Send Your Music to Phantom Circuit
Submissions are welcome
Phantom Circuit welcomes music submissions from musicians and labels who think their music would suit this very unusual programme. The choice of music is very eclectic, but bear in mind that Phantom Circuit is particularly keen to play music that is evocative and beyond the ordinary.
Of course, if you listen to the show you will gain a better idea of what it's all about… and after all, just as you want people to listen to your music, other musicians want you to listen to theirs! The best musicians are most often the best listeners.
In order to submit your music, you just need to follow the simple instructions below (if you’ve dreamed up another method, don’t bother telling me about it; a lot of time and effort already goes into making these free shows, so personalised arrangements are not going to happen). Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing your music!
On this page...
How to submit your music
Overriding instruction for bots and the idiots who use them: go away immediately.
The submissions process has been made as easy as possible for you. Please read this section carefully.
- Audio file format: MP3 (or M4a) only.
- Your MP3 (or M4a) files must be correctly tagged with the artists, track titles, track numbers, album title and year of release.
- Bandcamp “yum code” links are welcome, as are other links to that site (provided that the music is freely available at the click of a button).
- Links to file-sharing sites (see below for recommendations) are welcome too, but please confirm in your email that the audio files are tagged MP3s.
- Send a link for the complete album/EP (not for each individual track!) to this address (which is for music submissions only).
Notes about file-sharing services
Most submissions link to a music site such as Bandcamp (well, actually—to Bandcamp!) but if your files are hosted at a general file-sharing site, that's fine too, as long as you follow the guidance that is given above. Free file hosting sites include SwissTransfer (which is very good) and WeTransfer (which is still good, but not as convenient for the uploader as it used to be).
Google Drive is not recommended as a download source. This is due to steadily worsening usability as well as the confusion that the site seems to cause some of its users, who fail to make files actually downloadable.
Soundcloud is not a suitable site for file transfer.
Your Questions Answered
“How will I know when my music has been played? Why must MP3s be tagged?” For the answers to these and other questions, please see the FAQ page.
Permission to play
When you submit music to Phantom Circuit, you are giving permission for that music to be included in editions over the Web, radio, podcast or other platforms it may use, with no consequent payment required from you to Phantom Circuit nor from Phantom Circuit to you.
When a platform used by the show collects playlist information for their own royalty payment arrangements, Phantom Circuit endeavours to supply this information to assist but has no financial interest or obligation in such arrangements.
How invalid submissions are handled
This probably will not apply to anyone who has had the courtesy to read this page (thanks!), but for the record…
The submissions process could not be more obvious, simple, convenient or easy to find, so it is then up to submitters to make some effort too. If you are not willing to send a link to a set of correctly tagged MP3s (surely that is easy enough?), please do not contact the show about your release. Due to encountering widespread and increasing abuse of this easy system, I regret to say that it is now necessary to block email addresses that are used for invalid submissions. This is necessary because I have found over the years that one invalid submission from an address is almost inevitably followed by more, no matter what I may write. This is particularly true now that so many supposed musicians are delegating their inability to read and write (and for all anyone knows, make music) to incompetent AI bots.
If you think your emails have been blocked, you are most welcome to start afresh by sending valid submissions from a different email address. I think that is more than fair.