Find the right people
Look at who is already writing about music like yours, follow their bylines, and note where they invite pitches. A relevant writer beats a big outlet that never covers your genre. Our live database of 1,167 reviewers lists blogs, magazines, podcasts, and curators covering Indian indie, with contacts, 381 free to pitch directly.
Write the pitch
- Open with the hook, not your name. The news angle or the one-line story, first sentence. Editors skim, the first line decides if they read the second.
- Say who you are in one clause. Where you're from, your sound, nothing more, this isn't the bio.
- Give one clear reason it's worth their readers' time. Not five reasons, one, the sharpest one.
- Include a streamable link that opens straight to the song, no extra clicks.
- Attach your EPK for anything beyond the immediate pitch.
The whole thing should read in under a minute. If it doesn't, cut, don't add.
Time it right
Give writers lead time before release, and do not mass-blast, a generic email to fifty people gets ignored where a specific one to five gets read. Personal and relevant wins.
Follow up once
One short, polite follow-up after several days, adding any new reason to care, is enough. If there is no reply, move on, relationships are long and pushiness costs you the next release too.
Beyond blogs
Podcasts, campus and online radio, and independent playlist curators are often more open than mainstream press, and all take the same approach. See playlist pitching for the streaming side.
PR is not marketing
PR earns coverage through other people; marketing is what you own and control. You need both. The takeaway for pitching: be specific, be relevant, be brief, and respect a no.
The takeaway
Target the right writers, pitch short and specific with your EPK, time it, and follow up once. The PR chapter of the Playbook goes deeper, and the programme handles pitching for artists through its PR network.