As a Music & Entertainment Platform that continuously strives to support up-and-coming artists, Anghami’s team is fully dedicated to curating the best in new music while ensuring it reaches the right audience. And now, with our partnership with Groover, users will be able to submit their tracks to our platform for editorial consideration with ease and accessibility.
What is Groover?
Groover helps artists get their music heard. Through an innovative web platform, Groover connects artists who want to promote their music with the best curators, radios and labels seeking emerging talents. On www.groover.co artists can send their music directly to a selection of blogs, radios, playlist curators, record labels and pros of their choice, get feedback guaranteed, and coverage!
More than 2 million pieces of feedback have been given by more than 2,000 active music curators and pros, 400k+ shares (reviews, playlist adds etc.) and 1,000+ signatures on record labels happened thanks to Groover.
We spoke to Dorian Perron, the co-founder of Groover, and asked him a few questions about the journey so far.
What is the story behind Groover?
In 2013, I ran a blog about independent music and shared songs that I thought were underappreciated. I also regularly hosted live acoustic performances with indie rock and pop artists like Asgeir, Pete Yorn, Plants and Animals, etc. at my house in Paris.
Fast forward a few years, in 2018 at UC Berkeley, I met with my co-founders Romain & Rafaël, and all 3 of us wanted to help independent artists, especially as we had first hand experience of the challenges they faced. We started having phone calls with artists on a daily basis, and reached out to over 200 of them as well as music industry professionals during an entire month and quickly realized that they all faced the same issues related to the challenges of getting their music heard by anyone outside of their social circles. There was a massive problem with artists trying to promote their music and getting it heard in the right places.
Our goal has always been to push artists to the forefront of influential channels such as blogs, radios, playlist curators and making sure their music actually got heard and someone would provide them with valuable feedback. This barrier between releasing your music and getting it heard is precisely why we created Groover.
How does Groover guarantee the musicians’ success?
There is no guarantee for a musicians’ success but, with Groover, we can guarantee that your music is definitely getting heard which helps put the odds in your favor to find success.
By signing up to Groover, artists and their representatives can send their music to all sorts of music industry professionals and curators. Everything from blogs, radio stations, playlisters – you name it, we’ve got it. For each connection an artist chooses to make they are charged 2 Grooviz (1 Grooviz = €1) and are guaranteed that their music will be heard. If the artist receives no feedback within 7 days, they will get their Grooviz back and can use them to reach out to other curators & professionals.
On the other hand, for the curators and music professionals, they choose whether or not they want to feature an artist’s music. They provide feedback and get compensation regardless of the decision itself – which gives them total freedom in their choices and guarantees their editorial independence.
How are the music curators and professionals selected and what qualifies them to assess the content?
On Groover, we’re very specific about the curators & pros we want to attract. We’re looking for music curators and professionals who gather quite a few criteria:
1) They have influence/impact or they have experience in music (sound engineers, managers etc.) They can be part of a niche or more mainstream, both can bring value to the community
2) Their editorial line is high quality, and artists will be happy to associate their name to the brand
3) They’ve been active for quite some time and they’re currently actively curating music
Our curators and professionals are split in several categories:
– Visibility outlets (blogs, radios, playlist curators, journalists, Youtube channels) who can provide coverage for the tracks they have a crush on
– Potential partners (record labels, publishers, managers, bookers) who can become the artist’s team members
– Mentors & sound specialists, who can give more detailed advice on a track
We also assess more metrics to approve or not curators on Groover, which ends up in us refusing over 80% of applications. The Curators & Pros team works alongside local ambassadors in several countries (Brazil, Italy, UK, USA, Latam etc.) We also coach and guide the curators on how to give proper feedback to artists, feedback that will be useful to them.
What is Groover’s long term plan for emerging artists?
Giving more opportunities to artists to get their music heard is our motto from the start.
Groover already offers artists the opportunity to reach out to the professionals and curators that they probably would never have been able to get in touch with before. By using the platform artists are giving themselves all the chances to get their music heard in the places that matter to them, get the recognition they deserve.
With Groover, there is a clear direction of what they can achieve and where they can get their music placed. Artists can choose the type of curators and pros they want to get in touch with, depending on their strategy and where they want to go. Groover both offers many suggestions and helps guide artists on the right path at the same time, our Groover Blog also helps a lot with that.
Regarding the future development of the platform, the goal for Groover is to become the go-to platform for all independent artists looking to be heard. To do so we need to continue our journey which includes 3 main directions: 1) International Growth (75% of our activity now takes place outside of France), 2) Improving the experience for artists on Groover and developing new services and 3) especially growing Groover Obsessions (Our artist accelerator program).
Alvin Chris, one of our Groover Obsessions artists, also showcased by Anghami in the Rap Français playlist
What is Groover’s long term plan for emerging markets like the MENA region?
Groover is very international, open to all artists, curators & music industry professionals. We are constantly adding more and more curators from all emerging markets onto the platform. We adapt the music genres and languages options so that we’re sure not to exclude anyone who’d like to use Groover to get their music heard or discover new music, and we’ll be looking for all opportunities to grow our community and opportunities in the region.
Anghami has become a very important curator on Groover, artists value a lot the possibility to get discovered by a leading streaming platform in the MENA region.
What top 3 tips do you have for up & coming artists trying to make it in the music industry?
Firstly, I always recommend that artists remain authentic in their musical universe and not try to do things to please a PR objective because in the long run, it will hurt them more than do them good. There is so much music released every day that it’s important to differentiate.
Secondly, I believe that artists should be aware that releasing a track is no longer enough. Listeners and fans are interested in the universe that the artist creates and that means creating an image, a story and a purpose.
Finally, it’s important to stay consistent in the creation of music and being up to date with what works best these days. There’s no point in releasing 1 song now and waiting another year to release another. Using Groover needs to be part of a bigger plan involving trying to get every opportunity out there and build a “snowball effect”, step by step. A “test and learn” approach + consistency are key to break through.
How do you submit your music to Anghami through Groover?
It’s quite simple. Once you have created your Groover account for free and you’re browsing through our curators, search for our Top Curators and you’ll find Anghami over here. Follow the step-by-step indications to send your music to the platform and you’ll get your music heard by their team.
Want to try Groover out? Anghami users can now enjoy a 10% discount. Sign up on Groover and use the code ANGHAMIGROOVERVIP [more explanations on how to apply the special discount here]
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