Category: Tips

16 Podcasts to submit your music to in 2021

1. Lost on Radio

Part of Right Chord Music Media, they accept various genres – generally radio-friendly sounding. You submit to their central submissions hub and online database to be considered for all of their opportunities: https://www.rightchordmusic.com/submit-music

2. Play Too Much

They showcase original music ranging from hip-hop to folk and everything in between.

Submit Music

3. Backstage Chats

The team at Backstage Chats is on a mission to eliminate gender disparity in the music industry. Submit via their contact form: backstagechatsfoundation.org/contact-us/

4. Creative Women in Tech

Hosted by BISHI, features women, trans and non-binary creative practitioners talking about their life, work and relationship with technology: https://www.witcih.com/podcasts

5. The Mapped Out podcast

Their goal is “to put UK music on the map, one town at a time”. They chat with UK musicians, industry professionals and media creatives about their music, the UK industry, marketing for musicians and more: https://mappedoutmusic.co.uk/

6. The Independent Music Podcast

Covers various genres but inclined towards experimental – if you’re a pop artist probably not the best fit!

Submit music

7. You Heard This

More suitable for bands, they cover a lot of rock genres, though there is a category for indie pop/rock too: https://youheardthis.com/contact/

8. New Music Saturday

Another one for bands. Broadcast every Saturday live from Canada and the UK: https://www.newmusicsaturday.com/

9. Hum and Buzz

They feature interviews with 3 artists on every episode. Mostly for bands and occasionally singer-songwriter/folk.

Podcast

10. Indie Music Plus

They play and critique 4 – 6 songs every week. Genres: indie pop and indie rock.

https://indiemusicplus.com/submit-music-podcast/

11. Fresh Unsigned with Dean Jones

They play indie, rock, pop punk, ska, gothic, psychedelic and acoustic bands/singer songwriters: https://www.freshunsigned.net/

12. Why doesn’t everyone know these songs?

An all indie radio show, podcast and Spotify playlist hosted and curated by indie singer songwriter Luna Keller. Get in touch at the Facebook page.

13. Beyond the Notion podcast

Ran by Chloe Ferguson, each episode features and artist and interesting conversations about music, songwriting and inspiration, etc. Contact Chloe at her Facebook page.

14. London Music Podcast

Hosted by London-based music producer Andrei Sora, you can contact him at his Facebook page and listen to the podcasts here.

15. For the Wild

For the Wild are a non-profit organisation dedicated to starting a conversation about the environment and wilderness conservation. They will also play 2-3 songs every episode if they like the songs and feel like they’re a good fit, thematically or musically (these are usually tracks with a world-music influence or chill, singer-songwriter type: https://forthewild.world/submit-your-tracks

16. Ambient Soundbath

They play ambient music, ’nuff said. Submit at: https://www.ambientsoundbath.com/music-submissions/

Hope there’s something for everyone in the above, and that you found some of these links useful!

How to get 4000 hours of watch time on YouTube

The YouTube Partner Programme gives creators greater access to YouTube resources and features and allows them to enable channel monetisation. If you’re ever hoping to monetise your views, you definitely want to become a YouTube partner!

However, in order to join there are some requirements you must satisfy first, some of which are quite steep, especially for a new channel. You must have 1000 subscribers AND you must have 4000 public watch hours in the last 12 months. 

To put this into perspective, watching the whole Game of Thrones from Season 1 to the end, would take you about 72 hours.

And to complete the 236 episodes in the ten seasons of Friends, you would have to binge watch for 121 hours!

So you can see how 4000 hours might seem daunting. However it can be done, and I know because I’ve done it myself.

Here are my 7 tips on how to amass the views you need.

1. Make more videos, and make them longer

Music videos are usually only between 3-4 minutes long, so as a musician it’s more difficult to rack up all those views.

This might seem a no-brainer, but more videos equal more watch time! And not all the videos on your channel need to be music videos, so spice up your channel with different, longer kind of videos. 

Try vlogging, share behind the scenes videos or from the studio, or even just a day-in-the life type of videos. With a vlog, you can go up to 10-15 minutes, or even longer (even though with longer videos you risk losing the viewer’s attention).

You can also post cover videos or, if you’d rather just focus on original content, post some live performances or even just your songs with a picture of the artwork – many people still stream music on YouTube.

2. Live stream on YouTube

Especially now during the coronavirus restrictions, people want to listen to live music. And if you are anything like me, as an artist you probably feel the need to perform in front of an audience, even if just a virtual one.

So play live gigs on YouTube, but make sure to keep the video public after the live stream has ended. Private or unlisted videos don’t count to the 4000 threshold!

The live streams don’t have to be just playing music. You can also make podcasts, invite other artists to stream on your channel, interview them or talk about music – get creative! Live streams can be a lot longer than any other type of content you might post on your music channel.

3. Make playlists

Organise your videos in playlists (for example one for music videos, one for vlogs, one for acoustic performances, etc). When you share a video on your social media or blog, instead of sharing the standard video link, share the the playlist link for the video.

To get this link this, go to your playlist on YouTube, click on the video within that playlist that you want to share, and click the share button. Make sure the “Share with playlist starting from [current video]” box is checked. When you share a video from a playlist, when people watch your video, the next video will play automatically and they might be more inclined to just leave it playing to the next, and next video! And every minute is precious if you want to rack up those 4000 hours.

4. Ask for help!

Share your videos everywhere on your social media. Make one big YouTube playlist with all of your music videos and performances. You might not have 4000 fans, but you might have ten, twenty, a hundred super fans who, if you ask them, will click on that playlist link and play it over and over to help you get your plays.

Share the s**t out that playlist on your social media, and ask people to play it! If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Your fans sometimes need reminding that your music is out there, and putting it all in one playlist makes it easier for them to help you get your views without having to hunt for your videos individually. They might even discover older videos they didn’t know about, and get excited about them!

6. Pin comments

Go through every video on your channel and leave a pinned comment linking people to the big playlist we mentioned before and directing them there, if they want to hear more of your music. Your pinned comment will appear at the top of the comment section, so they will see it. And if someone is interested enough in your content to expand the comments section while watching on their phone, they’re more likely to click on the link and give you a few more precious minutes of their time.

To pin a comment on YouTube, write the comment first, then click on the three dots next to it to open the options and select “Pin”.

7. Google Ads for videos

This is the fastest way to get more views, but it involves paid ads. There are lots of services out there that offer promotions, views and subscribers, however Google Ads is the only recommended paid promotion service for YouTube. As it is owned by Google itself, who owns YouTube, it is a hundred per cent legit and it will not harm your account. And if you know how to target your audience, you spend as as little as $0.01 per view.

Facebook or Instagram ads can also work and are cost-effective, however when you direct people from Facebook or Instagram to YouTube, if they are on a phone, they will not be automatically logged into YouTube when they click on the link, which means they are less likely to subscribe to your channel. By all means you can experiment with these ads too, but if you want to reach the 1000 subscribers threshold, running Google Ads will help you more.

We will be posting a guide on how to setup a Google Ads campaign specifically to promote a music video, but for now here is the general Google information on how to get started with video campaigns.

Hope this helps and wishing you good luck with joining the YouTube partner program!

Distrokid introduces Upstream

Distrokid has just announced a very exciting new feature, and the first of its kind with music distributors.

Upstream is a matchmaking service which allows record labels to browse through the artists that use Distrokid, listen to their music and streaming stats. If you are an independent musician, you know how hard it is to get in touch with record labels, find their contacts or get them to listen to your music! If you are already distributing your music with Distrokid, all you need to do is sign into your Distrokid account and turn the Upstream service on, for free. Note that this is an opt-in service, so if you prefer to stay independent and are not interested in being approached by labels, you don’t need to do anything and your account will stay as it was.

The first label to join Upstream is Republic Records, home of major artists such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande or Post Malone. Distrokid say that there will add more major labels and independent ones too, and every label will be vetted before being given access and must show a proven track-record of successful artists.

Upstream sounds like an incredible feature from a distributor that is already offering the best value on the market, with unlimited releases for one band/artists at only $19.99 per year. And no, this is not a sponsored post – it just happens that I distribute my music online with Distrokid and very happy with the service!

I will be heading over right now to turn that Upstream feature on. What about you? Do you dream of record deals or would you rather stay independent?

More info about Upstream on the official Distrokid website