This is BFlat BSharp BNatural — a weekly newsletter on the unglamorous work of running a music project.
Last week I made the case for direct pitching over SubmitHub — speed, real relationships, no middleman cut. This week is the playbook: the actual templates, where to find curator emails, and one pitch I’m still proud of two years later.
If #17 left you asking “okay, but how do I actually send these?” — this is for you.
Templates aren’t the point
Before I share them, the uncomfortable truth: a copy-pasted template gets ignored. The point isn’t to remove the thinking — it’s to remove the formatting so the thinking can go where it matters. Three templates that have actually landed placements for me:
1. The independent playlist curator
Hi [name],
I’m [name], an indie folk artist out of [city]. I saw your post on [forum/Twitter/etc.] about [specific thing]. I’m finishing a [adjective + genre] track that fits that lane.
It’s called “[song title]” — [one comparison: Damien Jurado, Iron & Wine, José González].
Link: [Spotify/Bandcamp]. Happy to send the master if useful.
[Name]
Four sentences after the greeting. No musical-journey paragraph. They don’t need your bio — they need to know why you’re writing and what you’re offering.
2. The small genre blog
Hi [name],
I don’t write for [blog name] — but I read your review of [specific album/track] and your line about “[specific phrase from their review]” made me want to send you a track that’s in that spirit.
It’s called “[song title]” — out [date]. [One sentence on what it is.]
Stream here: [link]. If it fits a review or a feature, I’d be grateful. No problem either way.
[Name]
The key move: quote them back to themselves. Writers like knowing their words got read.
3. The podcast intro
Hi [host name],
Long-time listener. Your [specific episode] about [topic] made me think of a track I just finished that might work as an intro — instrument-only, [length], [mood]. Happy to do a custom edit if your run-time is different.
Stream: [link]. File: [Dropbox/Google Drive link].
[Name]
Podcasts are underrated. They’re always looking for new intro music, they have an audio editor on hand, and a guest placement lives forever in their back catalog.
How to find the email
The hard part isn’t writing the pitch — it’s finding the address. Three places curators hide it:
1. Newsletter footer. Every curator on Substack or Beehiiv has a reply-to in every issue footer. Subscribe to ten of them; the email shows up for free.
2. Podcast show notes. Small podcasts link a “submit your music” page from almost every episode. You don’t need to listen — open the page.
3. The “also” sections of roundups. When a curator writes a roundup, they link three or four peers in the same lane. That list is warm leads — those peers already passed someone’s taste filter.
Twitter DMs as a fallback. A one-line “do you have a contact email? I have a track that fits” is fine when no address exists. It’s the way in, not the pitch itself.
The one I’m still proud of
Last week I told you about Elena adding “Slow Train Coming Down” to her winter folk playlist. Here’s what I didn’t say: two years earlier, I’d pitched her a different song — and she’d passed.
The first pitch was generic. “Hi Elena, love your playlist, here’s my new track.” She’d written back — politely, in one line — that it didn’t fit. I’d saved that email and remembered her byline.
Two years later, when I saw her forum post about the winter playlist problem, I had something specific to write about. The second pitch landed because the first one taught me what she actually wanted. That’s the thing no template can teach you: a “no” today is research for the next pitch. Every rejection you keep — politely, with the curator’s name attached — is a future template.
If you want to hear what label-direct pitching produces, head to the store and grab a track from DMaeJer Sounds — every listen comes straight to the artist, no aggregator in the chain.
Next week — how to keep a contact list that grows instead of rotting in a spreadsheet.
— D