UpcomingSounds helps independent artists build stronger profiles, organize public music inside the platform, run campaigns, request curator coverage, and understand internal UpcomingSounds activity. Curators use it to discover music, create offers, and build paid or verified opportunities.

Yes. Artist and curator accounts follow different onboarding flows because they use different dashboards and tools. Artists focus on profile setup, public music, campaigns, verified coverage, internal activity, and growth readiness. Curators focus on profile review, offer templates, verified coverage listings, wallet payouts, and artist submissions.

Yes. After signup and approval, you can update core profile details from your dashboard, including profile image, bio, links, genres, and account information relevant to your role.

You can sign in from the login page. If you signed up with email and forgot your password, use Forgot Password. If you originally used a social login, use the same provider or create a password through the follow-up password flow when prompted.

Once your artist account is ready, complete your profile, organize your public music presence, and then move into campaign or curator coverage tools when a release is ready. The artist workspace keeps profile setup, public music, coverage paths, and internal activity signals connected.

The platform is built around curator and professional opportunities such as playlists, blogs, social media placements, radio support, reviews, interviews, and other music discovery formats. The exact options depend on the curators, verified coverage types, and offer templates active in the system.

Once an artist accepts and pays with USC, the offer moves into the next process stage so the curator can complete the agreed work and submit proof or placements. Admin review may apply depending on the offer type.

If the curator does not review the offer inside its response window (12 days for hand-picked curators), the offer expires and the full amount is automatically refunded in USC to your wallet in the daily refund run, with a confirmation email. See the campaign and refund answers below and the Refund Policy for the full rules.

Artists can use the Growth Dashboard and analytics areas to review internal UpcomingSounds activity such as plays, saves, follows, shares, recent plays, recommendation engagement, and readiness signals. External DSP stream counts are unavailable and must not be inferred.

No. UpcomingSounds tracks internal UpcomingSounds activity only. It does not infer external DSP stream counts or listener counts from provider links, profile URLs, smart links, metadata, or campaign activity.

You can top up your balance from the artist wallet. Some flows will also show the missing USC amount before checkout so you know exactly what you need to purchase to continue.

Campaigns are priced per campaign, not per submission: Standard 45 USC, Advanced 60 USC, Pro 80 USC, and Premium 100 USC. Each campaign runs for 45 days and is sent to all curators on the platform, verified and non-verified.

Verified curators carry the high-impact exposure; non-verified curators give medium- and low-level exposure. The flat package price already includes the high-end curators who also sell individually in the coverage marketplace, so no separate purchase is needed to reach them. Curators respond with written feedback and an Accept, Reject, or Alternative offer.

Verified Coverage is where artists hand-pick individual verified curators instead of running a full campaign. Each curator sets their own price, currently between 5 and 900 USC, and can have only one active coverage listing at a time. The curator's delivery estimate sets the due date for your coverage.

Every paid offer has a response window (12 days for offers to hand-picked curators). If the curator does not review the offer before the window closes, the offer expires and the full amount is automatically refunded in USC to your wallet in the daily refund run. You also receive a confirmation email. You do not need to contact support for this refund.

Your coverage has a due date based on the curator's delivery estimate, and the curator is warned 2 days before it. If no work is submitted by the due date, the request expires automatically and the full amount is refunded in USC to your wallet.

If a curator rejects a coverage request you purchased in the marketplace, the full amount is refunded in USC to your wallet, and the curator is paid nothing for that request.

Campaign package refunds are manual, never automatic. A campaign counts as delivered as soon as at least one curator makes an offer, or one coverage deal results from it. Once a campaign is delivered, the package fee is earned and is not refundable.

If your campaign delivered nothing at all (zero curator offers and no coverage deal), contact support. An admin verifies the campaign record, and if it truly delivered nothing, the campaign is cancelled and the full package price is restored to your wallet as USC. Responses that are all written feedback with a rejection count as delivered nothing, because no offer and no coverage resulted. The full rules are in the Refund Policy.

There are two fee systems. Services marketplace orders carry an 18% platform fee, or 10% for Curator Pro providers, and service orders are paid with a 50% deposit at checkout. Campaign offer work and verified coverage carry a 20% platform fee on the contribution when it is over 15 USC, or a flat 2 USC fee when it is 15 USC or less.

Refunds are paid in USC credits back to your wallet, not in cash, except where the law requires a refund to your original payment method. The automatic refunds (expired offers, undelivered coverage, rejected coverage) need no request. Campaign package refunds are manual and follow the process in the campaign refund answer above.

UpcomingSounds accepts a wide range of curator and professional profiles, including playlist curators, influencers, YouTube channels, radio and TV contacts, blogs, labels, managers, publishers, journalists, producers, media professionals, and other music-industry reviewers with a real platform or audience.

Curators earn through approved direct offers, verified coverage activity, services marketplace orders, and eligible referral-related platform flows. Earnings and payout history are managed from the curator wallet area. Withdrawals are reviewed by an admin before payment and are paid out via PayPal, Wise, or Revolut.

No. UpcomingSounds is strict about keeping platform transactions inside approved flows. Curators should not ask artists for off-platform payments, private payola arrangements, or guaranteed coverage deals outside the system. That creates trust, legal, and moderation problems and can lead to enforcement action.

Approved curator accounts can manage offer templates, send direct offers, create verified coverage opportunities, review artist submissions, and manage payout history. Admin approval or moderation may apply to specific offer and coverage processes.

USC is the platform credit used inside UpcomingSounds for submission and transaction flows. 1 USC = £1 GBP at the rate shown when you buy credits. Artists use USC to fund offers, campaigns, verified coverage, and other approved in-platform opportunities. USC credits remain valid for one year from the date they are issued to the wallet.

Refunds are returned to the wallet as USC credits, not cash, except where the law requires a refund to your original payment method. See the Refund Policy for details.

Artists can purchase USC from the wallet. The checkout flow handles payment securely and credits are then applied to the account balance for use across eligible platform actions.

Yes. UpcomingSounds uses secure payment processing and does not rely on unsafe manual card handling inside the platform itself. Payment-related screens and card processing are handled through established providers and protected checkout flows.

Supported methods depend on the active checkout provider and region, but the platform is built for card-based digital checkout and also references wallet top-up flows that support common payment methods such as major credit cards and digital wallet checkout where available.

Curators can request payouts from the curator wallet once funds are eligible. Every withdrawal is reviewed and approved by an admin before it is paid, and payouts are sent via PayPal, Wise, or Revolut. Withdrawal history, approved payments, and pending requests are all tracked in the curator wallet and admin payout tools.

Logged-in artist users can buy USC gift cards from the Gift Card area. After checkout, the recipient receives gift card details by email and can claim the USC through the gift card claim flow.

The recipient opens the gift card claim link, then signs in or registers as needed, and finally redeems the code into the correct wallet flow. The credit is added to the account balance after successful validation.

Referral links use a short public format such as /ref/your-slug. When someone registers through that link, the platform can connect the new signup to the referring account. Referral rewards are recorded as pending at signup and only unlock after the referred user buys their first campaign and that campaign is active; they never unlock at signup alone. The same rule applies to promo credits such as ARTIST10: they unlock only after your first campaign has been bought and is active.

USC can move through approved platform flows such as purchases, refunds, gift cards, and specific transaction records. Direct movement outside supported platform logic should not be assumed unless the interface explicitly supports it.

Some onboarding and access flows require verification. Email verification exists in the platform, and curator flows also use phone verification during signup. Artists and curators can also choose to enable an extra emailed login code from their profile security settings. Admin access includes stronger security controls with an authenticator-based second factor.

First confirm that the email address or phone number entered is correct and that you are using the right signup path. If the code still does not arrive, open a help ticket with the account email, country, and a short description of the issue so support can review the verification flow.

Use a unique password, avoid sharing login credentials, and keep your contact information current. If you think your account access has been compromised, reset your password immediately and contact support through the ticket flow so the issue can be reviewed.

If you need to deactivate or close an account, contact support through the help system so the request can be reviewed alongside any active wallet, payout, submission, or moderation records tied to that profile.

The best path is the Help Ticket form. Use it for account access issues, payment questions, verification problems, platform bugs, refund questions, curator disputes, or submission process issues.

Include the account email, your role (artist or curator), the page or flow where the problem happened, any relevant order or transaction reference, and screenshots if the issue is visual or checkout-related. The more precise the report, the faster the issue can be isolated.

You can review the main legal pages at Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and Refund Policy. Those pages explain platform rules, payment expectations, refund rules, data handling, and other legal obligations.

Admin review is used to protect quality and trust in sensitive flows such as curator approvals, verified coverage moderation, direct-offer approvals, payout reviews, refund handling, and support disputes. Not every action is instant because some parts of the platform are intentionally moderated.