Comparison
Heard vs. the old directories
The big music-promotion directories have been around for years and plenty of working musicians got their first press through one. This isn’t a takedown. It’s a format comparison: what a bought-by-edition directory offers versus a continuously verified database you search, filter and run campaigns from — and what each costs.
| Heard | The other guys | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | __PRICE__ | $35–$100 per edition, or ~$100/yr for online access |
| Format | Live web app — search, filter and sort in the browser | PDF editions + online export |
| Contacts | 10,000+ across 13 types, each with a "last verified" date | Thousands of listings across categories |
| Searchable genres | 300+ genre tags | ~40 genre categories |
| Updates | Continuous — new contacts added weekly, included | Sold per edition; you re-buy for fresh data |
| Dead contacts | Link-checked on a rolling basis and removed | Not indicated, stale listings linger |
| Coverage | One membership covers curators, blogs, radio, labels, venues, PR, supervisors and more | Spotify / YouTube / Apple guides often sold as separate products |
| Your campaigns | Build lists and track who you’ve contacted, then export | Export search results into your own database |
What each directory covers
Both cover the classic promotion channels. Where Heard goes further is the people you reach after a release starts moving — the producers, engineers, publishers, managers and sync supervisors who make up a real career. That’s thousands of contacts in categories the other directories don’t list.
| Contact type | Heard | The other guys |
|---|---|---|
| Live venues | ✓ | ✓ |
| Radio stations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Record labels | ✓ | ✓ |
| Playlist curators | ✓ | ✓ (often separate guides) |
| Blogs & reviewers | ✓ | ✓ |
| Booking agents | ✓ | ✓ |
| Music festivals | ✓ | ✓ |
| Only on Heard | ||
| Mixing & mastering engineers | ✓ | — |
| Record producers | ✓ | — |
| Music publishers | ✓ | — |
| PR & marketing firms | ✓ | — |
| Artist managers | ✓ | — |
| Music supervisors (sync) | ✓ | — |
| Communities & forums | ✓ | — |
“✓” and “—” reflect how legacy PDF/online directories typically package their categories. Some also cover distribution services, which Heard doesn’t.
Why a database beats a document
Music industry contacts rot fast: blogs shut down, curators move, station staff change. In our own verification sweeps of public directory-style listings, roughly one in ten turns out to be dead, moved, or a different entity within 18 months. That’s not any publisher’s fault — it’s the nature of a fixed document. A living database can re-check and remove them; that’s the whole reason Heard exists.
Heard currently lists 10,778 contacts across playlist curators, blogs, radio, labels, venues, publishers, managers, booking agents, PR firms, music supervisors, producers and mix engineers. Every profile shows when it was last verified. Filter to “indie-folk blogs in the UK that accept submissions” in three clicks instead of a night of Ctrl+F.
Full access — $29/year
A fraction of the price of a bought-once directory. Alive all year.
See what’s included →