Hi,

This week’s newsletter is a tactical one, focusing on the art of pitching covering 2 angles:

1) How brands, agencies, or companies can more effectively pitch artist teams

2) How artists can pitch their music to platforms, influencers, and more

Every week I observe pitches on both sides and think it’s an area of the industry that generally speaking, can use a lot of improvement.

Let’s dive in ⬇️

While I’m not a cold email expert, I do receive a significant amount of inbound emails pitching agency services, tools, platforms, and more and have done my fair share of outbound pitching for artists (and observed the pitching of others).

Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve received a handful of inbound emails and messages from people looking to pitch their services - influencer marketing, TikTok campaigns, agency work, etc. While reading these emails, I noticed that a lot of them had something in common:

They lacked a lot of context.

I had to respond and ask for more information just to fully understand what they were pitching and make a decision. I thought it’d be worth dedicating a newsletter to this for those who might find it helpful.

1) Companies pitching artists and their teams

Now…I’ll preface this section by saying that I know there’s a formula and strategy to cold email outreach - sometimes it can be helpful to keep things vague and extremely short to try and create a “yes ladder” - basically starting with small easy to agree to asks that build investment and momentum towards a larger ask.

That said, the below recommendations are things I’d personally like to see more of and think others may as well. People are busy. Like super busy.

When pitching artists and their teams, it can be helpful to take these things into account:

a) Time Framing

Keeping your initial email somewhat short is sort of a given (or at the very least not making it overwhelming) but another thing that can be helpful is implementing time framing - essentially setting the frame for how little time it will take to read.

For example:

“I know you’re super busy so this email will only take 30 seconds to read”.

From the jump, it sets the precedent that the ask to read the email is low lift because of how short it is.

b) Familiarity bias

It can be also be helpful early in an email to establish familiarity with the person you’re sending to by listing similiar artists, brands, or companies that you’ve worked with.

Whenever I personally receive inbound cold emails from agencies pitching their work, I always find it more helpful when they list artists they’ve worked with that are similiar to the ones I work with - not random artists of totally different genres.

I want to know the work you’ve done in the space that’s most relevant to me.

For example: “Over the last 6 months we’ve worked with ABC, DEF, and XYZ helping them run TikTok campaigns.”

c) Authority + legitimacy

Why should people care? Establishing authority can be as simple as showing impact or the results you’ve done. Remember, you’re trying get people that are really busy to become invested - you need to convince them as fast as you can.

For example: “Our TikTok campaign lead to a 50% increase in streaming growth and helped the sound go from 10 creates to 10,000”. (those are random metrics but you can see the point..it very clearly defines actionable results”.)

d) Links

This one is going to sound obvious but you’d be surprised how many people send cold emails without including links or any context to what they’re referencing. It forces the recipient to take an extra step by having to go and manually look up whatever you’re talking about.

e) Next steps

It can be helpful to close out emails by listing what possible next steps would be or ways to work together as opposed to keeping it vague.

For example,

“Here’s a few potential ways we can work together:

• Boosting TikTok posts

• Running sound promotions on specific songs

• Helping connect you with influencers for original content collaborations”

Here’s a screenshot of one of my favorite cold emails I’ve ever received:

Reasons why I like it:

• Time framing in the beginning - “this will only take 30 seconds to read”

• Authority early on - “we’ve worked with companies like Gatorade, NFL, etc”

• Links - Forbes hyperlink and you can’t see it, but a link to her TedTalk in her email signature

It doesn’t necessarily have familiarity (maybe it could’ve listed artists she’s worked with as part of those campaigns) but it gets to the point very quickly. These recommendations above can also be implemented by DSPs reaching out to artists for opportunities.

Since that first section is only relevant to a handful of people, let’s explore how artists can more effectively pitch (assuming they’re pitching streaming platforms for placement).

2) Artists pitching DSP editors

While those same rules apply, it’s also important to include a few additional things. Most of the below are actually suggestions from Brian Zisook, Co-Founder of Audiomack, who shared gems on how artists can more effectively pitch his team for support.

a) Which specific playlists

It's important to identify specific playlists and WHY you think your music makes sense. Do other songs on the playlist have a similiar sound to your song? Are there similiar artists on the same playlist?

It's important to establish why and also show those editors you took the time to do your research and due diligence.

b) Metadata

Providing the below can help can make it easier for that editor to pull the song's information in their platform backend.

• UPC

• ISRC

• Song title

• Distributor

• Artist name

• Link to your social media

Reminder - depending on their streaming service, their backend could have hundreds of thousands of songs! You want to make it as easy as possible for them to find your song and support it. Listing the song's genre can also be helpful here as well as the release date.

3) Press photo

Providing a recent press photo of yourself helps make it easy for that editor if they decide to support you - let's say they want to give you a playlist cover...providing them a photo from the jump saves the step of them asking.

4) Context

What is the song about? Why is it important? What context does it hold in relation to your overall release strategy and timeline?

5) Timeline

Reiterating your release timeline can always be helpful for an editor to see what you're working and building toward.

Hopefully this was helpful.

Thanks for reading, until next time.

_{The Vault}

1) The Artist Marketing Playbook - I teamed up with my good friend and fellow music marketing expert Drew De Leon to present The Artist Marketing Playbook. An in-depth look at what an artist can do to set themselves up for success in 2025. More info HERE.