In the ever-evolving music industry, getting your music heard by a wider audience can be a daunting task for independent artists. One of the most effective ways to gain exposure and build a fanbase is by getting your tracks featured on popular playlists. Playlist curators play a crucial role in this process, as they have the power to introduce your music to thousands, if not millions, of listeners.
In this article, we will explore the 11 best playlist curators to submit your music to, focusing on those who are known for their dedication to discovering and promoting new talent.
1. Playlist Curator
Playlist Curator is one of the most prominent online playlist curators, creating and distributing carefully curated music playlists across major streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube Music, and SoundCloud. They offer a diverse range of playlists organized by themes, moods, and genres.
How It Works
Playlist Curator has an open submission process for artists to get their music featured on their curated playlists. To submit music to Playlist Curator, artists need to fill out a form on the Playlist Curator website, providing details about their track and the specific playlists they want to be considered for.
The curators at Playlist Curator carefully listen to each submission and assess it against strict criteria before deciding whether to include it in their popular playlists. They aim to maintain high-quality playlists that align with the respective themes and cater to their listeners’ preferences.
Playlist Curator’s curated playlists cover a wide range of themes, including love, life, resilience, travel, adventure, and various genres like pop, rock, indie, and more. They feature a diverse mix of mainstream hits and lesser-known indie gems, catering to a broad audience.
Users can explore Playlist Curator’s curated playlists on their website or directly on streaming platforms. Additionally, users can create an account on the website to bookmark their favorite playlists for easy access and listening whenever they want.
2. Daily Playlists
Daily Playlists is a platform that connects artists with Spotify playlist curators. It allows artists to submit their music to over 18,000 playlists spanning 90+ genres for free.
How It Works
Artists can sign up on Daily Playlists and submit their songs to relevant playlists. The platform has a user-friendly interface that integrates with Spotify, allowing artists to submit songs and playlists in minutes. Daily Playlists also offers an Automatic Submission tool that automatically submits songs to playlists based on the artist’s preferences.
The platform has a free tier and a premium tier. The free tier allows artists to learn about playlisting and submissions, while the premium tier offers additional features such as automatic submissions, mailchimp integration, and fan engagement tools like contests and giveaways.
3. Boost Collective
Boost Collective is a music distribution company that offers unlimited free releases and a suite of marketing services, including Spotify playlist promotion.
How It Works
Artists can distribute their music through Boost Collective for free and earn credits for each release. These credits can be used to purchase various services, including Spotify playlist promotion.
Boost Collective owns and actively manages a network of ad-driven playlists. They use targeted advertising to drive traffic to these playlists, ensuring that the listeners are genuine music enthusiasts. Artists can purchase promotion packages, and Boost Collective will add their songs to relevant playlists, exposing them to a wider audience.
4. iMusician
iMusician is a digital music distributor that helps artists sell, manage, and monetize their music on various streaming platforms and download stores worldwide.
How It Works
iMusician offers unlimited music distribution for a one-time fee, allowing artists to get their music on platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer forever. The platform also provides additional services such as YouTube monetization, music analytics tools, promotional tools (Artist Hub), and online instant mastering.
iMusician connects artists with partner services for CD and vinyl pressing, merch designing, and promotion platforms like Groover. Artists can distribute their music through iMusician and leverage their promotional tools and partner services to reach a wider audience.
5. Soundplate
Soundplate is a London-based record label and music technology company that has developed a range of marketing tools and resources for music artists and record labels.
How It Works
Soundplate offers various tools for artists, including:
- Soundplate Clicks: A tool for creating intelligent smart links for music, designed to help grow an artist’s fanbase, increase streams and sales, and sell more gig tickets.
- Music Fibre: A free directory of music industry resources, companies, and services.
- Play.Soundplate: A free playlist submission system where artists can submit their music to hundreds of Spotify and Deezer playlists.
- Cover.Soundplate: A free tool for creating cover artwork for music.
- Jobs.Soundplate: A music industry job board.
Artists can use Soundplate’s tools to promote their music, submit to playlists, create artwork, and find industry resources and job opportunities.
6. SubmitHub
SubmitHub is a platform that connects musicians with music bloggers, playlist curators, and other influencers to help promote their music to a wider audience.
How It Works
Artists can create an account on SubmitHub, upload their music, and browse through available blogs, labels, and curators. They can then submit their music to relevant curators using either free standard credits or paid premium credits.
When an artist submits their music, the curator has a set amount of time to review it and provide feedback. If the curator likes the submission, they will share it on their platform (blog, playlist, etc.) and communicate directly with the artist about the release.
SubmitHub operates on a credit-based system, where premium credits can be purchased to bypass the standard queue and have submissions placed at the top of the curator’s queue, increasing the chances of acceptance.
7. Indiemono
Indiemono is a Spanish independent music label and playlist curator with a strong presence on Spotify. They have over 3 million total playlist followers across genres like alternative, folk, EDM, and urban music.
How It Works
Indiemono takes pride in carefully curating playlists rather than relying on algorithms or automation. They receive submissions from independent artists daily, which they use to update their playlists on a regular basis. Indiemono does not charge artists to submit or get playlisted – their model is focused on respecting the music and curating quality playlists. To submit, artists can use the online form on their website.
8. SpinGrey
SpinGrey is an independent playlist brand that curates playlists across genres and contexts on Spotify. They have several playlists with over 5,000 followers each.
How It Works
SpinGrey allows artists to submit their music by adding it to a collaborative Spotify playlist linked on their website. The SpinGrey team regularly monitors this playlist and considers tracks for addition to their curated playlists. This serves as a free submission avenue for artists looking to get playlisted by SpinGrey.
9. For the Love of Bands
For the Love of Bands is an indie music blog and Spotify playlist curator based in the Netherlands. Their focus is on independent and emerging bands/artists across genres like indie rock, pop punk, and singer-songwriter.
How It Works
Artists can submit their music directly through the website for consideration to be featured on the blog, social media, and Spotify playlists. The submission process is free, and the curators listen to every submission before making a decision on featuring an artist’s music.
10. Rizing Playlists
Rizing Playlists is an independent playlist curator highlighting up-and-coming artists across pop, hip-hop, R&B, country and more on Spotify and other platforms.
How It Works
Artists can submit their music directly through a form on the Rizing Playlists website. The curators listen to every submission and make decisions about adding tracks to their various genre-based playlists. It’s a free submission process for independent artists.
11. Playlist Push
Playlist Push is a platform that connects independent artists with a network of over 4,000 Spotify playlist curators across genres.
How It Works
Artists pay to run a “campaign” where their track is pitched to targeted, relevant playlist curators based on the genre/mood metadata provided. The curators are paid a small fee to listen and review each track. If they like it, they can optionally add it to one of their playlists. It’s a paid service, but guarantees the music will be heard by real curators.