Music Submission Email Templates That Actually Work and Get Noticed

Tips on how to nail your music pitch email

If you’re writing to an A&R manager, an editor of a popular music journal or a playlist curator, you’re likely to land in an insanely cluttered inbox with thousands of emails like yours. Many of these emails are written almost identically — and, unfortunately, with the same mistakes.

Our tips won’t 100% guarantee you a record deal. However, even using one of them will help you stand out in the sea of emails, grab the attention of your prospect, and get you a reply — even if it’s a polite rejection.

Always personalize your submission

No one likes bulk emails that look like bulk emails. Here’s an example:

This email could’ve been sent to any prospect. It’s impersonal, it’s vague, and it contains no information about your band and your music. An A&R specialist won’t even open an email like this — and if they do, they will think of it as impolite and lazy. 

Can you do better? Yes — here’s how to start your music pitch email the right way:

This example shows that personalization is more than adding your prospects’ names or saying hi to the team. It’s also about personalizing your offer. Before writing each email, ask yourself: why do you want to get a contract with this particular label or get a review from this particular magazine? What do you have to offer to each prospect?

Think of it as looking for a job. You send slightly different resumes and cover letters to each employer, highlighting different hard and soft skills. Why would it be different for your prospects?

Be clear and concise

As we said earlier, A&R managers are busy people and, if the label of your choice is popular, they have to skim through hundreds of emails per day. If you write a short novel of a pitch, your prospects won’t make it to the end — especially if you turn your emails into autofiction pieces:

Marketing in the music industry is personality-fueled and your online presence can be based on a myth you created or your actual life story. However, a music pitch email is not the place for such experiments. Your prospects don’t need this much information and an email like that is a snooze. Here’s how to make it better:

You don’t need to tell the entire life story in a music pitch email — giving a general overview of what your band sounds like is enough.

Don’t forget to follow up

Writing a follow-up email after no response can feel awkward and stressful — especially if you’re sending cold emails. However, not following up is a missed opportunity. 

According to Woodpecker, a follow-up email increases your response rate by up to 40%. However, don’t jump to drafting another email too fast — your prospect might still be thinking of how to respond. The perfect time period between each of the follow-ups is 2–3 days. 

How to write a follow-up email without sounding intrusive? Use these tips:

• Be respectful. Refrain from passive-aggressive and manipulative subject lines or introductions like “I know you were busy but so was I” or “Why did you ignore my pitch for playlists?”.
• Don’t talk too much about yourself. Your prospects already have enough information about you.
• Don’t repeat the same information. Instead, give a different point of view on your project. For example, if your first email used the “I make music similar to your label’s residents” selling point, use something like “We can bring a new audience to your label” in your follow-up.
• Ask for less. Asking for too much might be one of the reasons you got ghosted. For example, if you asked for signing a contract with you in the first email, ask to feature in one of their Spotify playlists instead in your follow-up.

Even if it’s your tone of voice on social media, it’s not how you talk to prospects. Here’s how to write an email that won’t damage your reputation:

• Stick to the semi-formal language. By semi-formal we mean not going full bureaucratic — in this case, your email will be hard to read. Write in shorter and simpler sentences but choose neutral synonyms for each word and stay away from colloquialisms, let alone cursing.
• Don’t use emojis. You can add an emoji to a subject line to visually stand out in your prospects’ cluttered inboxes. But we don’t recommend using them in your email copy.
• Proofread before sending. A pitch email full of typos and grammar mistakes doesn’t make a good impression — prospects won’t take you seriously. Use apps for self-editing like Hemingway and Grammarly, especially if English is your second language.

Make a valuable offer

Many artists use email marketing to boost their revenue and build a loyal fan community — we’ve covered some of the newsletters from musicians in our blog. Most of the time, these emails follow the basic marketing principles. But when it comes to pitch emails, many people forget that music is business and both sides should benefit from the collaboration.

The #1 pitch email mistake is describing how cool you are and how much you need that contract. Instead, think of your email from the readers’ perspective. What is your unique value? How can prospects benefit from collaborating with you? Here are some examples of selling points for musicians:

• Bringing a new demographic to the label’s fanbase or the journal’s readership.
• Having a large social media following so you can promote your prospects’ business.
• Putting on unique live shows that grab a lot of attention — if you’re talking to a booking agent.
• Fitting in one of the playlists genre- and sound-wise — if you’re talking to a streaming service editor.

Pay attention to the subject line

A subject line is the first thing your prospects see in their inboxes — it can make or break the first impression of your email. That’s why you should pay extra attention to it while writing a music pitch email. Your prospects’ inboxes are filled to the brim, and a poorly written subject line can leave your email unread. Here are some tips on how to ace your music pitch email subject line:

• Be concise. A subject line like “The greatest band of all time [bandname] returns with a fresh hit single [trackname]” is an awful choice. It’s too long and the only possible reaction to it is “And? What does it have to do with me?”. A better solution is giving a brief explanation why you’re reaching out — for example, “Pitch: new [genre] song from [artist] or “A new [genre] artist looking for a playlist feature”.
• Personalize. Don’t send pitch emails with the same subject line to each of your prospects — tweak them a little to cater to the needs of each of them.
• Use emojis. One emoji at the beginning of your subject line is enough to instantly grab the attention of your prospect. Stick to just one to remain professional.

Ready-to-use music submission email templates

You can write a music pitch email from scratch using our tips. But if you’re looking for a foolproof recipe or a starting point, here are some ready-to-use music pitch email templates — save them to boost your career!

Keep in mind that we’re focusing on emails for label executives here. If you want advice on how to communicate with journalists, check out our article with press release email templates.

“I’m a longtime fan” email template

Record label teams don’t like ignorant and entitled emails with no justification for why you want to get to this particular label or why they should sign you. You can make your email more human and more likely to get responses by saying that you’re a longtime fan of the label of your choice. Use this template and customize it to your liking.

“An interesting story” email template

Don’t treat this template as an opportunity to write a short novel about your struggles as an aspiring artist! However, marketing in the music industry is about storytelling and bright personalities. Including an interesting story or a myth you created about your band adds a human touch to your email. This one is hard to reduce to a template but the baseline structure looks like this:

“A unique sound” email template

We’ve seen different versions of this template online a lot but most of them lack substance. Here’s our improved take on this template — feel free to customize it however you want.

“An upcoming show” email template

If your prospects know you sound great live and many people attend your performances, it will give you a massive advantage over other artists reaching out via email. That’s why inviting label executives to an upcoming show is a great way to pitch your music. Here’s a template:

“We were featured” email template

If your music was featured on a popular blog or in a playlist, it shows label executives that you have an audience and you’ll bring new people and more revenue. Features prove your success and convince record labels that you’re a great investment. Use this template as a starting point.

Follow-up email template

As we mentioned earlier, sending a follow-up drastically increases the chances of getting a response. Following up may feel awkward though — that’s why we’re giving you a template to save the day.

Final thoughts

Pursuing a career in music is a brave choice. We hope that our music pitch email templates will help you overcome the anxiety of talking to your prospects and achieve better results. And if you want to write from scratch, use our tips to ace your emails:

• Always personalize your submissions — tweak your email for each prospect because no one likes mass-written emails.
• Be clear and concise — respect your prospects’ time.
• Don’t forget to follow up — increase your chances of getting an answer.
• Be professional — keep the semi-formal tone and proofread your emails.
• Make a valuable offer — think of your pitch from the readers’ perspective.
• Pay attention to subject lines — keep them short and on point.

And if you want to use email marketing to engage with your fans and boost merch sales, check out our email marketing checklist — and give your career a boost with Selzy! Our email marketing service specifically targets small businesses and fits in the needs of aspiring musicians on a budget. Start for free and say hi to your fans in less than 15 minutes.