Credits are used to send your song to a curator or influencer. There are two types: standard and premium. Curators take both; influencers only take premium.
Premium credits:
When you use a premium credit, your submission filters to the top of each outlet's dashboard. The outlet that you send to then has to:
If they don't satisfy these requirements, you get your credit back to be used again. There's also an option for "180 seconds of listening instead of feedback."
Premium credits tend to have a higher approval rate because listeners are encouraged to spend time with the song, rather than making a split-second decision.
How many credits do I need?
Curators ask for between 1 and 4 credits per submission based on their engagement and various other measures. Credits start at $1 each, and go as low as $0.78 each depending on how many you purchase. We also regularly give out coupons for discounts (eg, on Black Friday).
Standard credits:
With standard credits, there are no such requirements: a curator can choose to provide feedback if they wish, but may instead make a quick decision and move on to the next song.
You receive two standard credits every four hours and should see a countdown on the submit page that indicates when they'll refresh. You can only ever have 2 standard credits at any given time, so you need to use them if you want to get more.
Influencers only take premium credits. There are two routes:
See the "Submitting to influencers" article for how each route works.