Reddit is a great platform for discovering new artists and promoting your own music. In this article, we explain everything you need to know about the biggest subreddit devoted to the indie music scene: r/indieheads. This subreddit is a forum to talk about what’s new in the indie music community. Though it is not necessarily made for self promotion, it is possible to promote your music in this subreddit! If you want to promote your music on a subreddit devoted to emerging artists and overlooked music, check out our article on r/listentothis.
Here is everything you need to know about r/indieheads and how to promote your music using this subreddit!
1. What is r/indieheads?
Indie Heads is a subreddit community with over 2 million members that promotes the newest indie music releases and news. Unlike r/listentothis which is mainly made up of embedded Youtube links, the posts on the r/indieheads page vary. Redditors share embedded Youtube or Spotify links as well as images, articles, and links to other news sites. Some recent images shared on the feed show the upcoming concert dates of indie artists or festival line-up announcements. Links to articles or other news sites are usually interviews on music blogs or musicians sharing news.
2. What are the guidelines for posting in r/indieheads?
Like all subreddits, there are certain guidelines that must be followed to remain in the community and contribute content. r/indieheads has ten main rules to respect to remain on the platform. If you don’t follow the rules of a subreddit, your profile could be banned.
1. Songs submitted must be no more than a week old
When submitting songs from your favorite indie artists, they must be new releases. Songs submitted must not be more than a week old or previously shared on r/indieheads. This keeps the community discussion focused on the hottest new releases in the indie music scene. When posting, a direct link to a free streaming platform is required. You can use Youtube, Soundcloud, or Bandcamp links for example. The title for the post must follow a certain format: for a song- [FRESH] Artist – Title, for a music video- [FRESH VIDEO] Artist – Title, and for a performance- [FRESH PERFORMANCE] Artist – Title.
2. Albums or EPs submitted must be no more than a week old
For albums or EPs, the same rule applies for the release date. Projects must be no more than a week old and not previously posted on r/indieheads. Direct links to a free streaming platform are required and it is also possible to share pre-release links with the title [FRESH STREAM]. If the music has already been released, the standard title format is [FRESH ALBUM/EP/COMPILATION/etc]. The only other rule for album or EP submissions is that on Thursdays, [FRESH] Spotify posts will be restricted to after 12AM UTC.
3. To submit original music you must be a semi-regular contributor
Though this subreddit is not particularly devoted to sharing original music, it is possible to do so! Unlike r/listentothis, r/indieheads allows musicians to share their own projects under the Original classification. To do so, you must be a semi-regular contributor to the community. This means posting other links and comments on the forum besides just your own music. The title must follow the standard format [ORIGINAL] Artist – Title (optional Genre).
4. Follow proper etiquette
Like all subreddits, you must be respectful and follow proper etiquette, otherwise known as “reddiquette”. Do not spam the community or only post your own content for self promotion. Unlike Instagram, Reddit hates self-promotion! Do not post personal or confidential information. Lastly, and this should be obvious, do not post comments that are overtly vulgar or sexual. This is certainly not the place to do so!
5. No hate speech or harassement
The fifth rule is about r/indieheads zero tolerance policy for hate speech or harassement. Any redditors that bully or threaten others in the comments will be banned from the platform. This subreddit is a place for friendly discussion and sharing new music and not a place to start a fight.
6. What defines “indie” music
You may be asking yourself: what counts as “indie” music? The r/indieheads subreddit gives a vague definition of the genre but encourages posts with music from independent and underground scenes. However, music and news from any of these “mainstream” genres is not allowed: rock/metal, pop, hip hop/R&B, and electronic & EDM. Ariana Grande and Aerosmith have their place somewhere else. Experimental and underground bands that fall under the banned genres will be allowed at the discretion of the moderators. However, music and news from all of these genres can be discussed in the Daily Music Discussions.
7. Posting leaked music
You are not allowed to post illegal streams or downloads. However, if an album or song has leaked and it is available to the greater public, you can make a text post with the format [LEAK] Artist – Album or Song that leaked’, where redditors can discuss the leak.
8. Posting news
To share news articles or interviews, the content must be up to date and not previously posted in the community. Unlike the strict rule for songs and albums, there is no week old minimum for news but it is generally better to share breaking news. You can change the title of your post from the original article to add more information, but you must not add speculation or bias. If you are sharing an article link based on rumors, you need to add a [SPECULATION] tag.
9. Links that are not allowed
Certain links are not allowed in r/indieheads and they will be removed if posted. The following content can be posted in the Daily Music Discussion or General Discussions but will be banned if posted in the feed: memes, personal playlists, links with unrelated content to the indie music scene, reviews, satirical content, or picture posts that are not newsworthy. The picture posts that r/indieheads finds relevant include festival lineup announcements, album art reveals, or photos of bands getting back together in the studio.
10. Limited text posts
This subreddit is about spreading information about indie music and simple text posts such as questions should be limited. This is what the Daily Music Discussion and General Discussion threads are for.
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3. How to become a semi-regular contributor
As stated in rule #3, to submit original music to this subreddit you need to become a semi-regular contributor. Before you start engaging in the community, you need to first understand how the page is organized.
The feed can be rearranged in four different ways: Hot, New, Top, and Rising. If you organize your feed by Top posts, you can then filter by time period: Today, This Week, This Month, This Year, and All Time. If we filter by Top posts of All Time, we see an Ask Me Anything post from MGMT with over 13,000 upvotes. Ask Me Anything, otherwise known as AMA, is an awesome feature of r/indieheads where indie artists answer questions in real time from redditors. The AMA archives go back to 2015 and you can read the discussions of all the artists that have participated. If you see that one of your favorite indie artists is scheduled to do an AMA, take the opportunity to start contributing to the community and ask some questions during the session.
Now that you understand the logic of the feed, you can start upvoting posts you enjoy and contributing to discussions. The best way you can contribute is by sharing the hottest releases in the indie music scene before anyone else does!
4. Time to promote your music!
Just because you’ve been on r/indieheads for a day doesn’t mean that you’re a semi-regular contributor. Our advice is to wait a couple weeks or even up to a month before posting your own music. If you post an [ORIGINAL] track too soon without having any history of engagement in the community, you could risk being banned. There is no specific rule on the release date of the original music, but it is smart to follow the general rule and post your original music just after it is released. It is also important to post at the right time to maximize your chances of being upvoted. A data analysis site shows that the best time to post on r/indieheads is on Thursdays at 8pm EDT. When in doubt, you can also see how many users are online at any given time on the top righthand side of the page.
Now that you’ve got all the tools you need, get on r/indieheads and start becoming a real redditor!
👉 Complete guide to understand how to use Reddit to promote your music
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