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SubmitHub can be a little overwhelming at first. We've got tons of data around each curator, and deciding who to send to isn't always the easiest. The following guide lays out a strategy to help you get the most out of your submissions. (We've got a separate guide for Influencer submissions).

Table of contents:

1. Genre matching
2. Important notes to look for
3. Recommended types of curators
4. How many credits to use and what results to expect

1. Genre matching

We've put a lot of work into trying to determine which curators are the best fit for each of the 200+ genres on SubmitHub. We call this our "Genre match" score. Here's a rough guideline of how to use it:

Make sure you've chosen the most-appropriate genres for your song.

• Pro tip: if you've selected 2 or more genres, we show you curators who accept either. If you'd like to only show curators who accept *all* of the genres you've chosen, click the "OR" text that separates each genre so that it becomes "AND"

Sort the list by "Genre match" from high to low, and focus on those with a score of 8/10 or higher.

• You'll find the sorter in the top right, and it looks like this:
• Under each score you'll see a breakdown of how often they approve that genre. For example; 24.1% of this curator's approvals are in the genre/s you've selected

If targeting Spotify playlisters, keep an eye on how aligned their playlist is with you genre(s).

• Look for the notes around "consistency"
• Check to see if your genre shows up in their top 3 for that playlist
• You can click the "play" button over the playlist's artwork to quickly sample songs in that playlist
• The more "consistent" a playlist is, the better it is for your Spotify algorithm

2. Important notes to look for

• Approval rates
• The site-wide approval rate is ~30%. This varies greatly from curator to curator
• Under the genre-match score you'll see a note about how often they share your specific genres
• Some curators are very picky, especially the popular ones
• To narrow the list so that it shows more curators above a certain percent, look to the sidebar filters
• Feedback quality
• If a curator doesn't like your song enough to share it, we ask them to explain why
• Some are good at this, and others aren't. You'll see notes about their feedback ratings under the "QUALITY" section
• We've been working hard to improve the quality of feedback
• * DO NOT CHOOSE THE "NO FEEDBACK" OPTION *
• Listen length
• With premium credits, curators are expected to listen for at least 60 seconds
• The site-wide average is actually close to 3 minutes
• If someone averages less than 90 seconds per song, we include a note to warn you

3. Two recommended types of curators

There are two primary curator types that we recommend focusing on:

Spotify playlisters

• Independent playlists are an excellent way to "teach" Spotify's algorithm where your song belongs, and who to consider as similar artists
• We've written an in-depth article about this strategy
• Each of our playlisters are vetted and constantly monitored to ensure that they keep artists' best interests in mind
• This includes checking for sudden, big changes in follower numbers, keeping track of monthly listener averages of playlists, and making sure curators don't accept payments for guaranteed placements (payola)
• A unique element of SubmitHub is our "estimated listeners" for each playlist. Spotify doesn't make this data public, but we've managed to source it
• Below each playlister you'll see a list of their playlists including this number

Really Good Bloggers

Blogs might not have as many listeners as they used to, but they are still an excellent way to get press coverage for your song. This coverage can be used for your EPK (Electronic Press Kit), it helps boost your Google presence (SEO), and is good to share with your existing fanbase via social media.

• In the sidebar, use the "Really Good Bloggers" filter. This will narrow the results to a subset of bloggers who write proper blog posts when they review songs

4. How many credits to use and what results to expect

If you're a new user we recommend starting small. You'll learn a lot from your first few submissions, so we don't suggest targeting more than 10 or 20 curators, at first.

The site-wide approval rate is roughly 30%, and you're competing against all 3 major labels here daily. Which means it's often quite difficult to stand out.

One of our in-house pros pulled together an excellent article about how to balance easy-victories with hard-to-get curators. He calls it his "stock market" strategy.

Regardless of your style, employing the tips we've shared above should help you significantly improve your SubmitHub results.

- Jason