A gate trades a free track for a fan you can reach again. Whether that trade holds up comes down to where the file lives, what the unlock depends on, and what happens to the email afterwards.
Six capabilities the job demands, whichever tool you use. Take this list to any vendor you are evaluating, including us.
| What the job needs | Why it matters to you | How growyour.music does it |
|---|---|---|
| Somewhere the actual file lives | If the download points at a link you host somewhere else, the gate breaks the day that link moves, expires, or gets taken down. | Your file is uploaded to our storage and served from a signed URL. A gate cannot go live without a hosted file, so there is no broken-link state to discover later. |
| An unlock that does not depend on someone else's API | A step that verifies a repost or a follow through a third-party API stops working the moment that platform changes its policy — and you find out from a fan, not a status page. | Gates open on our own database state. The unlock is a decision we make, so a third party changing their terms cannot silently turn your gate into an honour system. |
| The email is yours, in a usable form | An address trapped in a dashboard you have to export by hand is a chore you will not do. It has to arrive somewhere you already send from. | Every gate email syncs straight into Promo Box, so the list you build is a list you can send a campaign to without moving a CSV between tools. |
| A friction level you control | Too many steps and the fan leaves; too few and you get a download with nothing to show for it. The right number depends on the track. | Choose the steps per gate — email only, or add a follow — so a heavily promoted edit can ask for less than an exclusive unreleased dub. |
| Consent handled properly | An email collected without clear consent is a legal problem waiting to happen and a spam complaint waiting to fire. | Consent is captured at the gate and carried with the contact, and every send from Promo Box carries a one-click unsubscribe. |
| Numbers per gate, not one lump total | Knowing which track converts visitors into emails tells you what to give away next. | Views, completions and conversion rate per gate — so you can see which free track is actually doing the recruiting. |
If the download points at a link you host somewhere else, the gate breaks the day that link moves, expires, or gets taken down.
How growyour.music does it
Your file is uploaded to our storage and served from a signed URL. A gate cannot go live without a hosted file, so there is no broken-link state to discover later.
A step that verifies a repost or a follow through a third-party API stops working the moment that platform changes its policy — and you find out from a fan, not a status page.
How growyour.music does it
Gates open on our own database state. The unlock is a decision we make, so a third party changing their terms cannot silently turn your gate into an honour system.
An address trapped in a dashboard you have to export by hand is a chore you will not do. It has to arrive somewhere you already send from.
How growyour.music does it
Every gate email syncs straight into Promo Box, so the list you build is a list you can send a campaign to without moving a CSV between tools.
Too many steps and the fan leaves; too few and you get a download with nothing to show for it. The right number depends on the track.
How growyour.music does it
Choose the steps per gate — email only, or add a follow — so a heavily promoted edit can ask for less than an exclusive unreleased dub.
An email collected without clear consent is a legal problem waiting to happen and a spam complaint waiting to fire.
How growyour.music does it
Consent is captured at the gate and carried with the contact, and every send from Promo Box carries a one-click unsubscribe.
Knowing which track converts visitors into emails tells you what to give away next.
How growyour.music does it
Views, completions and conversion rate per gate — so you can see which free track is actually doing the recruiting.
A download gate looks like a small piece of software — a form and a file. In practice it is a chain of dependencies, and each link is somebody else's decision. Where does the file live? What proves the fan completed the step? Who owns the address they typed in?
The category learned this the hard way in 2026. On 11 June, SoundCloud paused Hypeddit's API connection; gate steps that had verified a live repost, like or follow before a download opened became voluntary rather than enforced, and artists were pointed toward email capture and Spotify steps instead. Nobody did anything wrong. A platform changed a policy, and thousands of gates changed behaviour that afternoon.
The takeaway is not that one tool failed. It is that a gate should be built around the parts you keep. On growyour.music the file sits in our storage behind a signed URL and the unlock is decided by our own database state — so the thing that opens your gate is not a call to a service that can revoke it.
The free track is what you spend. The email is what you earn. It is worth being blunt about that, because it is the reason a gate beats simply posting the file: an address in your list is a fan you can reach on your next release without renting reach from an algorithm.
Which means the important question about any gate tool is what happens after capture. A tool that hands you a CSV export has given you a chore — and chores do not get done during release week. On growyour.music the address flows straight into Promo Box, with the consent it was collected under attached, so the list you built is already the list you send from.
Every step you add costs completions and buys commitment. There is no universally correct number — it depends on what you are giving away and how well the fan already knows you.
A practical starting point: email only for anything you are actively promoting, because you want volume at the top of the funnel. Add a follow when the file is genuinely exclusive — an unreleased dub, a DJ tool, stems — because the fan is getting something they cannot get elsewhere and will accept a bigger ask. Then read the per-gate conversion rate and adjust, rather than picking a rule and defending it.
Straight talk about where a gate on growyour.music is the wrong tool for you:
A download gate is a page that gives a fan a free track in exchange for a small action — usually an email address, sometimes a follow or a repost. The track is the payment. What you get back is a way to reach that person again without paying an algorithm for the privilege.
The email-for-a-track trade still works. What has weakened is the social-action step: on 11 June 2026 SoundCloud paused Hypeddit's API connection, and gate steps that verified a live repost, like or follow became voluntary rather than enforced. The lesson generalises — any gate step that depends on another platform's API is exposed to that platform's policy changes, so build the gate around the thing you actually keep.
Something that only exists behind the gate. An unreleased edit, a DJ tool, an extended mix, a stem pack. Giving away a track that is already free on your SoundCloud teaches fans that the gate is a toll booth rather than a trade, and the conversion rate shows it.
Every extra step costs completions. Email only converts best; adding a follow costs some fans but earns a longer-lived connection. A good rule: ask for one thing when the track is your main promotion, and ask for more when the track is genuinely exclusive and the fan already knows you.
Yes. Export your existing contacts as a CSV and import them into growyour.music — the fans you already earned stay yours. New gate emails then land in the same Promo Box list automatically, so you are not maintaining two lists.
You need somewhere to send from, and that is the half of the loop most gate tools leave out. On growyour.music, capture and campaign are the same account: Promo Box holds the contacts a gate collected and sends them your next release. If you already run a mailing list you love, export and keep using it — just make sure the export is easy before you commit.
How download gates grow an email list
The trade, the conversion numbers, and what to give away.
Pre-save vs download gate
Which one to run, and when running both is the right answer.
Artist mailing list tools
What to do with the addresses once the gate has collected them.
Fan outreach tools compared
The other half of the loop: sending to the list a gate builds.
Upload the file, pick the steps, publish the gate. Every email you capture lands in Promo Box ready to send your next release to.
See how download gates work