TUNING

Radio tuner animation. Scroll to sweep the dial through real stations we have checked.

VERIFIED DOORS · REAL RULES · NO PAID PLACEMENTS

INDEPENDENT RADIOSTILL TAKES SUBMISSIONS.

College, community, HBCU and independent stations across the U.S. add records that artists send them directly. Rotation shows you which ones are accepting right now, who reads the inbox, and exactly how they want it sent.

Which stations are accepting your sound right now, and exactly how they want it sent.

Reading the stations…

· · · · · TUNING…

Signal on the sheet · 3D unavailable

DIAL IN

YOUR SOUND. YOUR MARKET. THE STATIONS THAT MATCH.

We match your sound and market against every station's format, and flag where a clean edit matters. If you sit between two genres, name both.

Matches the names of shows, so you can find a programme no genre list has a word for.

Pick a state to go local, or leave it on Anywhere. Local artists get favored at plenty of stations and the sheet flags where. United Kingdom returns UK community radio instead.

No account to make and nothing to pay. Your sheet opens with your email below: the stations matched to your sound, each with the exact address to send to and the rules it posts. Just browsing? The Dial has every station by state and by sound, with what each one plays. The addresses are on your sheet.

ON AIR

0you can send to tonight.

NO SIGNAL ON THAT SETTING.

Nothing on the sheet matches that combination yet. Try Anywhere in the U.S., or Any genre. If a market you need is missing, tell us in Stay Tuned below.

Radio is also not the only wall. The Doors holds 100 verified non-radio places, 43 of which pay: sync libraries, music supervisors, festivals, contests and the music press. $9.99.

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Cities
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States
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Accepting
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★ Dedicated door
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Shows matched
READING THE STATUS
★ AcceptingVerified open, with a dedicated submission page or form. Start here. AcceptingVerified open. A real inbox, mailbox, or contact who takes music. LikelyTakes music by all signs, but the door isn't formally posted. Send with care. ResearchWe found the station, not the door. Worth a look if it's your market. ClosedNot taking submissions right now. Kept on the sheet so you don't waste a send.
★ = dedicated submission process · Statuses are checked by hand against each station's own site and rechecked over time. Confirm on the station's page before you send.

IN ROTATION

YOUR SHEET

YOUR RUN

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Sent
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Follow up due
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Replies
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Added or played
Did I air?

Did I air? searches Spinitron, the playlist system used by hundreds of college and community stations, for your artist name. Their free search covers the last 24 hours, so check it the day after a show. Your run is saved in this browser, not in an account, so copy or download it if you switch phones. When you log an outcome it reaches us too, which is how we keep every station's status honest.

YOUR SHEET

YOU CAN SEE THE RULES. THE DOOR TAKES ONE EMAIL.

You can already see what each station asks for. What your email opens is the part that took the work: the exact submission door for every match, email address, form link or postal address, checked by hand and tappable. Plus every station beyond the six above. We check in with every artist who opens a sheet, and we tell you when yours changes.

WHAT UNLOCKS

  • The exact door for every match: the email address, the form link, or the postal address
  • Every station beyond the six shown above
  • A tracker for what you sent, what came back, and when to follow up
  • A personal check-in from us, and a heads-up when a station's status changes

Your email opens your sheet and puts you on the list for "New on the dial": one short note when stations are added or doors open. Nothing else, never sold, unsubscribe any time.

Preview mode: forms don't send from here.

YOU'RE LIVE.

WHAT YOU'RE STANDING ON

Every station on your sheet was checked by hand against what the station itself publishes, and it gets rechecked. You see the exact door and the exact rules, not a homepage. We never charge stations, and no station here paid to be listed.

Your email is your key. Nothing to install, nothing to manage.

WHY THIS RADIO

THE MARKET NOBODY TOLD YOU ABOUT.

There is a whole layer of American radio that never went pay-to-play: college stations, community stations, HBCU stations, low-power FM, and the independent internet stations built by DJs. They still add records they get from artists. Most artists have never been shown the door.

273 stations are accepting right now, and no two of them want it sent the same way. Get one detail wrong and the submission is deleted, and nobody writes back to tell you why.

153
Want an email
67
Want their own form
41
Still want a CD posted
42
Refuse swearing
42
Name a lossless format
9
Want the show, not the station
01

REAL SPINS

These are licensed stations on real transmitters, plus streams, and many publish their playlists. A spin here is a spin: something you can point to, and something the next station can look up.

02

REAL PEOPLE PICK THE MUSIC

Music directors, program directors, and show hosts listen and decide. When one of them adds you, you have a relationship, not a playlist slot. That person is far likelier to open your next email.

03

A LEVER THE MAJORS DON'T CONTROL

Non-commercial radio can't sell airtime; pay-for-play is illegal there. Budget isn't the filter. The record and the package are. That's the rare piece of the business where an independent starts level.

04

MOST ARTISTS DON'T KNOW IT EXISTS

Nobody teaches this. Radio promoters charge four figures a campaign to work it for you, and stale contact lists sell for less and are worth less. Rotation puts the verified doors, the current status, and the per-station rules in one place, checked by hand and kept current.

THE SHOW GRAPH

A STATION IS A BUILDING. A SHOW IS A PERSON.

Send to a station's general inbox and you land in the pile everybody lands in. Every show on Rotation was read off that station's own published schedule, with the night and the hour it airs, so you can send to the one that already plays your sound. Some of them publish a door of their own, and that goes on your sheet too.

3929
Shows mapped
1823
On stations accepting now
296
Schedules read by hand
72
Shows with their own door

The list gets you to the right door. The Playbook gets you through it. Start by dialing in your sound.

DIAL IN

BEYOND THE U.S.

THE UK IS IN THE SHEET.

Ofcom licenses community radio the way the FCC licenses the stations above, and the same work has been done on it: every station read by hand, every rule taken off its own page, the exact door kept on your sheet rather than printed for scrapers. Pick United Kingdom in the sheet above and you get them, with the same statuses, the same posted rules and the same exact door on unlock. There is a browsable list too.

BROWSE THE UK LIST →

242
UK stations checked
57
With a published door

IF YOU WANT IT FASTER

WHERE ELSE YOUR MUSIC CAN GO.

The sheet above is yours to use as often as you like, for as many releases as you like, at no charge. That is not a trial and it does not run out. But nobody warns you what is actually involved, so here it is.

I can never promise a station will play you and I will never pay one to, because that is illegal and it is the whole reason this list is worth anything.

THE PLAYBOOK

HOW YOU ACTUALLY GET PLAYED.

The sheet gets you to the right door. These nine rules get you through it, drawn from what music directors at these stations actually post. Read them once; they'll save you a hundred ignored emails.

01

Cut a clean radio edit

Broadcast stations can't air profanity in daytime hours (FCC rules), and that's nearly every station on the sheet. A clean version multiplies where you can land. Many stations post the rule outright; the rest assume it.

02

Send files, not links

WAV or 320 kbps MP3. Directors can't pull from Spotify, SoundCloud, or YouTube; those get skipped. Attach the file or share a direct download.

03

Name the file so it files itself

"Artist Name - Song Title." A folder of "final_master_v3.wav" is guesswork for someone sorting hundreds of sends.

04

One page. Ten seconds.

Bio, the release, your city, links, a contact. Say the genre and whether a clean version exists. If it takes longer than ten seconds to read, it's too long.

05

Own your rights, and register

Register the song with a PRO: ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC. Some stations only play music where the artist owns the master and the publishing. Know your ISRC.

06

Submit to the show, not the station

Freeform stations route by program. Send to the specific hip-hop show, the R&B show, the host, not the general inbox. That's who actually picks the music.

07

Write a subject line they can file

"[Genre] submission: Artist, Song (clean)." Make it obvious what it is before it's opened.

08

Never offer money for spins

Non-commercial stations legally can't do pay-for-play. Offering it gets you ignored, or blacklisted. Let the record earn the rotation.

09

Follow up once, kindly

One polite note after about two weeks. Directors are often students and volunteers. Patience and respect are what turn one add into a relationship that plays your next record too.

The Playbook is open to everyone, sheet or no sheet. Read the full version with the stations that prove each rule, or run the free readiness check, then tell us when you've sent one.

YOU'RE ON THE AIR

SENT ONE? LOG IT.

Tell us where it went. It takes ten seconds, it helps us keep the statuses honest, and it's how we know when to check back in with you.

Preview mode: forms don't send from here.

LOGGED.

Now the hard part: waiting. Give it about two weeks, follow up once, and come back here to tell us what happened.

STORIES

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN ARTISTS SENT.

Every story is confirmed with the artist before it's shown. We don't write these, and we don't pay for them.

STAY TUNED

THE SHEET CHANGES. WE'LL TELL YOU WHEN.

New stations, new markets, doors that open or close. One short email when something on the sheet actually moves. Not a newsletter, and never more than a couple a month.

Preview mode: forms don't send from here.

TUNED IN.

You'll hear from us when the sheet moves. If you named a market, it's on the discovery list.