“Submit Hub - A Scam” plus 1 more

I’m part of a band that has had its fair share of false-starts over the years. Preparing for these false starts, I’ve repeatedly put together lists of potential blogs to pitch our music to when we’re building up to a release.

To do this, I head over to The Hype Machine, head to the indexed sites, filter what’s relevant to my music, and then take down the details from the list I’m presented with. I’ll generally head to each blog, look up their submission guidelines, and make a couple of notes to personalise my emails to them, where possible.

A couple of years ago, the vast majority of the blogs suggested the same – a variation on sending an email with a link to stream, be it via your own email or a web form. Since then, there has been an increasing trend towards using a service called Submit Hub.

If you’re not familiar with Submit Hub, it’s essentially a site that you can create an account to run campaigns from to send them directly to blogs who use it. A lot of blogs exclusively use this service now. There’s also a “premium” service, where you can buy credits to ensure that blogs have to listen for 90 seconds, and have to provide written feedback within 48 hours. It’s not expensive, in fairness; it works out at around a dollar per credit, and blogs charge between 1 and 3 credits.

It sounds great, doesn’t it? I’ve approached my music career with a fierce independence since day one, and the potential to reach blogs without having to pay a PR agent was very appealing. Unfortunately, the veil has been lifted somewhat, at least for me.

As I mentioned above, a lot of blogs now use Submit Hub exclusively, and will not accept email submissions at all. There’s a very good reason for this – they get paid for using Submit Hub. The premium credit is split between the Submit Hub company and the blogs, with blogs reportedly receiving $0.50 per submission. Now, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that; blogs are an important part of the music ecosystem, but isn’t it damning to think that yet another facet of the music industry now has an apparatus to take money straight out of the pockets of the artist?

The notion of the starving artist is hardly new, and it goes without saying that monetizing your music is, often, a very difficult thing to do, at least consistently. Looking at the blogs that use Submit Hub, they get THOUSANDS of submissions. I was reading a post by a music blogger yesterday who boasted about making $450 (I’m UK-based, so around £350 at current conversion rate) a month on the service. Can you imagine how much easier your life, as an artist, would be if you could have that amount of money as a virtually guaranteed income every month? It’d certainly make my life a lot easier.

Bearing in mind that blogs simply do not have the expenses that artists have either – there’s no paying for rehearsal rooms, for vans to carry your gear, for instruments, for studio time, for distribution. At most, they’ll have their domain costs (which artists often have themselves) and, if they’re interested in live music, their travel to the venue and entry price (though obviously we do our best to get them on guest lists).

The way I see it, the independent music scene is somewhat symbiotic in nature. Artists need blogs to reach a wider audience. But, make no mistake, blogs need what we create to have something to write about.

Still doesn’t sound so bad? Try using Submit Hub, and see how far it gets you. My experience, and that of those I’ve spoken to, is that blogs will find something to dislike about you enough not to post. I’ve had incredibly complimentary feedback with a “song declined” next to it. Music is a subjective thing, but when one blog criticises the thing that the next blog loves the most about the song (for example, my band having a “weak” singer with “powerful, soaring vocals”…that sort of thing is NOT subjective) you start to get the feeling that this is literally just a cash cow for these people.

What exactly is stopping someone from making a fake blog, buying thousands of followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, setting themselves up on Submit Hub, and waiting for the money to start rolling in? They’d only have to write about 1 in 10 artists to have a pretty desirable rate on Submit Hub, and they’re up-front costs would be minimal to the profit they receive. We all know that blogs are under nowhere near as much scrutiny in that sort of thing as artists would be, and a large wedge of the artist community will look at those stats with good faith, partly because we don’t have the time to check it out, having to hit so many outlets because everyone’s got their hands in our pockets, and partly because, to us, it’s only $1 at a time. But that adds up quickly.

I could go on. Part of me is tempted to, but it disgusts me. The sad fact of the matter is that it’s likely the most efficient way to work. A boycott would never be successful, as it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and there are surely many artists who would see their opportunity to slip in with their submissions while the rest of us hold out. We’re not unionised in the way that more classic industries are, and it continues to be our undoing.

 

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As a newsletter recipient of Dorie Clark (keynote speaker, author of “Stand Out Networking”) I became aware of a fantastic article in the Harvard Business Review that suits my company tamanguu very well, in which she discusses the challenges and solutions for introverts in business networking.

Many music artists, but also music managers, who I met in my music business career, were introverted people. It sounds as paradoxical as it is when Dorie Clark characterises herself as introverted, despite she is often on stage as a keynote speaker. However, performing on stage is something different than business networking off the stage. Also for extroverts, this article includes some useful hints and insights.

The power of happy coincidences in networking

First, Dorie Clark discusses the happy coincidences that happen in business through networking and refers how these coincidences and creativity are fostered in the Silicon Valley campus. You certainly don’t have to go to Silicon Valley to experience it. Networking events are a suitable place if you can find the right peace for it in conversation. That’s why I usually take at least half an hour, even better an hour, for my appointments at such events. In half an hour, usually only a creative exchange can be started, but it can be made so interesting that one makes a follow-up conversation after the event. In one hour there is already more in it. More space and time for an interesting exchange give personal meetings, video calls or telephone calls.

The term “exchange” is very general. And why does creativity play an important role here? Everyone has different experiences, knowledge and mental processes. Creativity and the resulting innovation are the result of the combination of experience, knowledge and the goal of solving a problem or challenge. Without an exchange with other people, the solution is therefore only a combination of one’s own limited experience and ideas. Through the exchange with other people, the experience and the ideas are potentiated and recombined, so that a new solution can emerge. The more different people are, the more creativity arises.

Back to the happy coincidences, which perhaps are no longer so coincidental, when you see the background of the development of creativity.

The combination of experience, networks, being human, mindset and knowledge is the breeding ground for every networking event. With the right networking mindset, coincidences are not only encouraged, but rather provoked - in a positive sense. So you will always find people in your own network who will help you get ahead. In the words of Networking Coach Jan-Lüthje Thoden, for whom I recently gave an interview in his podcast “Business Friends”: “The solution to your biggest problem is only one contact away.”

But all this, as Dorie Clark writes, is difficult for introverted people, because they neither like to go to business networking events nor go from one conversation to the next with enthusiasm. In her article she provided some tips.

Tip 1: Make them come to you

Dorie Clark reports on the paradoxical solution of placing herself as an introverted person as a speaker on the events. The reason: “when you’re the speaker, people approach you, and there’s a ready-made topic of conversation”. This is a clear advantage for small talk beginners as well as for professional conversation.

Being a speaker at an event creates further advantages from my perspective:

• You will be positioned as an expert and perceived accordingly. The event promotes you as a speaker. Usually you have more opportunities to present yourself with a profile on the website or in other digital media around the event. The assigned expert status increases the interest in what you say.
• With other speakers or top-class participants, you are automatically at eye level. There is often also a retreat or meeting place for speakers where they can still exchange ideas.
• Also not trivial is that you usually get a speaker fee and don’t have to pay for the conference ticket, travel expenses and catering.

Therefore I can highly recommend being engaged as a speaker in terms of networking.

Tip 2: Bring a friend

Dorie Clark recommends having a wingman with you. As advantages she mentions the fact that you give each other self-confidence and recommend each other and introduce yourself to other acquaintances. But there are also some dangers. Dorie Clark warns that you can be distracted by talking to your colleague.

Another danger I have often experienced is that the person does not always function as a wingman, but can also stick to me like wax if he does not have his own goals for the event or hides by my side.

It should therefore be clear: To explore the event together and use the advantages, but also to have and give individual freedom for networking activities.

Tip 3: Have a few opening lines ready

Especially in spontaneous conversations, it is not always easy to get started because there are no obvious starting points. The aim of starting a conversation is always to start a dialogue. A well-known approach is the so-called elevator pitch, which we have already addressed in other blog articles about Networking Events in general and the best preparation for the c/o pop Festival and the Reeperbahn Festival.

The disadvantage of the Elevator Pitch is that it is strongly focused on yourself. However, a golden rule of the Networking Mindset is to be interested in the person you are talking to and to help them.

Dorie Clark suggests two very good introductory questions:

• Address the professional passion of the contact, e.g: What is the coolest thing you are currently working on?
• Dealing with similarities, e.g. at an alumni event: When did you graduate? Which lecturers did you have?

There is another question which I experienced as very valuable in terms of business networking:

• Identify problems and challenges to know how to help the contact; e.g. What are the biggest challenges in your job at the moment?

Basically, there are open questions that initiate a conversation better than “ It’ s a great event, right?

Tip 4: Research in advance

This tip from Dorie Clark is an absolute must for me! If I know who I’m meeting, either because I’ve already arranged fixed appointments or because I know who I’d like to talk to, I’ll do as much research on this person as possible in advance.

• I can estimate how a person ticks.
• I know what we have in common, such as shared experiences, backgrounds, attitudes, knowledge or contacts. By the way, a topic that Dorie Clark also considers very important.
• I can think in advance what my goal is with the person, but also how I can help the person with my expertise.
• To arrange a meeting in advance guarantees that a conversation will take place and simplifies the entry into the conversation immensely, because both can mentally prepare for it.

Overall, Dorie Clark’s article on the Harvard Business Review website offers very valuable networking tips, especially if you’re a more introverted person.

More information about the keynote speaker and author Dorie Clark can be found at https://dorieclark.com/

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