followers, the streams and interaction levels are similar. This trend also holds when compared to curators and playlists on other platforms.

Feedback from curators can be valuable, especially early in your career. However, once you’ve honed your sound, the feedback often becomes more subjective and less helpful. I’ve also noticed discrepancies: a pitch rejected on SubmitHub might be accepted on another platform, possibly due to a form of groupthink where SubmitHub curators tend to reject submissions more frequently.

Sometimes, feedback can be amusing, especially when the reasons seem odd. Once, a curator rejected one of my songs, claiming that on his high-end mastering speakers, he noticed issues in the lower frequency spectrum that only such top-tier equipment could reveal. It was unclear whether he was highlighting his superior gear or just needed a reason to reject the track. I’m quite certain Spotify users aren’t enjoying his playlist on mastering speakers!

Given the low acceptance rate and the lack of noticeable quality difference compared to other services, I no longer use SubmitHub. However, you should try it for yourself to see if it fits your needs.