1. Home
2. Blog
3. Music Marketing

Wallstream's "Track-deals" Are Changing the Game - Is SubmitHub & Groover in Trouble?

Wallstream introduces a unique "track deals" model where curators and influencers promote music in exchange for a share of streaming royalties, distinguishing it from platforms like SubmitHub and Groover. This review explores the signup process, curator selection, and overall experience.

By Chris RoditisMusicngear Lead Editor

I was invited to try a new service that is based on a concept I’ve always wished existed, something I’ve discussed many times with my bandmates whenever a new Mobvibe song was about to be released: what if we shared the revenue the song makes in return for promotion, either by a PR agency, an influencer, a playlister, a sync agent/music supervisor, a manager, booking agent, you name it. This is exactly what Wallstream promises to do.

Wallstream’s real innovation lies in turning collaborators into true partners.

Instead of paying upfront for promotion, Wallstream lets you offer a share of your streaming royalties - lowering the barrier to entry for artists while giving curators and agencies a real incentive to push your music. The better your track performs, the more everyone earns. It’s a win-win structure that shifts the focus from one-off transactions to long-term partnerships. In many ways, Wallstream feels like a music startup incubator - only here, your song is the capital. When a collaborator opts in, they’re not just offering a service - they’re investing their time, reach, and reputation into your success.

Signing Up and First Impressions

So I wasted no time and immediately signed up for the service as an artist (you also have the option to join as Curator / Influencer - Label / Manager). From what I understand, Wallstream acts as a distributor that sends your music to streaming services and collects the streaming royalties on your behalf, much like a traditional distributor does. The unique selling point here is that you give Wallstream the option to pay portions of your revenue to collaborators in exchange for their services. 

After a quick look at the Terms of use, I quickly logged in to a clean and intuitive user interface.

Exploring the Curator Options

Of course, my immediate reaction upon signup was to take a look at the "curators" Wallstreams works with and examine the opportunities offered. Surprisingly, the Curator accordion menu gave me options targeted at curators, even though I had signed up as an artist. On second thought, this made perfect sense considering many artists nowadays curate their own playlists. 

So, back to the Artists menu, I checked the Tracks and Releases page, which gave me a better understanding of the inner workings and offerings of this breakthrough service. I was prompted to add a track, post-release, so that I may promote it. This sounds similar to other services we have reviewed here in the past, like Submithub and Groover, but I guess the twist here is that Curators are not being paid a standard fee to consider featuring your track but instead take a percentage of your streaming profits in exchange for ongoing coverage. I am eager to find out more about how this “track deal” model actually works!
 

Understanding Wallstream’s Distribution Model

Wallstream previously followed a more traditional pricing structure, but as of now, they’ve eliminated subscription plans and release fees entirely. Artists with active deals can distribute their songs at no upfront cost, making the platform even more accessible for independent musicians.

However I couldn't help but notice the "Tracks released through WallStream are often more favorably considered by curators for pitches and offers" which to be honest, makes sense, but is a bit discouraging for any artist who just wants to try out Wallstream before switching distributors, which I guess will be a common use case. 

Wallstream reimagines the artist-curator relationship

But really what truly distinguishes Wallstream is what happens after distribution. Unlike traditional platforms that stop at getting your music online, Wallstream reimagines what comes next - connecting artists directly with curators and collaborators through their built-in revenue-sharing system. It’s a shift away from the old “pay-to-play” model, and toward a more collaborative, sustainable approach to promotion.

Uploading My Track

For this walkthrough, since I don't have any upcoming releases, I will submit my band's track, "The Best Days Are Yet To Come", which was released 2 years ago, but has done quite well with any curator campaigns we ran when it was released.

However, I encountered a minor issue: I had to enter an Expected Release Date even though my track had already been released. After double-checking, I found a notice under Releases stating, "While releasing a track is optional for pitching or launching a promotion campaign, doing so significantly increases your appeal to curators." This reassured me that promoting an already released track was fine.

I proceeded to add "The Best Days Are Yet To Come", added the track cover art, uploaded the mastered Wav file, and entered the track's ISRC code. I selected a preview region through the very nice preview widget and finally selected "Open to receiving offers from playlist curators, labels, and influencers."

The Pitching Process

After the wav file finished uploading, I landed on the "Pitch your track" page, bingo! The layout of this page reminded me a lot of Groover, which is good because Groover has a very user-friendly curator selection user experience. One thing I noted, though, Wallstream asked to use my microphone...possibly a bug. Right after, I encountered a popup saying “We’ve created a new promotional video…” which initially confused me, but I later found out it's actually a free graphic tailored for social media. There’s also a direct campaign link - doubling as an affiliate link -that artists can use to attract potential offers through their own audience. Smart move!

Filtering and Selecting Curators

Back to curator selection, there is the option to filter curators by Genre and platform. The button to toggle these filters was a bit small, though, and I didn't notice it at first. Before taking a dive into the list, I also saw something else that I liked and found clever: Can't find the curator you're looking for? "Pitch new curator". My understanding is that an artist can pitch a curator to join Wallstream, which is yet another smart move by Wallstream, enabling its users to expand the platform’s ecosystem.  Apparently, though, I hit a bug, and an "Add credits" modal popped up. No fuss- these early-stage hiccups are expected. 

So I took a small taste of how pitching directly to curators works, using a credits purchase system much like Groover Groovies or Submihub credits. Time to move on to the actual curator selection. At this point, I must mention that I took a small break between the previous steps and this, and I can now see the “mic” and the “pitch a new curator” bugs were fixed, a sign that the Wallstream team proactively works on improving their services, so kudos to them. I can confirm that the "Pitch New Curator" feature is a smart way to expand Wallstream’s curator roster and to attract curators into mutually beneficial deals with a trustworthy intermediary that adds extra credibility. 

Choosing the Right Curators

On to curator selection, Mobvibe's "The best days are yet to come" can be described as an indie rock song, so I wend ahead and selected Rock in the "Filter by genre" selection, and left the "Filter by platform" empty to see all available options among the listed ones, Spotify, Instagram, Soundcloud, Tiktok, Youtube.

I instantly got an endless scroll of curators, each in big boxes, displaying the curator's social stats, country, submission credit cost, a description, and finally an extra user-friendly way to see how related your selected genres are to the curator's taste, in the form of a stacked bar chart. It is a very intuitive way to locate the most matching curator in a very short glance.

I appreciated the global diversity of curators - not just from the US and Europe. Also, the endless scroll is indeed an endless scroll! There are so many curators to choose from, so now starts the pretty tedious process of filtering the best matches and then manually checking out each curator's socials to verify the impact their properties will potentially have. At this point, I wish there was a way to filter out curators whose genre match %  is below a certain threshold, as that would help bring down the final list to a more manageable selection.

Evaluating Curator Quality

At first glance, I missed performance stats, but clicking on a curator’s name or image actually opens up a detailed profile view. There, you can see activity history per deal, overall ratings, and useful external links - a great way to evaluate potential partners before committing your royalties. The platform prioritizes displaying the highest-paid curators first, which initially made me feel a bit uneasy. However, after reviewing the top curators, I realized that they provided genuine value and impact, with a strong social media presence across various platforms.

It's always a matter of balance when picking curators in services similar to Wallstream. Common sense is to not completely allocate your budget on a few high-profile outlets but spread it out among many smaller ones and only pick a handful of the high-profile ones. However, with Wallstream, since we are talking about a long-term financial relationship, it would make sense to devote more of your budget to high-profile curators since the return will be greater in terms of promotion for the capital you'll be investing into this relationship.

After browsing through the curators, I noticed that, unlike its competitors, Wallstream’s revenue-sharing business model has attracted not only typical music bloggers and Spotify playlist curators but also established music promotion companies. These companies, in addition to managing promotional outlets, can offer artists valuable opportunities like sync and booking deals. 

Of course, you need to perform your due diligence carefully - when many promises are made, they need to be backed up. Avoid YouTube curators who have a history of low-view videos over the past year, as it’s a clear sign that your video may not perform any better. Also, Spotify playlists in the 1-2 thousand range, while promising, will not deliver an actual streaming boost. Of course, you should check the quality of playlists in any case. Here, I have to suggest either PlaylistSupply for a paid and more thorough solution or the equally excellent isitagoodplaylist.com

Submitting My Pitch

I discovered many curators that apparently have great value, but for the purpose of this review, I decided to wrap this up now and submit to one or two, just to simply see how the whole process works. Also, since it’s an already released track, I don’t have high expectations. However, if my track is accepted, it could pave the way for future collaborations and the possibility of releasing upcoming tracks through Wallstream.

I submitted my pitch, clearly stating that I would consider switching distributors for this track if a good deal is offered. Fingers crossed and hoping for a positive outcome. More on that on the upcoming part 2, provided, of course, there is news to share!

In conclusion, Wallstream presents an innovative approach to music promotion by merging distribution with revenue-sharing collaborations. While there are some bumps to iron out, like the occasional interface quirks, the platform’s ability to create mutually beneficial relationships between artists and curators is compelling. For independent musicians, it offers a fresh way to secure meaningful exposure without the upfront costs typically associated with traditional promotion methods. As I continue exploring this platform, I’m excited to see how it evolves and what impact it will have on Mobvibe’s future releases.

Interested in seeing how Wallstream can change the game for your music? Take a closer look and explore its potential: Visit this link
 

About Chris Roditis

Chris Roditis has been an active musician since 1995 in various bands and projects across a variety of genres ranging from acoustic, electronic to nu metal, british rock and trip hop. He has extensive experience as a mixing engineer and producer and has built recording studios for most of the projects he has been involved with. His passion for music steered his entrepreneurial skills into founding MusicNGear in 2012.

Contact Chris Roditis at chrisroditis@musicngear.com

LinkedInTwitterFacebook