What is a music curator and how to submit music to them?

As you might know, we are known as music curators but what does it mean? and what’s the difference between them and music prescriptors? How do I submit to them?

We started our journey in 2012 when being a music curator wasn’t even a thing. It has only passed around two or three years since people started talking about this career as a real work discipline. So what are the ancestors of this discipline? Music prescriptors.

Music prescriptors are people who have a music background in addition to having access to exclusive information for companies like labels. They have the ability to influence the music scene through several communication methodologies a.k.a traditional music media (press, websites, radio, or tv)

They are the ones in charge of creating trends and keeping them (intentional or unintentionally) 

So their work is more focused on the pre-release stage but they also support music once it’s out. So they’re probably the reason why you love Olivia Rodrigo so much!

What are music curators then?

We also might have all the pre-release information but our work is focused on the post-release stage. Our job is to support music and keep it relevant for the listener. Since there is a lot of music, we need to classify it, it could be by topic, by mood, by genre…We need to keep them interested and help them discover new songs that they might like, the correlation of songs is important too! 🙂 and we also love listening to music and helping upcoming artists.

Editorial curators:

They get pre-releases information through Pitches and Distributors

 

The best way to reach them is through the system of your own distribution or by filling up the official ways they provide. The most visible and mandatory example is the Spotify For Artist submission you have to fill out once your music is ready to be released. It can provide access to official editorial playlists on the different DSPs, so it’s of course interesting. More on this topic in future blog posts.

 

Label curators:

 

Just an example of the major label ones
They get pre-release information through A&R departments or Product Managers.

These are, generally, more complicated to access. They prioritise their own catalogue over anything independent or from other labels. Some of them can provide a way for you to get your music playlisted but it’s pretty rare. If you happen to get into their playlist catalogue, expect some good coverage.

Independent music curators:

 Like us!

We get pre-release information through Submit Systems. 🙂

It’s fairly easier to get into independent playlists compared to the other two options, but every curator has its own way of receiving music. We’ll cover the full extent of advice for independent curators in future posts, but some quick notes; avoid sending them emails (they receive too many) and use the system they’ve got ready for you. You’ll find that some are accepting paid submissions on Submithub while others will direct you to their own service or own forms. Be sure to follow their guidelines or you’ll be ignored. As for us, the easiest way is our free submit system for playlists.