SoundCampaign Review

SoundCampaign pays music lovers with large Spotify playlists to listen to, critique and (sometimes) add new songs to their playlists

Expected pay: $1 – $14 per song

Husl$core: $$$

Commissions & fees: NA

Where: Nationwide

Requirements: An engaged and active Spotify playlist with at least 1,000 followers and 20 or more tracks.

SoundCampaign, like PlaylistPush, aims to help new recording artists improve their songs and get them heard. It does this by paying people with large and active Spotify playlists to “curate” new songs. Potential curators must have Spotify playlists with at least 1,000 real followers. (The site will monitor and kick you out if your followers are bots.) If accepted, curators will be sent new music that matches the stated genre of the playlist and be asked to listen, review and, potentially add, the songs to their playlist.

How much you get paid for this service initially depends on the number of people who follow your playlist. As you review songs, the site will boost your pay if it turns out your followers are particularly engaged and likely to listen to the new songs you recommend. It also gives you credit for keeping new songs on your playlist for at least one week.

Concerns

However, when reading through SoundCampaign’s rules for curators, we found some items of concern. First, where PlaylistPush matches your Spotify playlist to a genre using artificial intelligence, SoundCampaign appears to ask you to identify the genre and take anything related to it. Specifically, it says: “We expect curators to set up only relevant genres and vocal settings for their playlists. Adding a specific genre to the playlist means the curator is ready to review all songs falling into any of the selected genres. (emphasis added)

Additionally, if a playlist has a genre’s name in its title, the site expects the curator to review “all main genres, as well as subgenres” that are related. “If a track is matched based on selected genres, but a curator refuses to add it because of the track’s genre, it may lead us to believe that the genre settings were set incorrectly by the curator. This would cause us to withdraw payment.”

The site also says that it expects “curators to add a track to their playlist if it fits.” It doesn’t say what you’re supposed to do if you simply don’t like the track and don’t want it in your playlist.

This may be why some musicians complain about the site’s curators, who sometimes quickly take their newly-added tracks off their playlists. It seems curators who pay attention to the rules might add tracks they’re not wild about, but not for long.

Finally, the site’s terms also say: “If an artist disputes the review and the complaint is found to be justified, the curator’s payment for that review will be withdrawn.”

Recommendations

You aren’t getting paid a lot to review music here. So you shouldn’t have anyone threatening to withhold payment because they haven’t been careful about matching you with the genres of music that you like. Nor for some unspecified complaint by the artist.

For this reason alone, we think PlaylistPush is the better alternative for curators. However, PlaylistPush also appears to be more discriminating about the curators it accepts. So, if you’re not accepted there, SoundCampaign might be worth a try.

What their users say (from TrustPilot)

(Artist review) “The problem is rather with their matching system. Basically, the system places your song / track automatically based on the genre only. The same type of genre that curators also choose on their side. It does not consider the mood and theme of the playlist and it doesn’t allow you to choose the playlist. As an example, I have submitted a dark & gritty progressive house track, but it was placed in “Swedish House Mafia & Weekend”, “EDM, Big Room” named playlists. Got rejected by the curators saying “We only list songs similar to Swedish house mafia”. Really? So how did my track reach you? Even when [the song] got listed, it’s was not my target audience…”

5/2/2022