Curator help & FAQ

You need a Spotify account you own with at least one public playlist of 1,000 or more followers. The account can hold smaller playlists too, but only playlists at or above that size receive tracks.

The playlist also has to have real listeners. We estimate active monthly listeners from how the follower count moves, and a playlist needs about 30 to stay in the pool. A large playlist that has stopped growing can drop out; a smaller one that is growing can qualify.

We check the follower count the moment you verify your account on the application form. If no playlist reaches the minimum, the form tells you straight away rather than after a wait. Applications that do not meet it are declined.

We never ask you to log in to Spotify through Intonality, and we never get access to your account. Instead we give you a track, you add it to any public playlist you own, and we check that it is there. That proves the account is yours.

You can remove the track again as soon as verification is done. Each Spotify account can be verified by one curator only.

Yes, 30 days after the decision. Use that time to grow the playlist past the minimum or to build the one you want to curate with. The apply page shows the date you can come back.

Proof that you listened, in whatever language you write best. Name what you heard: a section, the vocal, an instrument, the mix, the overall sound, and say why it did or did not fit your playlist. You are a music fan, not a critic, and nobody expects a polished review. A line that could have been written without pressing play does not count. Artists rate every reply, which feeds your score.

Artists can translate your review to English with one click, so clear feedback in your own language is worth more than vague feedback in English.

Accepting is a commitment to put the track on the playlists you selected. Pick only the playlists it will actually go on.

For a manual playlist you add the track yourself and confirm it. For a connected playlist we place it for you and keep it there for the hold time you set. You cannot mix the two in one acceptance.

Every placement is checked. Once the track is confirmed in the playlist it moves to your Placed tab and the review is paid.

Judge it from the audio and decide now, the same as a released track. If you accept, it goes on your playlist on release day: connected playlists get it placed automatically, and for manual playlists we remind you when the Spotify link goes live so you can add it and confirm. We look for the track on the artist's Spotify profile ourselves, so that reminder usually reaches you on release day without the artist having to do anything.

Please do not decline a track just because it is not on Spotify yet. Artists buy pre-release campaigns precisely so the track lands on playlists the day it comes out.

Until the placement is confirmed after release, the review sits under Earnings On Hold.

Each decline asks for one reason: not the right genre, production not ready, not your taste, or other. The artist sees the reason next to your review, so they can tell a mismatch from a quality problem.

Not the right genre works differently. You tick which of the track's genres do not belong on your playlists, and you are done: no written review, and the artist never sees it. We send the track to a curator who covers the genre, we stop sending you those genres, and a ticked category comes off your profile. It is not paid, because no review was written, and it does not touch your acceptance rate.

Use it honestly and early. A category you do not really cover only brings tracks you will decline.

Aim to review within about three days of the notification. After that we may hand the track to other curators along side you, when the campaign gets enough reviews it closes and u can no longer review it.

No. A campaign closes as soon as the artist has the number of reviews they paid for. We assign a few extra curators so a campaign does not stall when someone does not respond, which means the last curators to open a track sometimes find it gone.

It does not count against you or your score. Reviewing soon after the notification is the only way to miss fewer.

• Pending: tracks waiting for your decision.
• To be placed: tracks you accepted that are not on the playlist yet. Manual placements waiting for your confirmation, pre-releases waiting for release day, placements on connected playlists waiting to run.
• Declined: tracks you passed on.
• Placed: tracks confirmed in your playlist. We track how long they stay and where they sit.

No, but you can. You get a notification when an artist rates or answers a review. Replying on the thread is optional and usually appreciated. Keep it about the track.

Ratings count toward your score, so specific, honest feedback pays twice.

When an artist chooses to make a finished campaign public, it goes on the campaign board with every curator's decision and review in full, name and playlist next to it. Declines are shown too. Nothing is published while a campaign is running, so other curators cannot read your review before writing their own.

You also have a public curator page with your playlists, stats and reviews. Artists look at it when deciding how much weight to give your feedback, so keep your profile text and image current.

Connecting a playlist lets Intonality place accepted tracks on it for you, keep each one for the hold time you chose, and remove it on schedule if you want. You connect each playlist from the Spotify & Playlists page by adding our collaborator account to that playlist.

We use collaborator access rather than a login to your Spotify account on purpose. If a platform that holds full account access is ever compromised, every playlist on the account is at risk. With collaborator access only the playlists you chose are exposed, and you can revoke it in Spotify at any time.

Yes, per playlist, each time you accept a track. Set a hold time, choose to keep the track forever, and optionally pick a position. One playlist can hold a track for 14 days at the top while another keeps it indefinitely near the end.

After the track reaches Placed you can still change the hold time for each connected playlist, and the removal date follows.

A playlist receives tracks only while it has at least 1,000 followers and an estimated 30 or more active monthly listeners. The listener estimate comes from day-to-day follower movement and is shown under Stats on your Spotify & Playlists page.

The check runs automatically, so a playlist comes back into the pool on its own once it crosses the line.

Yes. We track playlists by their Spotify ID, so renaming one or editing its description changes nothing on our side. Genre changes only affect which campaigns we match you with. Deleting a playlist, or making it private, removes it from the pool.

Yes. If you curate from several Spotify accounts, for example a shared one with friends, add the other account from your Spotify & Playlists page with + Add account. It is verified the same way as your first one, and its playlists are reviewed before they start receiving submissions. Everything then runs from a single dashboard and one payout balance.

You can also apply as a separate curator with a different email if the accounts need their own dashboards and payouts, but that means a full new application and review.

Yes. Artists tell us when they submit whether AI was used: not at all, as a helper (mastering, lyrics, artwork), or to generate the music itself. Tick Don't send me AI-generated tracks under Genre preferences on your profile and tracks disclosed as AI-generated or AI-assisted skip you.

If an AI-generated track reaches you anyway, decline it with the reason "AI-generated music doesn't belong in my playlists". It goes to another curator, it does not count against you, and the preference switches on by itself. The same page also lets you say whether you want only vocal tracks or only instrumentals.

By what your playlists actually contain. Each playlist is tagged with its sub-genres, and a campaign goes to the curators whose eligible playlists carry the sub-genres the artist confirmed. The genre categories on your profile decide which kinds of campaigns you are considered for at all; the playlist tags decide the order.

Declining tracks as "not the right genre" trims your categories, so over time you receive fewer tracks you would pass on anyway.

$1.50 to $4.00 per review. The base is $1.50 and your score tier adds the rest. Your score is 0 to 100 and comes from listener reach, artist ratings, review quality, how long accepted tracks stay on your playlists, follow-through on pre-release placements, and a balanced accept rate. Some of these only start to count after a number of reviews, so early on just write good feedback and decide honestly.

A review is earned once the track is confirmed on your playlist, or once you decline with a written review. Earned money shows in your Available Balance. Pre-release acceptances sit in Earnings On Hold until release.

Curators who bring artists in through their invite link also earn a referral bonus on that campaign. You find the link under My Profile & Earnings.

Request a withdrawal from your dashboard once your balance reaches $20. We pay by bank transfer through Wise, in the currency of your bank account, usually within a few business days.

The withdraw page asks for exactly what banks in your country use: IBAN in Europe, routing and account number in the US, BSB in Australia, IFSC in India, and so on for around 60 currencies. If your country is not listed, a free Wise account gives you EUR or USD details you can use instead.

Wise's transfer fee and exchange rate come out of the amount. We charge nothing. If a transfer bounces because of a typo, the page shows the reason and lets you fix the details; the money stays in your balance.

For every payout we issue a self-billing invoice in your name, which you agreed to in the terms. It documents the payment for both sides, and you do not need to send us anything.

You declare the income in your own country; we do not withhold tax. Curators registered as a business in the EU are invoiced under the reverse-charge rule and give us their VAT number. Individuals just give a legal name and address.

No. Artists pay for honest reviews from curators who match their genre. A placement happens only if you think the track belongs on your playlist, and we tell artists exactly that.

Yes. Other platforms, direct submissions and paid reviews elsewhere are all fine. Artists may also contact you directly; that happens naturally.

The one thing you cannot do, on Intonality or anywhere else, is take money in exchange for adding a track to a playlist or guaranteeing an add. That is a paid placement, it breaks the trust artists put in every review here, and curators found doing it are removed from the network.