HOW TO PITCH YOUR SONGS WISELY OR DON’T BE THAT GUY

​One of the biggest mistakes I see rising songwriters make is pitching songs improperly. This can ruin everything. When you are pitching songs, there are some little unwritten rules about it that can help you a lot in getting the attention of the publisher, producer or the artist you are pitching to. And not following those rules will tell them you are unprofessional, and you will be in their blacklist – the last place you’d want to be. I want to give you some guidelines to help you pitch songs wisely and to not be that guy/girl that burns bridges by pitching the wrong way. Here are some things to consider when pitching.

Follow instructions carefully. If they said, “Don’t pitch any beach songs”, you are better off not pitching one, even if you think yours is great. Pay close attention to what they have already and don’t pitch that. If you don’t care about what they need, why do you think they need to care about what you are pitching? These people are some of the busiest people in the industry. 

You cannot expect them to open your song and listen to it while it is irrelevant to what are searching for something else. This action will have no result other than you, shouting to them that you are unprofessional and basically asking them to put you in the blacklist and never to open your emails again.

Don’t pitch the most obvious songs. For instance, if the artists are brothers, don’t pitch them songs about being brothers. Probably half of the people that write with them try to write a song about them being brothers. They have that covered, trust me. You need to think outside the box and pitch them something everyone else is not pitching them. This will make you unique and make your song to stand out from the crowd. And this is assuming your song is already a great song.
 
Don’t ask to send “Just one more” if you were told you could send one. If they want to hear more, they will ask you. That’s better than you to ask them. Always remember the sniper and machine gun example. Don’t throw shots like a machine gun and hoping one of them will hit the target. Instead, take your time, understand the situation, do your homework, prepare yourself and then boom, hit the target with one shot.
 
Don’t check in. If you don’t hear back, that means “no”. That already is common sense as well as the most basic rule in this industry. Don’t e-mail and say, “Hey what did you think about my song?” They will contact you with any good news. I promise. The people you are pitching to usually have more songs than they can possibly listen to. They don’t have time to respond to every single person and explain for them that what happened to their songs and why they are being rejected. If the song is accepted and it is going to move forward, for sure they will contact you and arrange for the next step and they might ask for more songs from you. Don’t push them because if so, next time when they see your name, they will know the trouble is coming and they will just simply ignore your next emails. That’s nothing personal, it’s just reality.
 
Don’t pitch anything if you don’t have something you think fits perfectly. It’s better not to waste their time – or matter of fact yours. So, don’t send anything at all if you don’t have anything that you believe is a perfect fit. Just have patience and wait until you have something, you’d bet the farm on. Then, send that one song. You’ll get the door closed in your face if you continue to send things that don’t work for the artist. Treat each pitching relationship as precious and worth getting “just right” before you send something off. Again, the sniper and machine gun example.
 
Finally, don’t pitch a weak song. The only weak songs that get cut are ones the artist writes themselves or that someone in the camp has a financial interest in. Outside writers only get GREAT songs cut. It’s always better to pitch nothing than to pitch the wrong thing, so do your homework. Find out what the artist needs and try to target that need very creatively and specifically. Best of luck!

Author

Hangi Tavakoli is our in-house established and professional music producer with more than 18 years of experience in songwriting, music production, mix and mastering. He has produced more than 3,000 and written more than 4,800 published songs to-date, including some major hits in international scale.