Glossary · The people and the places
LPFM
LPFM stands for Low Power FM, a class of non-commercial US broadcast licence limited to around 100 watts. An LPFM signal typically covers a few miles, and the licences are reserved for local non-profits, community groups, schools and religious organisations rather than broadcast companies.
Small coverage is not the same as small value. An LPFM serves a specific neighbourhood closely, which makes it a genuinely local audience rather than a slice of a metro. For an artist building a city first, a record played on a station that a few thousand people in that city actually listen to is worth more than a stream count.
LPFMs also tend to be the fastest to say yes, because the decision usually sits with one or two people who chose to be there. The flip side is fragility: schedules change, hosts leave, and a station can go quiet without announcing it.
527 of the 1363 verified stations are LPFM. Across all of them only 74 stations of 1363 publish a dedicated submission form, so on smaller stations expect to find a person rather than a process.
Pick your sound and region on Rotation and each of these stations shows its real submission contact and the exact rules it posts: clean edit, WAV, form or mail. Checked by hand and kept current. No station here paid to be listed.
Open my sheet →Radio is the free half, and it stays that way. Every station here is free to reach and no station ever pays to be listed. The Doors is the other half: 100 verified places that are not radio, sync libraries, music supervisors, festivals, contests, live sessions and the music press, 43 of which can actually pay an artist. It also lists the 162 we opened and refused, with the reason each one failed, because most lists of this kind are stale and the rejections are the part nobody else will show you. $9.99, the 2026 Q3 edition →
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