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TAP vs Meltwater
Meltwater is a powerful enterprise media intelligence platform. TAP is purpose-built for music PR agencies who need campaign execution, not corporate monitoring.
Enterprise monitoring vs music PR execution
Meltwater is built for corporate communications teams at Fortune 500 companies. It monitors media across broadcast, online, print, and social channels, with social listening, sentiment analysis, and analytics dashboards. It is built for scale, and the depth shows.
But for a 2-person music PR agency running release campaigns, it is like buying a combine harvester to mow your garden. You are paying GBP 12,000+ per year for monitoring tools you will barely use, while still needing spreadsheets and Gmail to manage the actual campaign workflow.
TAP starts where music PR starts: finding the right contacts, enriching them with genre data and submission preferences, drafting personalised pitches, tracking replies and follow-ups, and reporting outcomes to clients. All for less than the cost of one month of Meltwater.
Feature comparison
| Feature | TAP | Meltwater |
|---|---|---|
| Contact enrichment (14 data points) | ✓ | × |
| AI pitch drafting | ✓ | × |
| Campaign managementPR workflow, not music-specific | ✓ | |
| Reply attribution & outcome tracking | ✓ | |
| Relationship warmth scoring | ✓ | × |
| Music industry-specific intelligence | ✓ | × |
| Media monitoring (online, broadcast, social) | × | ✓ |
| Social listening & sentiment analysis | × | ✓ |
| Journalist databaseTAP is music-focused; Meltwater is broad | ✓ | ✓ |
| Branded PDF reports | ✓ | ✓ |
| Follow-up queue with timing intelligence | ✓ | × |
| Pricing (starting)GBP 29/mo vs GBP 5,600+/yr | ✓ | ✓ |
Full campaign management from GBP 29/month
Contact intelligence, pitch drafting, outcome tracking, and branded reporting, all in one tool built for music PR.
Start freeSwitch cost calculator
Estimate the 12-month difference between Meltwater and TAP. Hidden, sales-led.
Your current spend
£12,000
Meltwater, per year
On TAP
£1,788
TAP Agency (£149/mo), per year
12-month delta
+£10,212 saved
Switching to TAP
Switch saves £10,212/yr without losing music PR depth.
Frequently asked questions
Is TAP a replacement for Meltwater?
They solve different problems at different scales. Meltwater is an enterprise media intelligence platform: media monitoring across broadcast, online, and social, with sentiment analysis and global coverage. TAP is a campaign execution tool built specifically for music PR agencies. If you need real-time monitoring of thousands of media sources, Meltwater does that. If you need to find the right radio plugger, draft a personalised pitch, and track who replied, TAP does that for 60-300x less.
How does pricing compare?
Meltwater typically costs between GBP 12,000 and GBP 24,000 per year, with a starting price around GBP 5,600 per year on annual contracts. TAP Pro is GBP 29 per month and Agency is GBP 99 per month. For a small music PR agency, you would be paying enterprise prices for features designed for Fortune 500 comms teams.
Does Meltwater have music-specific features?
No. Meltwater is industry-agnostic. It monitors media across all sectors but has no music-specific enrichment, no BBC station detection, no radio vs press vs playlist categorisation, and no genre-aware contact intelligence. TAP is built from the ground up for music PR workflows.
When would Meltwater actually make sense over TAP?
If you are a corporate comms team managing brand reputation across dozens of markets and need real-time broadcast monitoring, social listening, and sentiment analysis at scale, Meltwater is the right tool. But if you are a 1-5 person music PR agency running release campaigns, it is absurdly expensive and complex for what you need. TAP covers the music PR workflow at a fraction of the cost.