*Disclaimer: there’s no such thing as a pitch that guarantees placement in a playlist. Your music can be amazing and your pitch can tick every single box for every platform you pitch to, but it’ll still be battling against thousands of other tracks submitted on the same day as yours. And remember: no-one can guarantee you a feature in an editorial playlist, no matter how persuasive they sound. Paying for playlist features is against terms of service on most platforms and is likely to do more harm than good.

Editorial playlists are playlists that are created and curated by editors at each of the streaming platforms. They tend to have a high number of listeners, a high number of followers and are a trusted source of new music for audiences worldwide - which is why getting your track featured in one of these playlists can be game-changing for your music career.

So, how do you get featured?

It all starts with a pitch.

Each streaming platform will have different requirements for your pitch (which we’ll go into below), but the most important thing to remember is that editors receive thousands of pitches every single day - so yours needs to stand out from the crowd to be considered. Spotify, for example, says that around 20% of the pitches they receive are actually selected to feature in an editorial playlist - and it’s your pitch (and your music, of course) that determines whether you’re in that 20% or not.

Thankfully, as an Identity Music artist, we’re here to help with your pitching efforts. Whether you’re entirely new to pitching or you’ve been in the game for years, our team will put together pitches for your tracks that will increase your chances of being featured in the best playlists for your releases.

The deadlines for pre-release pitching differ for each platform as follows:

Amazon: 6 weeks (recommended), 4 weeks (absolute)

Apple Music: 6 weeks (recommended), 4 weeks (absolute)

Deezer: 6 weeks (recommended), 2 weeks (absolute)

Spotify: 4 weeks (recommended), 2 weeks (absolute)

To allow the Identity Music team plenty of time to refine and polish your pitch before the absolute deadlines, submitting your pitch as early as possible is always recommended!

Editorial playlists have one goal: to be listened to. Which means that the main focus for editors, no matter the platform or the playlist in question, is to curate music that listeners will enjoy listening to. They don’t necessarily care about how many followers you have, whether this is your first or hundredth pitch or what genre your music is - they care about getting to know your track, its inspiration and which playlists it would be a positive addition to.

Each platform has their own requirements and processes for editorial playlist pitches, but most start by asking for some basic information:

It’s what you provide outside of the basic information, though, that makes or breaks your pitch.

Each platform allows you to write a custom pitch for your track, where you have free reign over what you write to present your track to the playlist editors. While there may be different character limits for different platforms, those free-text sections are your one chance to express to the playlist editors exactly why your track is a great fit for their playlists.

Character limits are as follows:

The editors will already have the basic details of your track, including genre and mood, so will have a good idea of the kinds of playlists it might fit well with. So this section shouldn’t be a mini bio of your song, but a more descriptive narrative about it.

Editors like to see this section include things like:

Generally, the more information you can include here, the better. If an editor likes your track, they’ll be using the details you give in this pitch section to identify the best playlists for it to feature in. Think of it as an opportunity for you to explain your track to the editor reading your pitch.

There are some things that editors specifically don’t take into consideration when selecting tracks for their playlists. Including these things in your pitch might feel like you’re adding some gravitas to your track, but the characters you spend talking about these things might be better used on something else…

Spotify has specifically said that the success of your pitch does not depend on how many followers or monthly listeners you have, whether it’s been played on the radio or not, whether it’s been blogged about or not, or whether you’re signed to a label or not.

Particularly for playlists like Fresh Finds, On Our Radar or New Music Friday on Spotify, editors are actively looking for new emerging artists - which means stats like monthly listeners or radio plays are less important than the actual music itself and how successfully your pitch expresses the track’s suitability for being featured in a playlist.

Your track is unique, so your pitch should be too. We can’t tell you exactly what to write in it, because it should be based on your inspiration, your musical journey and your intimate knowledge of the track.

But, we’ve seen enough playlist pitches to have some idea of what a good pitch looks like.

Arguably one of the most important parts of your pitch is its opening line. When editors receive thousands of pitches each day, yours must grab their attention as quickly as possible, before they move onto the next one. A strong opening line usually means something intriguing, snappy and inviting, whilst bearing in mind character counts too.

For example: instead of saying ‘This newly released track is cinematic, dark, moody and uses melodies and lyrics to create a track that’s haunting.’ a better opening line would be: ‘Dive into the depths of the human psyche with a dark, cinematic track that blends haunting melodies and introspective lyrics.’

Similarly, ‘This is a lofi track with sweet, gentle beats and a relaxing vibe that fits perfectly in any lofi playlist.’ is too vague and doesn’t encourage an editor to keep reading on. Instead, something like ‘Relaxation never felt so good. This track takes lofi calm to another level with gentle, swaying beats reminiscent of the boughs of a willow tree in the gentle summer breeze.’ evokes more emotion in the editor and is more likely to keep them engaged.

The key with your pitch is to open with your strongest line, then lead the editor into the journey your track takes a listener on. Use evocative language to conjure up imagery in the reader’s head that will help them better understand the history, inspiration and context of your track.

The deeper the connection you can encourage between the editor and your track, the more likely you are to be featured in the playlists they’re curating.

If you’re an Identity Music client, we’ll work with you to create a pitch that ticks all the boxes and does everything it can to stand out from the crowd. Submit your pitching request to us (you should have the link to the pitch request form in your welcome email, but please drop us a message if you need it re-sent so you can bookmark it!) with as much detail as you can, then we’ll polish, refine and tweak it before submitting to your chosen platforms.