We’re grateful for every radio station that’s given us a spin, and every curator who has added our songs to their playlist. As independent musicians, we know it can be a grind to get your music heard. This post is intended to hopefully be a helpful starting point for bands and artists just trying to get their music out there. Here are some tips of things that have worked for us when submitting to radio stations and Spotify playlists. We’ve also included links to stations that have been cool to us recently and actively accept submissions (you can start by reaching out to them).
Tips for Submitting to Internet Radio Stations
You don’t need to be U2 or the Rolling Stones to get your music played. There are tons of online radio stations worldwide actively accepting submissions from artists. You’re looking for an avenue to get your music played, and they need music to play on their station. But before you submit, do listen to the station to make sure your music is a fit. Read the instructions for how to submit. Sometimes it’s as easy as sending an email, sometimes there’s a required form, sometimes the station has other special instructions. They may require certain file types or would rather you send a link to download from say Dropbox instead of sending an attachment.
Tag your mp3s with the proper metadata. Many stations require your files to be tagged fully with the song title, artist name, maybe the album artwork, etc. This is different than simply including the song and artist name in the file name. Mp3tag is a great, easy-to-use tool for managing this. Here’s a link to a video that shows how to use it.
Be personable in your email or message to these stations. Say who you are, the name of the band, where you’re from. A sentence or 2 about what you sound like (we found including the names of some similar well-known bands got us more responses). Attach your song or include the download link. Let the station know you’ve already tagged your files (they’ll love that). Include links to your website and/or socials.
Finding stations to submit to can take a lot of time to research. Below are some links to a few radio stations that have been very cool to us in the past. You can check them out as a starting point. Other advice would be to search on Google and Twitter for radio stations that accept music submissions. Search for things like “indie radio stations” or “submit music to radio stations” or “{genre} radio stations accepting submissions.” Also, follow these stations on social media. This way when the station reads your submission, they may give you some points for already following them (may help get you into rotation). Also sites like Twitter and Facebook will start to surface up to you more similar stations you can submit to.
Keep a spreadsheet of all the stations you’ve submitted to including links to their site, email address, and names of DJ’s. This will save you time when you release your next album and want to start submitting your new tunes to stations.
Some Stations to Submit Your Music To
Last Updated 9/22/23
- Radio TFSC
- Radio Wigwam
- Longwave Music Radio
- Alternative Twist Radio
- Odyssey Radio
- Code Zero Radio
- Sound of Spitfire
- KracRadio
- CBJ Radio
- Hot Wax Radio
- On the Rail Radio
Feel free to comb through our archive of posts about other radio stations that have added us into rotation. You can also search the web for other lists of radio stations like this one.
Submitting to Spotify Playlists
Use Soundplate. It makes submission so easy. The site lists playlists actively taking submissions. You can search or filter by genre. Find a playlist your music is a good fit for, follow the prompts, and with a few clicks you can submit your music directly to curators to consider for their playlist.
You will need to grant Soundplate access to your Spotify account (you can always remove access in your account settings). As part of the exchange for being able to submit your music to these curators, you need to follow them and that playlist. This happens automatically, which I think this is the reason for needing to grant Soundplate access to your account.
You can also search within Spotify for playlists that fit your genre and say within the description that they accept submissions. We’ve personally had little luck with that approach, but that is another option.
Also, there’s a constantly growing community of bands and podcasters and playlist curators supporting each other, especially on Facebook. A lot of the playlists we’ve been added to recently have been created by other bands we’ve met through social media. Connecting with other bands and artists can lead often lead to opportunities for getting on Spotify playlists. Feel free to follow us on FB. We’ll follow back.
