* Or, more specifically, how to pitch your music to loudwomen.org
Here at Team LOUD WOMEN HQ we receive upwards of 200 emails per day – mostly pitches from bands and their representatives, wanting coverage of their new music on our site. That’s a mighty full inbox, for our petite music blog. The large majority of those pitches don’t hit the mark – often because the music isn’t a fit for loudwomen.org – but also often because they are badly pitched. If the email is missing the information we need in order to assess whether or not the music is something we’re going to love, then I’m afraid that email is likely to get overlooked.
We’re a DIY organisation, and I will always give preferential treatment to artists who are doing it all themselves. So, if you’re a female or non-binary musician, and you have new music coming out soon, I want to tell you how to pitch it to us in a really effective way; a method that will also, by the way, be really effective for pitching to all the other music blogs too, and will maybe mean you don’t need to pay a PR agent.
Step 1.
Stop. Before you send anything to us, take a moment to consider if this is really something LOUD WOMEN is likely to want to cover. Have a look around our site and have a listen to the singles, EPs and albums that we review. Is your music similar is genre? Is it of a comparable quality to the music we’re championing?
If yes, let’s crack on with it.
If not, spare yourself the wasted time and look instead for another outlet that’s a better match for you.
Step 2.
Consider your timing. We want to feature music on our site the day (or very close to the day) it releases. If your music is already out, sorry but it’s too late for us to write about it. For an album or EP release, we need ideally a month’s notice ahead of release. For a single release, a week or two would be great. Sometimes we can rush through a single review in a day if it’s really exciting. But we’re all volunteers, doing this outside of our regular day jobs and families and bands and all the rest of it. Give us enough time to give your music the time it deserves.
Step 3.
Gather your assets. That’s to say, have ready all of the things that we are going to want to see and hear. Here’s how I prefer to see those assets:
- a link to somewhere I can stream the music right now, ahead of release – that could be a private SoundCloud link, or perhaps an unlisted YouTube video
- a Dropbox or Google Drive folder containing release artwork and artist photos. Landscape and portrait photo options are chefs kiss. And don’t forget to include the photographer’s name in the filename of the photos, so they can be properly credited.
Step 4.
Create a press release. This is going to be a separate document to your email pitch, so Googledocs is ideal for this. You could do it as a Word document and attach it to the email, but bear in mind that attachments increase the risk of your email being swallowed by a paranoid spam filter. Please don’t do it as a PDF. Our reviewers will want to be able to copy and paste unusually spelled words and hyperlinks out of the press release, and they can’t do that from a PDF.
If writing isn’t your strength, ask a wordy friend to help.
Your press release should contain the following:
- Key release details – the date of release, name of artist, name of track/EP/album, name of the label if any.
- Links to the music, the video (if there is one), and the assets folder where we can grab those lovely photos from.
- Context of the release – where is the artist from, is this their first release, what kind of genre is it, have they collaborated with another artist or producer, etc. Don’t presume we know anything about the artist or the music at this point.
- The story. Everyone loves a story. Stories have conflict, drama, s/heroes, peril, triumph, or a lesson for us all … good stories have all of these.
‘New band releases a good EP’ is not a story.
‘On a mission to reinvent punk for Gen Alpha, teen band sells their dads’ record collection on Ebay to fund recording of debut EP’ – is a story. - A direct quote from you, the artist – a punchy paragraph or two. This is your chance to let your personality shine through, give us an insight into the meaning behind the music perhaps, or an interesting (no, really interesting) anecdote about something that happened during the studio recording or video shoot … or maybe just your high impact message to the world. This could be the bit that makes all the different in your pitch – make it count.
- A bit of background or biographical info can be useful too. Again though, make sure it’s all interesting, pertinent stuff. We don’t need a life history, or a CV. Just the juiciest facts that will help us love the music, and you, even more.
- More context. Tell us how well the last release was received, are there any gigs or tours coming up, if it’s a single release is there an EP or album planned, that sort of thing.
- Link us up. Hyperlink to all the socials and platforms you want people to find you on. Include tour dates and links to tickets that are on sale.
Step 5.
Now you’re ready to write your pitch email. Here’s the best way to do it:
- Write a clear subject that includes your band name, refers to the date of the release, and doesn’t contain anything that will get your email caught by the spam filter (excessive punctuation, emoji, swear words, all caps … yeah yeah we know, LOUD WOMEN love the all caps, but sometimes you have to work with a system before you smash it, you know?)
- Tell me what you want in the first sentence. You want LOUD WOMEN to feature your forthcoming single as Track of the Day? You want LOUD WOMEN to review your album that’s coming out next month? Say that then.
- In the next sentence, tell me (very briefly) who you are and why LOUD WOMEN is a fit for your music. That could include telling me where in the world you are based, what genre your music is, or what you think it sounds like, and maybe a really short precis of that story you cooked up in step 4.
- Next, paste the link to where I can listen straight away to this music, or watch your video. This should be a one click streaming link – don’t send me off to download mp3s or wavs, I do not have the time or the space on my poor old Macbook.
- Finally, link me up to that fab press release and the folder of assets – because if you’ve hooked me in with your pitch, and I’ve loved what I’ve heard of your music, I will now want access to all the information our team will need to write about you.
Step 6.
Send the email.
Wait for a reply. If you don’t get a reply within a week, send one chaser to float it up to the top of the inbox. If you don’t hear back after that, and we don’t publish a review, it may be that your music wasn’t the thing we were looking for. Or it may be that I’ve shared your pitch with our reviews team, but no one has capacity to write about it at that time. Lots of our team members are musicians too so we know how important it is to get the right coverage for DIY releases, and if it’s music we love we will do everything we can to help you reach the right audience – sometimes though we just run out of hours in the day.
(Why not come join the team yourself and help out!)
Here’s an example of a good pitch:
Hi Cassie
I’m Jane (she/they), the singer of brand new Bristol-based hardcore band KeyNoir. We’re friends with Dog Puppets, who you featured on your site last week, so I’m hopeful you’ll be keen on reviewing our new single, ‘Gimme Coffee or Gimme Death’, which comes out on <date>. We wrote, recorded and mixed it all in a 3 hour 12-cup ristretto coffee bender – the result is our 90 second manifesto.
Here’s a <link to a private SoundCloud>
Here's a <link to a press release>
Here's a <link to an assets folder>
Thanks
Jane, KeyNoir
Here’s an example of an unhelpful pitch:
Hi all
How’s your day? I sure am glad it’s nearly the weekend.
Anyway. My band has some music coming out, let me know if you would be interested in hearing it?
Thanks
Jane
I would never reply to an email like this and ask to be sent the music … I have no way of knowing whether it’s going to be at all suitable for our site, and if I’ve asked to be sent it then it would just be awkward – and I will do pretty much anything to avoid awkwardness. Don’t make things weird, just send everything upfront.
Here’s an example of a just plain wrong pitch:
Hey ladies I’m Dave, the cis frontman of all-cis-man band The Chads. We love our mums, and our bassist has got a sister, so please could you review our new single ‘Pick Me, Not the Bear’. It’s attached to this email here as a massive unsolicited wav file, along with a 12 page pdf detailing all the pedals that I've got on my sick board. If I don’t hear back from you soon I’ll just slide on into your DMs on your private social media profile, maybe on like a weekend evening when you’re trying to chill and that. Cheers, Dave xxx
Don’t be like Dave.