The recap: what KoalaQueue does, and how other pitching services work 🧭

We get asked how KoalaQueue compares with the services artists already know. Fair question. Here is the whole of what we do, then how five other services describe their own models on their own pages, as of October 2026. Every claim about another service links to where it says so. Check each service’s current terms before you buy — they change.

KoalaQueue in one go

• A pitch costs 1 to 4 credits, set by the playlist’s follower count and shown before you send. Reach is the only input to price.
• The curator is paid $0.50 per credit, the same on an add as on a pass. Curating is free and always will be.
• A paid pitch gets a written review: the verdict stays locked until 60 seconds have played, and the review is at least 20 words — on an add as well as a pass.
• 72 hours, or the credits come back automatically, and the curator is paid nothing.
• Free pitches: 3 a week to curators who take them, no card. A quick yes or no, no written-review guarantee.
• 5 free credits when you sign up. After that, the Indie plan is $19 CAD a month for 25 credits, Pro is $45 for 60, or packs of 10, 30 or 75 credits with no subscription.
• Made with AI: you can mark a track yourself; curators see it before they listen, and can refuse AI tracks for their playlist.
• No placement promises. Nobody can sell you one honestly.

Who gets paid, and for what

• SubmitHub: premium credits start at $1 each and go as low as $0.78 in bulk. Its terms say a curator’s earnings appear after they respond to a premium submission. We could not find the curator’s share published.
• Groover: one contact usually costs 2 Grooviz (€1 each), more for some top curators. Of the 2, 1 goes to the curator and Groover keeps 1, and the curator is paid whether they share the track or not.
• Playlist Push: Spotify campaigns start at $280, priced by the playlists you target. Curators are paid $1.25 to $15 per review, and are “not required or incentivized” to add.
• Musosoup: a £42 campaign fee, charged only once your submission is accepted. Curators can then offer paid coverage at rates they set, averaging £8–£12, paid directly to them, and every paid offer comes with a free option.
• Daily Playlists: a premium submission costs $2, split 60/40 in the curator’s favour once reviewed.

Most of these pay a curator to respond rather than to add, which is the right instinct. Ours is the same idea, made strict: one flat fee per credit, written into the code, with no way for an add to earn more than a pass.

What you get back

• SubmitHub premium: the curator must respond within 72 hours, listen to at least 60 seconds, and approve or give at least 20 words on why not. That is close to our rule, and credit where it is due. Ours asks for the words on an add too.
• Groover: feedback must be at least 15 words to count.
• Playlist Push: curators are prompted to leave feedback with each decision.
• Daily Playlists premium: a guaranteed response, feedback or a placement.
• Musosoup: sold on coverage rather than reviews; it refunds the campaign fee if you get no coverage.

If nobody answers

• KoalaQueue: credits back at 72 hours, automatically.
• SubmitHub: credit back if the premium requirements are not met inside 72 hours.
• Groover: Grooviz back for any contact that has not given feedback within 7 days.
• Daily Playlists: premium credit returned if there is no response within 7 days.
• Playlist Push: its Spotify page describes an Artist Protection Fund that returns a submission’s cost to your account balance if a curator does not give a qualitative review, while its terms of use say paid campaigns are not refunded. Worth asking them before you launch.

Free options

• KoalaQueue: 3 free pitches a week, plus 5 credits on signup.
• SubmitHub: two standard credits every four hours, with no listening or feedback requirements on the curator.
• Daily Playlists: 10 standard submissions a week on the free tier.
• Musosoup: submitting is free and the fee comes only on acceptance; Spotify playlisting is free inside a campaign.
• Groover describes itself as a paid service.

Ranking and incentives

This is where we differ most. SubmitHub lets artists filter curators by approval rate. We have that number for every curator and do not show it to artists, because a public add rate rewards curators for saying yes, and then the yeses stop meaning anything. The full reasoning is here.

What we show instead is reliability: how fast a curator actually answers, and how often. Our charts rank curators on that, never on how often they add.

What we do not do

We do not track placements afterwards, we do not sell streams, followers or placements, and we cannot promise you an add. Some of these services may suit you better; a coverage campaign is a different thing from a review. If what you want is an honest listen and a written opinion from somebody paid the same either way, start with the free pitches and see.