Artist Spotlight  ·  Submission

Tell Us About Your Music.

We feature independent artists with a real record and a real story. Our editors choose the finalists. Fans choose the Spotlight. This form is everything we need. It takes about twenty minutes and costs nothing, ever.

Any genre. One standard.

We cover independent artists in every genre — gospel, R&B, country, hip-hop, rock, worship. The business of getting paid for a song does not change with the genre.

What we ask about is content, not sound: no profanity, nothing sexually explicit, nothing that degrades anybody. That is the whole filter, and it is the same one daytime radio applies before it will give you a spin.

AI songs are welcome. If you made any part of your music with AI tools, tell us how in your story, and we will say so when we feature you.

What happens after you send this

Edition 2 is a fan vote. Enter by January 3, 2027. Our editors choose six finalists from everything on file and email them by January 7, with a one-page release to sign. Fans vote at signalandsong.com/vote from January 8 to 22, once a day, and the finalist with the most votes is the Spotlight. Our editors also choose one Editor’s Pick.

If we are not featuring you this edition we will still reply — and we keep submissions on file for the next one, so you do not need to send it twice.

Prefer paper, or want to work on it offline? Download the same form as a fillable PDF → Type straight into it, save it, and email it back to editor@signalandsong.com — or print it and write on it. Either version reaches us the same way.

There is no fee to be featured, ever. Anyone who asks you to pay for editorial coverage in any publication is running something you should walk away from. See page 30 of the current issue.

How to reach you

All fields marked * are needed before we can run the feature.

Your legal name — we need it for the release form.

Exactly how you want it printed.

Optional, but it speeds things up if we have a question.

Any genre — gospel, R&B, country, hip-hop, rock, worship. However you describe it.

The story — this is the part that matters

Take your time on these — they are the feature.

About 25 words. Not a genre description — a reason. “Three-part harmony recorded live in her grandmother’s front room” beats “uplifting inspirational music.”

150–250 words. Start in a room, not with a summary. The session, the church, the car you wrote it in, the job you were working when the song came. Where you’re from and how you got here. Specific beats impressive every time.

0 words

100–150 words. What you have out right now. What it sounds like, who played on it, where it was cut, what it’s about. Give a reader a reason to press play.

0 words

100–200 words. This is the one that gets you in. A split you wish you had papered. A distributor you left. The year you didn’t collect your royalties. The lawyer who was worth the money. Signal & Song is a magazine about the business — a feature without this is a press release, and we don’t print those.

0 words

One or two sentences in your own voice. We won’t fix your grammar.

What you’re working on and when it lands. Dates if you have them.

Your music

So readers can find you.

e.g. “Still Here” — single — released March 2026

Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube — paste the links.

Instagram, Facebook, TikTok.

If it’s different from above.

Photographs

So readers can find you.

Required. Dropbox, Google Drive or WeTransfer. We need at least one image 1600 px or larger on the long edge. A press shot is fine — a photo of you actually working is better.

If a professional took them, give us their name. And make sure you have their permission — the release covers this.

MBSGG Radio (optional)

Our sister station, MBSGG Radio, only plays songs it has permission to play. Saying yes here does not affect the Spotlight.

I can take this back anytime by emailing editor@signalandsong.com, and you’ll stop playing it.

These are the groups that collect money when songs are played on radio. Many independent artists aren’t signed up with any of them, and that’s fine. If you’re not sure, choose “Not sure” and we’ll check with you.

List their names, including whoever made the beat.

Before you send it — the release

We need your permission to publish. Here is the whole of it in plain language:

  • You let us publish your name, your story, your likeness and the photographs you send, in Signal & Song, and keep that edition in our archive.
  • You let us use excerpts and images to promote the magazine — our site, socials, email list, MBSGGTV and radio.
  • You keep everything. Your photos, your recordings, your name. No copyright transfers to us and you can use your own story anywhere else, any time.
  • We will never sell or license your story or images to anyone, never use them in advertising for another business, and never present you as endorsing an advertiser.
  • A Spotlight page may carry one “presented by” sponsor credit. Sponsors have no say in what we write and are not told who is being featured.
  • We may edit for length and clarity, never for meaning. Change your mind and we take you out of future editions.
  • You confirm what you have told us is true, that you have the right to give us the photographs, and that everyone identifiable in them has agreed to appear.

Read the full release as a PDF → If we feature you, we will email you this one-page document to sign for our records. Nothing here costs you anything, and we are not paying you either — editorial features are free, and you can never buy one.

We reply to everyone. We do not sell or share your details, and we will not add you to any list you did not ask for.