Magic Nothing by the numbers

Artists and submissions

Since July 2025:

• 64,526 songs submitted
• 58,668 reviewed by a real human curator
• 20,750 placed on a playlist
• 4,962 artists have pitched with us
• 792 curators have been paid for at least one review
• 3,538 playlists are live on the marketplace right now, run by 1,191 curators

A review means a curator listened and made a decision to either accept, pass, or place a song on a different playlist of theirs that fits better. Passes count as reviews just as much as placements do. Artists pay for curators to listen, consider the track for their playlist(s), and respond genuinely. There is no guarantee of placement, and our policy is that a reviewed pitch isn't refunded, because the review is what was paid for. We still correct our own mistakes, and nothing here takes away a right you have by law.

Community curators currently average 24h to reply, and 36% of reviewed pitches get placed. Those two rates are the trailing month, independent curators only. Our own playlists (aka Magic Nothing Editorial Playlists) are tracked separately so they can't pad the marketplace's numbers.

Most pitches are passed. That is what a review looks like when a person actually decides: a playlist that added everything sent to it would not be curating.

A placement is the curator's own confirmation, made when they accept, that they added the track. We don't currently verify placements against Spotify automatically. If a track goes missing after an accept, artists email us and we follow up with the curator directly.

Tokens returned to artists

When a curator doesn't get to your song in 72 hours (14 days for our editorial playlists), it expires and your tokens are returned automatically. That has happened 4,203 times, returning 23,963 tokens to artists without anyone having to ask.

Expiry isn't the only way tokens come back. A curator can release a pitch they can't review, vacation mode returns a curator's whole queue, an artist can cancel before anyone listens, an inactive curator's queue is released by us, and when we remove a curator the paid pitches waiting in their queue are refunded. Counting all of that:

• 5,599 pitches ended with the tokens returned and no curator paid
• 39,374 tokens went back to artists' balances for them

Those two numbers are filtered against our payout records, not against the label on the refund, so a pitch that paid a curator can't sit inside them. Pitches refunded after a curator had already been paid are counted on their own instead, and there have been 0 of those. Under our rules a reviewed pitch isn't refunded, so that count is corrections and exceptions.

Returned tokens land in the artist's balance, ready for the next pitch. They're a credit on the platform, not a card refund. The refund policy in full is in our Terms, section 6.

Curators and payouts

Our platform uses Tokens: 1 token = $1 USD. Artists spend them, curators and vendors earn them, and earned tokens cash out as real money.

• 793 people have earned on the platform
• 463,948 tokens earned reviewing songs and running campaigns
• $396,310 actually paid out, across 1,348 cashouts
• Median time from a cashout request to us recording it as processed: under an hour, across 1,348 of the 1,348 completed cashouts

Curators are paid per review, and the amount is locked when the pitch is sent: accepting, passing, and placing elsewhere all pay the same. Under the rules a pitch that expires or is refunded pays the curator nothing, and the past refunds that went out after a curator had already been paid are counted separately above rather than left out. Curators cash out from 50 tokens as Stripe Connect transfers in their local currency; requests under our review threshold go out automatically, larger ones and accounts under review are handled by a person.

Payouts go through Stripe. The paid-out figure counts our own cashout records that reached a Stripe transfer, so it never includes a pending, cancelled or rejected request. It's a count of what we sent, taken from our books rather than reconciled line by line against Stripe's, and a transfer being created is not the same as a bank crediting it. Stripe settles on its own schedule after that, usually 2 to 3 business days.

About that timing number: the clock we can measure is our own. The stamp is written when the Stripe transfer is created, and written again if someone here confirms a transfer by hand after the fact, which makes that row read longer than the payout really took. We don't record which rows that happened to, so we can't tell you how many there are. We publish how many cashouts are in the figure and how many aren't, rather than presenting it as a certified transfer time.

Earned tokens don't leave the platform the instant they're earned, so tokens earned normally runs ahead of dollars paid out. The gap is made of ordinary things: balances people are holding, earned tokens spent right back on the platform, cashouts still in progress, balances under the cashout minimum, and amounts forfeited under our Terms from accounts removed for violating them. That's an explanation of the shape of the two numbers, not a reconciliation of them: they're different ledgers and comparing them doesn't settle any individual account. How balances are handled when an account is removed is covered in our Terms, section 14.4.

Playlists and accounts removed

A marketplace only works if the playlists on it are real and the curators and vendors are honest and genuine. We screen for botted and artificial activity, and we act on what we find:

• 210 playlists removed from the marketplace for artificial activity or violations of our Terms
• 69 accounts removed or expelled from the marketplace, for things like running multiple accounts, artificial streams, coordinated self-dealing, or abusive behavior
• 117 pitches refunded for an unavailable curator, where that curator has since been removed, returning 1,336 tokens to artists

Read that last one as a ceiling, not an exact count, and here's why. Removing a curator does refund the pitches waiting in their queue, and those land in that number. But a curator can also refund a pitch themselves with the same reason on it, and we don't record which refund a removal caused, so once the account is gone the two look identical. The figure counts what we can actually check: that reason, on a pitch whose curator our records now show removed. A pitch carrying that reason against a curator in good standing isn't in there at all.

How a playlist gets on, and stays on, the marketplace: it has to be public on Spotify and owned by the curator who imports it, and a first-time curator's playlists are looked at by a person before they're listed. Once live, playlists are re-scored daily from what placed artists report back, curators who let pitches expire are warned, then paused, then hidden, and playlists or accounts showing signs of artificial activity come off the marketplace while we look. Spotify availability is checked when someone opens the playlist or it comes up in a scheduled pass, not continuously, so a playlist that goes private or empty is deactivated the next time we look at it rather than the moment it happens. We don't publish the exact thresholds, because that would only help the people we're screening for.

A low acceptance rate is a playlist-quality matter, not grounds for removing an account. It can get a playlist paused or hidden from the marketplace; it isn't why anyone gets removed.

When we remove a curator, the pitches still waiting for a review on the playlists and the personal queue they run are refunded to the artist automatically, and the artist can pitch that song elsewhere right away. What that doesn't cover: free queue pitches have nothing to return, pitches the removed curator sent as an artist are handled separately, and if they were standing in as a reviewer on somebody else's playlist, that arrangement just ends and those pitches go back to the owner instead of being refunded.

Under our Terms, the removed curator's earned tokens above the cashout minimum are still paid out within 30 days. Payment needs the things any payout needs: Stripe onboarding finished and any tax paperwork we're required to collect. There's no automatic scheduler for this; a person handles the payout, and cashouts from a removed account go through manual review. The exception is tokens earned through the violation itself, which can be forfeited. The full policy is in our Terms, section 14.4 and the Creator Agreement, section 11, and every removal can be appealed within 30 days.

Most curators here are musicians who care about their playlists.

What artists say

• 10,933 curator reviews rated by the artist who got them, 90% thumbs up
• 48 verified campaign reviews of marketers, 98% would recommend theirs

Those ratings are left on the platform and rate the curator or the marketer, not us. Independent reviews of Magic Nothing itself live on Trustpilot, every one of them, not a selection.

How each number is calculated

Every figure is computed from our production database. Nothing on this page is typed by hand. A snapshot is cached for up to 6 hours and rebuilt on the first visit after it expires, so the figures are as old as the timestamp at the top says and no older than the next visit. The trailing-30-day rates sit in their own cache with their own expiry, which is why they carry their own time. The same figures and definitions are available as JSON for anyone who wants to check or cite them; that feed is served with an hour of HTTP caching on top, and every metric in it carries the window it covers and the time it was computed.

All-time totals are totals over the records we still hold. Closing an account deletes its submissions, token transactions and cashout requests along with it, so these are not a permanent ledger of everything that ever happened, and we'd rather say that than imply otherwise.

Songs submitted: 64,526

Every pitch sent through Magic Nothing, to independent curators and to our editorial playlists, whatever happened next. It counts pitches, not unique songs: the same song sent to three playlists is three. Counted from the records we still hold: closing an account removes its history, so this is a total of retained records rather than a permanent lifetime ledger.

Reviewed by a human curator: 58,668

Pitches a curator resolved by accepting, passing, or placing the song on a different playlist of theirs. Read from the pitch as it stands now, so a reviewed pitch that was later refunded as a correction stops counting here. Expired and refunded pitches never count as reviews.

Placed on a playlist: 20,750

Reviewed pitches that ended in an accept, or a placement on another playlist the same curator runs. A placement is the curator telling us they added the track, not something we verify against Spotify.

Artists who have pitched: 4,962

Distinct accounts that have sent at least one pitch. Accounts, not verified people or Spotify artist profiles.

Curators paid for a review: 792

Distinct accounts that have been paid for at least one completed review, counted from the payout record itself rather than from who owns a playlist today. Editorial reviewers who are paid per review are counted the same way as anyone else. Reviews that pay nothing are the ones missing here: free queue pitches, editorial reviews done by salaried reviewers, and accounts whose earnings are suspended.

Playlists on the marketplace right now: 3,538

Playlists listed as of the snapshot time at the top of this page: active, approved, and not removed for artificial activity or a violation of our Terms. Listed is not the same as taking pitches right now, and this is a current count, not a total.

Curators on the marketplace right now: 1,191

Distinct accounts behind those listed playlists, as of the same snapshot. A current count, not a total.

Pitches expired unreviewed: 4,203

Pitches no curator got to inside the review window. Each one expires automatically and its tokens go back to the artist. Counted from the records we still hold: closing an account removes its history, so this is a total of retained records rather than a permanent lifetime ledger.

Tokens returned by expiry: 23,963

Tokens returned to artists automatically because a pitch expired unreviewed. 1 token = $1 USD.

Pitches returned with no curator paid: 5,599

Pitches that ended expired or refunded, with the tokens returned to the artist and no curator payout recorded against them: expiries, plus pitches a curator released, vacation mode, an inactive curator's queue being released, an artist cancelling, a platform correction, or a curator we removed. The no-payment part is read from the payout records themselves, not from the refund label, and any pitch that does carry a payout is counted in the next figure instead.

Tokens returned to artists: 39,374

All tokens returned to artists' balances for the pitches in the figure above, whatever the reason.

Pitches refunded after a curator had already been paid: 0

Pitches that ended expired or refunded while still carrying a curator payout. Our policy is that a reviewed pitch is not refunded, so this is the count of corrections and exceptions. It is published rather than quietly dropped, so the figures above can say "no curator paid" and mean it.

Pitches refunded for an unavailable curator, where that curator has since been removed: 117

Pitches returned to artists with our "curator unavailable" reason, where that curator's account has since been removed: deactivated, rejected from the marketplace, or part of a recorded enforcement wave. Removing a curator does refund the pitches waiting in their queue, and those land here, but we do not record which refund a removal caused, so read this as a ceiling rather than an exact count: a refund a curator made themselves long before they were removed carries the same reason and is counted too. Refunds we cannot tie to an account we removed are not counted at all.

Tokens refunded for an unavailable curator, where that curator has since been removed: 1,336

Tokens returned to artists for the pitches in the figure above, with the same ceiling and the same limits.

People who have earned: 793

Distinct accounts credited with work-based earnings: curator review fees and marketer campaign payouts. Counted from the records we still hold: closing an account removes its history, so this is a total of retained records rather than a permanent lifetime ledger.

Tokens earned: 463,948

Work-based earnings credited to curators and marketers, using the same definition as our internal revenue dashboards. This is gross credited earnings, not money still owed and not money sent. 1 token = $1 USD. Counted from the records we still hold: closing an account removes its history, so this is a total of retained records rather than a permanent lifetime ledger.

Dollars paid out: $396,310

Completed cashouts only, summed from our own cashout records: a request counts once we have recorded its Stripe transfer. Pending, cancelled and rejected requests never count, and neither does the internal request record. It counts requests, not distinct transfers, and it is not a reconciliation against Stripe's ledger or proof that a bank has credited anyone. Counted from the records we still hold: closing an account removes its history, so this is a total of retained records rather than a permanent lifetime ledger.

Completed cashouts: 1,348

Number of cashout requests we have recorded as paid through a Stripe transfer. Counted from the records we still hold: closing an account removes its history, so this is a total of retained records rather than a permanent lifetime ledger.

Median hours from cashout request to recorded as processed: 0.0 hours

For completed cashouts, the median time between the request and the moment we recorded it as processed. That stamp is written when the Stripe transfer is created, and written again if someone here later confirms a transfer by hand, so it measures our processing record and can read long on a request that was confirmed after the fact. It is not a certified transfer time, and Stripe settles to the bank on its own schedule afterwards, usually 2 to 3 business days.

Completed cashouts in the timing figure: 1,348

How many completed cashouts the median above is calculated from.

Completed cashouts left out of the timing figure: 0

Completed cashouts with no usable processing stamp, or one that lands before the request itself. They are excluded from the median and counted here instead.

Playlists removed: 210

Playlists taken off the marketplace for artificial activity or a violation of our Terms, across every removal mechanism we use: flagged playlists, admin takedowns, and enforcement waves. The flags are reversible, so a playlist restored on appeal drops out of this count.

Accounts removed: 69

Accounts we deactivated, or rejected from the marketplace in an enforcement wave, for conduct that violates our Terms. Deactivation is read as it stands now; enforcement-wave membership is a permanent record.

Curator reviews rated by artists: 10,933

Thumbs up or down that artists left on an independent curator's review, one per review at most. Our own editorial and house playlists are excluded.

Share of rated reviews that got a thumbs up: 90%

Thumbs up as a share of all rated independent-curator reviews. It weights reviews, not artists, and is left blank when nothing has been rated.

Marketer campaign reviews: 48

Verified reviews artists left after a promotion campaign, one per campaign and curator pair. They rate the marketer, not Magic Nothing.

Share who would recommend their marketer: 98%

Share of campaign reviews where the artist said they would recommend the marketer. Left blank when there are no reviews.

Placement rate, trailing 30 days: 36%

Share of pitches reviewed by independent curators in the last 30 days that were placed (accepted or placed elsewhere). Our own editorial and house playlists are excluded, and the rate is hidden when fewer than 20 pitches were reviewed in the window.

Average reply time, trailing 30 days: 24 hours

Average hours from pitch to decision for independent-curator reviews in the last 30 days, same exclusions and minimum sample as the placement rate. The window is the date of the decision, not the date of the pitch.

What isn't here, on purpose: anything about an individual curator's or artist's finances, the exact thresholds our screening uses, and anything that could identify a user.

Thinking about using Magic Nothing? Start with the reviews page: what you're actually buying, what a pass means, and where the independent reviews live. Policy questions are in the FAQ and the Terms. Anything else, email info@magicnothing.com.

ty4bh ✌️