It was great to have Jason Grishkoff back on the podcast this week. The last time we talked, (April 2020) the world was just learning about Zoom, which opened me up to the possibility of interviewing people not just outside of my room, but on the other side of the world. Jason, who resides in South Africa, founded Indie Shuffle about 15 years ago as an avid music fan. He used his knowledge as a coder and web developer to create his own easy-to-use blog site. At its peak, (2013) Indie Shuffle was getting 6 million listens per month and churning out nearly 10 music reviews per day.
Several years later, Jason started SubmitHub as a solution to a problem that he and other bloggers, as well as artists were experiencing... how to sift through gillions of emails per day! Artists were releasing songs and sending stock pitch emails to any blog they could find, while bloggers simply couldn't respond to 300 emails every day. SubmitHub looked to solve the problem by providing a platform where artists could submit their music, and bloggers could easily sift through and say "yes" or "no" to who they wanted to cover.
When an artist submits their song on SubmitHub, they answer a few questions to help pair them with the best fitting curators for their music. That way, artists don't just send out a stock email to everyone. That doesn't do anyone any good. As an added incentive for the curators to listen to music they may not have heard about, artists pay a small fee (usually about $1-$2) per submission to the curator for consideration. However, if the curator doesn't respond within 48 hours, the artist gets their money back. This creates a quick, easy transaction between like-minded musicians and influencers.
As we well know, the industry has changed significantly over the years, and it's not all about blogs anymore. SubmitHub also lets the artist pick if they are interested in pitching to curators (which includes Music bloggers, Spotify playlisters, YouTube channels and more), social media influencers (on TikTok and Instagram), or record labels. (And with social media influencers, if they don't share your song, you get your money back. They only get paid that small fee if they actually share your song).
There are a few holdouts from bigger blogs such as Pigeons and Planes, Pitchfork, and Stereogum, but for the most part, bloggers, influencers, and curators in general all use SubmitHub to find new music.
During our conversation today, we discussed some of SubmitHub's new features. We also talk about some of the new competitors that have popped up in the last couple of years such as MusoSoup, Groover, and HumanHuman.
**NOTE that this is Jason's second time on Middle Class Rock Star. Back on episode 37 (which aired May 7, 2020) I shared my screen with Jason and we actually submitted one of my songs to SubmitHub. If you're an artist who is curious about how SubmitHub works, click on the YouTube link just below this, and you can watch Jason walk me through how to use the website's tools most effectively to submit a song.**
HOW TO USE SUBMITHUB:
https://youtu.be/lmFUeXhsnco?t=2692
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Guest Links:
SubmitHub: https://www.submithub.com
Episode Music:
Original music by Andy Sydow
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