Is Submithub a scam?

[ryushin@the.socialmusic.network]

Any of you have any positive experiences of Submithub? The idea of paying money to submit music to "influencers" seems pretty scammy to me.

Is there any PR tools that are usueful for indie artists besides trusty old promo emails?

[roberta@the.socialmusic.network]

I only ever used the free credits and I met a couple of nice blogs plus one friendly playlister who is also doing cool stuff in a venue in the Netherlands, but overall I think it's pretty rubbish and unless you want to pay for a lot of credits, you can't really send your stuff to anyone. The old method I used was going on Hype Machine and looking at blogs writing about similar artists, but lots of them have gone over to Submithub now as well.

[mel@the.socialmusic.network]

Yeah, my experience was always pretty bad as well! We talked a little about it here: https://the.socialmusic.network/t/podcast-music-pr-made-simple-diy-strategies-for-independent-artists/357/3?u=mel

I haven't found anything better than a spreadsheet to list relevant curators, and to track submission dates and any responses. Then emails or DMs (if they prefer that). Now I'm off Insta, DMs are not an option anymore, soooo... lol!

[lorenzosmusic@the.socialmusic.network]

I never really saw much increased interaction from it.

I realized after submitting to some lists a while back that I knew nothing about the places my music was going to be posted or what these people were like, and noticed that's exactly what these submissions were like to them. No emotional attachment between either party, just a payment, really.

And if it's just a firehose of paid content, who is really their audience?

But truthfully, I eventually got bored with the site

[kristofferlislegaard@the.socialmusic.network]

lorenzosmusic:

I knew nothing about the places my music was going to be posted or what these people were like

lorenzosmusic:

who is really their audience?

I think these are really good points! I think good questions to ask is:

1. Who is my target audience? Do I know? Is it "people like me"?
2. Where does my target audience hang out. If it is me, where do I actually pick up suggestions? If it is not me where do they hang out?

Something something community somthing humans something.

Of course this also depends on genre and "nicheness" of your music. But I think it is smart for more niche artists not to think that they have to be in the same places the mainstream artists are("everywhere").

[strypey@the.socialmusic.network]

ryushin:

Is there any PR tools that are usueful for indie artists besides trusty old promo emails?

I'm probably not your average music fan (if there is such a thing) but ...

Looking in from the other end, where do I find new music? Word of mouth, especially in the case of live music. On podcasts I subscribe to, most of them specialising in specific kinds of music. Either by genres, like;

• electronic: Deep INsessioNZ
• hip-hop: BFM's True School
• ska: the sadly missed 100% ska

Or by cross-genre slices, like;

• CC music: BugCast, NetWaves, Radio BSOTS
• Local music: 95bFM's Freak the Sheep

Or slice on both angles, like;

• The Block Report (hip-hop)
• the also sadly missed Open MetalCast

Other than that, I go to search portals which I know have a reasonably broad index;

• Free Music Archive, sometimes searched via open.audio, which is a fediverse-connected service set up by the original developers of FunkWhale, with similar goals to libre.fm
• BandCamp
• YouTub

I used to read music magazines voraciously, back in the days when I used to trawl through the bargain bins in record stores. But I never really made the transition to reading music blogs. Although I do occasionally read articles on BC and listen to the accompanying playlist, and I'd be excited to dig into a federated version of this.

If I'm the sort of person you think might enjoy your music, these are the sorts of places to get it featured. As @KristofferLislegaard says, the question to ask is;

KristofferLislegaard:

Where does my target audience hang out.

... and look for opportunities to get your music on those stages.