Every pitch email goes to someone drowning in pitch emails. That single fact decides everything about how to write one: short wins, facts beat adjectives, and the reader should know within five seconds what the song is, why it fits their thing specifically, and where to click to hear it.
Below are three templates, one each for playlist curators, music supervisors and A&R, plus the rules for subject lines, attachments and follow-ups. Replace everything in green brackets. Then delete more than feels comfortable. It reads better on their side than it feels on yours.
Hi [name if you have it],
I write [genre] as [artist name]. "[Song title]" is a [tempo] BPM [mood descriptor] track in the lane of [one accurate artist comparison], and it sits naturally next to [a song currently on their playlist].
Listen here: [streaming link]
If it is not a fit, no reply needed, and thanks for listening either way.
[Name]
The detail that works: naming a song already on their playlist. It proves you listened to the playlist rather than blasting a list, and it does your fit argument for you.
Hi [name],
For [brief reference], [N, max 3] options, all one-stop through me, instrumentals and stems available:
1. "[Title]": [BPM], [key], [one line on why it answers the brief, in the brief's own vocabulary]
2. "[Title]": [same shape]
Stream and download: [link]
Happy to send alternate mixes or edits on any of these.
[Name, phone]
Supervisors search their inbox by the brief code, so put it in the subject verbatim. "One-stop" (you control or can clear both master and publishing) belongs in the subject or first line: for many briefs it is a hard filter, and stating it up front saves them the clarifying email they will otherwise not bother to send. Only claim it if it is true. The full workflow around this email, from reading the brief to building the folder, is covered in the sync licensing pitch guide.
Hi [name],
[One line of context: who you are or who sent you, if anyone.] For the [artist] project, [N, max 3] songs:
1. "[Title]": [key and BPM], [one line on why it suits this artist's voice and this record]
2. "[Title]": [same shape]
Listen: [link]. All open for cuts; splits and demos are straightforward on my side.
[Name]
The line about why each song suits this artist is the whole email. Key and tempo matter more here than anywhere else, because the song has to survive contact with a specific voice. More on how these requests actually arrive in pitching songs to artists and A&R.
Hi [name], following up in case this landed at a busy moment. Link is above; no reply needed if it is not a fit.
[Name]
Send it about a week after the original, in the same thread. After that, silence is your answer. Log it, move on, and pitch that person again only when you have something new that fits better than the last thing did.
Notice what all three templates assume: you already know which songs fit and can say why in one line each. That is the actual work, and past a hundred songs it is not a memory task anymore. The templates are five minutes; choosing correctly from nine hundred songs is the part that needs a system.
Paste the brief, the playlist description, or the A&R request into Pitchkit and it ranks your entire catalog against it: tempo, key, energy, mood, genre, lyrics if you turn on transcription, and artist references translated into real musical characteristics. The one-line "why it fits" in the templates above is essentially what Pitchkit's match reasoning hands you.
Your picks get copied into a clean folder, named Artist - Title, ready to upload wherever the pitch is going. The email stays yours to write; it will just be about the right songs.
Under 150 words, and under 100 is better. The people you are pitching process dozens to hundreds of submissions; the email that states what the song is, why it fits their specific playlist, show or roster, and where to hear it, then stops, is the one that gets played.
Every sentence that is not one of those three things is working against you. Credits earn one line if they are genuinely relevant. Your biography earns zero.
Default to a streaming link that plays in one click, with a download available from the same page. Unsolicited attachments trip spam filters, bloat inboxes, and some recipients will not open them at all. A private streaming page, a Disco link, or an unlisted SoundCloud link all work.
The exception is when someone asks for files or a brief specifies delivery format: then send exactly what was asked for, named as Artist - Title, with a downloadable WAV or high-bitrate MP3 and, for sync, an instrumental version alongside.
One for a playlist curator, one to three for a supervisor answering a brief, and three at most for A&R. In every case each song gets one line on why it is there.
More songs do not raise your odds; they transfer the work of filtering onto the recipient, who will not do it. The hard part is choosing which one to three out of everything you have actually fit, which is a catalog retrieval problem, and it is the step worth having a system for.
Once, about a week later, in the same thread, in two sentences. Something like: following up in case this landed at a bad time, the link is above, no reply needed if it is not a fit. If a brief had a deadline, do not follow up after it has passed.
After one follow-up, stop. Silence is an answer, and the relationship survives silence far better than it survives a third email. Log it and pitch them again when you have something new that fits better.
Facts, compressed: who or what, genre or mood, and the context. For a brief response, use the brief's own reference code or title, since that is what the supervisor is searching their inbox for. For a curator, name the playlist and the genre. For A&R, the artist lane and tempo.
Examples: "For [brief code]: 2 tracks, dark synthwave, cleared" or "For your Late Night R&B playlist: smooth 92 BPM cut". What fails: "Check out my new single", which describes every email they received that day.
No, and the email is rarely the problem. Pitchkit handles the step before the email: you paste the brief, playlist description or A&R request, and it ranks your entire catalog against it by tempo, key, energy, mood, genre and lyrics, then copies your picks into a clean, correctly named folder ready to send or upload.
The templates on this page work because they are short, and they can only be short when you already know which songs fit and why. That reasoning is what Pitchkit gives you. The free version indexes your first 100 songs; $49 once removes the cap.
The free version is the whole Mac app with the catalog capped at 100 songs: brief matching, artist references, lyric transcription and pitch folders all included. No account, no card, no expiry. $49 once removes the cap.
Download free: 100 songs →