How To Pitch Music Or Event Coverage To Journalists
Updated: Oct 8, 2022
Effective pitching helps brands and creatives secure placements on different types of media platforms. It's very important to understand some of the how-to's and how not to's of submitting music to people. This article will list some things to consider before submitting music to a platform or even to a publicist. P.A.L.M. out of Los Angeles has a wonderful video that shows some of the dos and don't dos of requesting music or event coverage.
Before I get to the dos and don't dos, let me give a little bit of background about myself. I'm a writer and editor with seven years of experience writing for indie platforms such as theMSQshop. Not only that, I am a staff member of The Legion Media Group, which does public relations for Dipset, WWE, and clients from EMPIRE Records. Some of the examples mentioned are things I see all the time with creatives. Now, onto the funny part of this article, the don't dos.
DO NOT DO THESE THINGS
Not doing research on the platform or writer you're trying to work with. Don't lie and say that you've read their stuff and list an incorrect example to them.
"Google me". DO NOT SAY THAT TO A JOURNALIST OR A PUBLICIST WHEN YOU'RE ASKING FOR THEIR SERVICES. It can come off very inconsiderate as we get a variety of messages and emails on a day-to-day basis.
Don't type the subject of an email you send to the platform in ALL CAPS. THE MAILING SYSTEM WILL MARK IT AS SPAM AND WILL NOT APPEAR IN THE INBOX.
Dropping links in DMs or sending that link in an email without any context to the link. Publicists/journalists/blog pages will think it's spam and ignore it.
Don't bash a platform because it did not cover your music. Journalists can be very busy and not even see that you specifically released something. Or that they didn't see that one song fit for their platform. To quote a famous publicist, Chanel Pettaway, "be careful of the toes you step on today as it may be connected to the ass you may have to kiss tomorrow."