[Changelog] Feb 2, 2024

Howdy folks, and welcome to 2024. I had family visiting through all of January, so updates were slow and patchy. This week was my first "full week" back at the desk, and so I wanted to share some of the product updates I've rolled out so far.

But first...

We're going to SXSW!

Myself and the team (Carey, Jami, Tilly, Dylan, Henko) are flying out to Austin, TX in March for South by Southwest. We'll be hosting an official SXSW showcase called "SubmitHub Selects" on Thursday night, co-presented by blogging heavyweights Birp.fm, Stereofox, Indie Shuffle, We All Want Someone To Shout For, Highclouds, and Alexrainbirdmusic.

You can check out the selection of artists they've curated on our Instagram page.

SubmitHub Links

Over the course of December and early January, I worked a bit on SubmitHub Links. The main updates include:

• Multi-links: you can now create landing pages with more than one link, like this cool one by Indie Folk Central
• I've also started collecting data about browser, operating system, and device
• For artists, there's an easy way to create a SubmitHub Link from your artist profile using the links you've already added
• Improved error messaging during link creation and fixed a bug where converting multi-links back to single-links didn't save properly

Support for more DSPs

Spotify is undeniably the most influential platform in the indie music scene, but I've always been one of those guys who try to avoid putting all his eggs in one basket.

While the majority of the other streaming platforms have limited stats and integrations, I still think there's value in making them present on SubmitHub. In line with that thinking, I made two updates:

• Artists can now add links for Deezer (with follower stats), Tidal and Beatport to their profile
• Similarly, curators can add links to their Deezer (with playlist stats) and Tidal

At the same time, we did something completely contrary to my opening statement: we removed all SoundCloud curators from SubmitHub (there were only 3 left), as well as disabled Twitch and YouTube Streamers. We feel like these methods weren't effective at helping artists get their songs heard.

Marketplace

A couple of changes:

• With song submissions, we've got a well-established "dispute" process for instances where curators seem to drop the ball on their commitments. With Marketplace, this needed a bit of ironing out. I've now added a very explicit "request an update" button for users to click, which gives curators 72 hours to respond (or a refund will be issued)
• Marketplace specialists previously could only cash out the full balance on their account without the ability to edit the amount -- this has since been changed

Miscellaneous

• I streamlined the homepage a bit. We've got a lot going on. Folks get confused, so I wanted to make all the various options a little more clear
• We've been struggling with bank transfers to Brazil. With the help of our CFO Henko and a friendly support tech at Wise, we managed to get that one all sorted out (whew!)
• I rewrote the underlying code of all the sliders on SubmitHub. It should be pretty smooth now!
• Fixed a bug with searches not working in the homepage feed for curators
• Users can now opt out of letting curators see their contact information when submitting

Security

The bigger a website, the more likely people are to "attack" it. In the last month I've dealt with three issues:

Nigerian promo spammer

• This guy kept direct messaging artists from the #artists chatroom with a sales pitch about promoting their music. This was not a legitimate "promotion package", and even if it was, I don't think SubmitHub should be used as a sales funnel like this
• I attempted to delete his accounts and IP address, but he kept popping up with new accounts via a VPN
• Ultimately the solution was to put more rigorous rules in place for first-time-DMs sent on SubmitHub. Problem solved!

Brute force hacking

Someone "brute force" hacked his way into ~50 accounts on SubmitHub.

• He did this by using one of those large online databases of leaked passwords and simply testing them one by one (likely with a bit of a script) until something actually worked
• On five occasions, he was able to log into an account that "had something" on it: two artists and three curators. He tried sending credits to his main artist account, but I was able to quickly and easily reverse those. Unfortunately, he also managed to withdraw $20 to his PayPal from one of those curator accounts
• To combat this, I rolled out two major changes: the first is that when someone logs in from a new device, I send a one-time pin to their email address so that they can verify the login. The second is that if a curator requests a cashout to a never-before-used PayPal account, they need a secondary verification via email
• Problem solved, I hope!

"Work from home" scammers

There's this scam network that has set up a fake SubmitHub business. They claim to be... me?!?!

• It seems like they've been approaching random people on the internet, offering them a "work from home" job curating songs. They're guaranteed $6,000 in salary a month - all they have to do is deposit $120 to prove they're real
• I've been working with the domain registrar to get these scam websites taken offline, but it seems as soon as one is taken down, another one crops up
• If someone contacts you claiming to be from SubmitHub and they don't have a @submithub.com email address, they're more than likely scamming you

Coming soon

I've still got a massive todo list to work my way through, but over the next week or two, I'll be focused on:

• Improving our new playlist checker feature
• Breaking playlist listeners out by position and giving better insights into where curators typically add new songs

Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see anything else!