The Doors · 2026 Q3 edition
Radio is one door. This is the research on the other 100: sync libraries, music supervisors, festivals, contests, live session series, streaming editorial, the music press. Every one read off the organisation's own page by a Rotation representative. 162 more were opened and rejected, and the reasons are in the report.
All 100 doors with their links and posted rules, 43 of which can actually pay you, and the 162 we opened and refused with the reason each one failed. One payment, delivered to your inbox, yours to keep.
Get the report →2026 Q3 edition · radio stays free and always will
How this was made. 264 pages were opened and read across 12 categories. A door was written down only when the organisation's own page said, in its own words, that it takes music from artists, and every row carries the address of the page it was read from. Nothing was scraped, bought, or copied from another list. Where a page named no fee, the fee is recorded as not stated and never as free, because silence is not evidence.
Three of the findings in full, so you can judge the rest.
Sync and licensing libraries are the only category on this list that can put money in an artist's hand, and they are the category most likely to be closed to new artists. 8 of the biggest are not accepting submissions at all right now: Epidemic Sound, Marmoset, Soundstripe, Artlist, Music Vine, Motion Array, Track Club, AudioJungle. Against that, 14 sync doors are genuinely open and taking submissions today.
Each read on the library's own artists page, 25 Aug 2026. Soundstripe says it twice on one page, top and bottom.
Songtradr's Starter plan costs nothing a year and takes 40% of your sync fee. Their Pro plan costs $49 a year and takes 20%. The plan that looks free is the one that charges the most, and nothing on the pricing card frames it that way. TAXI runs the opposite arrangement: $299.95 a year plus $5 per song submitted, and their own agreement states they do not take a percentage of any deal between the listing party and the artist.
Both read off the companies' own pricing and agreement pages.
Songtradr's marketplace closes on 1 September 2026, while its artist-services page is still fully live, still says Join Now, and still sells three tiers. Artists have to withdraw their balances by that date. Separately, Pandora's independent artist submissions portal has been discontinued; their own page now states artists no longer send music through it, and the route is aggregator distribution plus claiming a profile. The retired submissions URL is still repeated across the web and inside AI answers.
Songtradr's help centre and Pandora's AMP Playbook, both read 25 Aug 2026. The Pandora page was re-checked by hand.
The report carries 10 findings, the full cost table for all 23 platforms that charge, a calendar of every dated window, all 100 doors with their links and posted rules, and all 162 rejections with the reason each one failed.
| Category | Doors | Free | Paid | Can pay you | Rejected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music publications | 20 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| Festivals and showcases | 15 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 19 |
| Sync and licensing libraries | 14 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 21 |
| Contests and awards | 12 | 1 | 7 | 11 | 10 |
| Live session series | 10 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 20 |
| Music supervision and briefs | 7 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 21 |
| Streaming platform pitching | 6 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 12 |
| Discovery platforms | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 11 |
| Game and stock asset marketplaces | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Apps and platforms that license directly | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Creator and streamer music pools | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| Everything else | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
The full report, all 100 doors with links, and all 162 rejections with reasons. Delivered to your inbox, yours to keep. One payment, no subscription.
Get the report →Radio stays free. The Dial, the station pages and the state of the market report cost nothing and always will.
Rotation publishes 1363 radio stations at no charge because being the source an artist trusts is worth more than a fee. This is different work in a different market: 12 sweeps, 264 pages opened, and 162 things we tell you not to spend money on. That is a research report, and reports cost money.
It carries an edition date on purpose. Two of the doors we researched changed status while the research was running, and one of them is still selling memberships in a marketplace that closes in days. A list without a date on it is a list that is quietly wrong.
No. One payment for the 2026 Q3 edition. If a later edition is worth having you can decide then.
No, and anybody claiming to sell you secret doors is selling something else. Several of these are famous. What is hard is knowing which are open, what each actually costs, what they take from you, and which of the ones you have heard of will waste your time. That is what was researched.
No. It tells you where the doors are, what each one asks for and what it costs. Nobody can promise you a placement and anyone who does is lying to you.
They will, which is why the edition is dated. Email deshawn@getinrotation.com and if something in the report has moved we will tell you what it moved to.
40 of these 100 doors run on a clock: 15 are shut as this edition goes out, 14 are open with a dated deadline, and 11 want the track a set number of days either side of your release day. Which ones are open to you is decided by when you ask, not only by what you make. The Route takes your release date and the same 100 doors and works out which are still reachable, which are shut and why, and what day each one wants to hear from you. $49 per release, and the report above is the better place to start if you have no date yet.