How to Run a Music PR Campaign Without Losing Your Mind

A music PR campaign is a planned effort to introduce a release to relevant radio programmes, publications, playlists and other media, with its work and outcomes recorded along the way.

This guide sets out a repeatable workflow. It does not present private artist results, response-rate benchmarks or a promised level of coverage.

If you are promoting your own release, you face a version of this that no agency does. You are the strategist, the researcher, the person writing the pitches, the person chasing them, and the person deciding whether any of it worked. You are also the artist, which means the work competes with making the music. If any part of that chain breaks down, the release suffers.

This guide walks through each phase, with the practical details that most guides leave out.

Two checks before every release

Check the fit. Research the specific show or publication rather than adding every address from an old list. Use a current published submission route, whether it is a team inbox, a named professional contact or a form.

Check the timing. Use stated deadlines and preferences. There is no universal weekday or hour that guarantees a reply.

Keep the evidence for both checks with the contact record.

Phase 1: Scoping and planning

Every release starts with a decision about what you are actually promoting. Before you touch a contact list or draft a pitch, you need clarity on three things.

What are we promoting?

This sounds obvious, but "the new single" isn't a plan. You need:

• Track details: title, release date, genre, featuring artists
• The hook: what makes this release worth covering? A sync placement, a streaming milestone, a comeback story, a debut, a feature artist?
• Available assets: streaming links (or pre-save), press photos, music video, press release, exclusive content
• Your current profile: monthly listeners, previous coverage, social following, live activity

Who are we targeting?

Define the target outlets by type and tier:

• Radio: BBC national, BBC regional, commercial, community, online
• Press: national, regional, online, music-specific, lifestyle
• Playlists: editorial, independent, algorithmic triggers
• Blogs and podcasts: genre-specific, tastemaker, regional

Assess the fit using recent output and current submission guidance. Audience size can provide context, but it is not a universal threshold for whether a programme or publication might consider a release.

What does success look like?

Decide this before you send anything. Writing the number down in advance is what stops a good result from feeling like a failure four weeks later, when you have forgotten what you were aiming at and Radio 1 has not called.

Choose goals for this release based on your own situation. Separate work you control, such as completing the assets and researching relevant outlets, from editorial outcomes you cannot promise.

Agree the definitions with anyone helping on the release. A reply is not a play, and a playlist submission is not a confirmed addition.

Phase 2: Contact research

Contact research is where careful releases diverge from hopeful ones. The quality of your list determines everything that follows.

Building the list

For each release, build a fresh, targeted list. Do not reuse an old list without checking it against this record.

Steps:

1. Start with genre: who covers this style of music? Not broadly, but specifically.
2. Match to tier: which of those contacts operate at the appropriate level for where you are now?
3. Check freshness: is this person still in this role? Is the email still valid?
4. Note preferences: how does each contact want to receive submissions?

Keep the list small enough to research and review properly. The useful test is whether every contact has a clear fit and a current route, rather than whether you hit a particular count.

Why the research is the expensive part

Research takes time, especially when roles and submission instructions are unclear. Record the source and date with each field so you can review the information rather than repeating unexplained guesses.

That work is worth doing, but it is not worth doing twice. Whatever you use to keep the list, keep the verification with it: the date you checked, where the address came from, and what the outlet said it wanted. The time you save the second time round goes into pitch quality and follow-up discipline, which are the parts that actually secure coverage.

For a detailed look at what a well-researched contact record holds, see our complete guide to music contact enrichment.

The contact tiers

Not every contact gets the same pitch. Organise your list into tiers:

Priority contacts: High-priority targets where you have an existing relationship or strong genre fit. These get personalised pitches with extra context.

Other clear fits: Good fits that need a tailored but more efficient approach. Personalised subject line and opening, standard body.

Needs more research: Targets whose fit or submission route is not yet clear. Resolve those questions before including them in a send.

This tiering puts your best effort where it is most likely to land, without neglecting the broader list.

Phase 3: Preparing your materials

Before you pitch, everything needs to be ready. Producers who are interested won't wait while you prepare assets. Having to say "I'll send the press release tomorrow" kills momentum.

The essentials checklist

• One-sheet: Artist name, track title, release date, genre, key streaming links, one paragraph bio, one paragraph about the release, hi-res photo
• Press release: For press targets, a properly formatted release with all details, quotes, and assets
• Streaming links: Private link or pre-save (pre-release) or live links (release week)
• Photos: Hi-res, properly named, immediately downloadable
• Audio: WAV or high-quality MP3 available if requested (don't attach to cold pitches)
• Bio: Current, accurate, appropriate length

Everything should be reachable from a single link or folder. Don't make producers hunt across multiple emails for assets.

Phase 4: Sending

This is where the work happens. How you send separates a considered release from a hopeful blast.

Timing

Work back from the release date and each outlet’s stated deadline. Allow time to verify the list, prepare assets and review pitches. If there is no published deadline, do not invent a standard lead time for the whole channel.

Schedule work at times you can maintain. Treat any experiment with send timing as your own limited evidence, with the campaign window and number of contacts recorded.

First wave: priority contacts

Start with the priority contacts, reviewing each pitch individually. Each one should reference something specific about the recipient, their show, a recent play, their stated genre focus. That reference is the minimum standard, not an optional flourish.

Send at a pace that lets you review the details and handle replies. Correct any factual or link problem before extending the outreach.

Second wave: broader list

Extend the outreach to other confirmed fits. A template can provide structure, but the fit, facts and format still need checking for each recipient. Keep unresolved targets out of the send.

Logging

Log every pitch as it's sent. Date, recipient, subject line, key content. That log is the foundation of your follow-up and of knowing what happened. Without it, you're guessing at who you've contacted and when.

Phase 5: Follow-up

A follow-up is a decision, not an automatic requirement. Check the recipient’s policy and the history before sending another message.

The rules

Every follow-up adds new information. "Just checking in" is not a follow-up. It's an interruption that signals you have nothing new to say.

Respect the recipient. Stop on a refusal or opt-out. If follow-up is welcome, keep it brief and relevant; silence does not justify an endless sequence.

Reference the original pitch. Identify the release and the original submission, then explain the real update. Do not invent station support as a follow-up hook.

Useful follow-up information

• Confirmed radio support, with a dated source
• A streaming milestone you can substantiate, with the period defined
• Published coverage, with a link
• A confirmed live date relevant to the recipient
• A new asset or corrected listening link

An example follow-up plan

After the first send, review replies and instructions before setting a reminder. Follow up only where appropriate and only with a relevant reason. A release-week update can supply a live link where the recipient has shown interest.

This is a planning example, not a schedule proven to secure coverage. Record a pass and leave the recipient alone when they ask you to stop.

Phase 6: Tracking and monitoring

Track everything. Not because it's fun, but because the record serves two purposes: knowing how this release did, and knowing more about your contacts than you did last time.

What to track per contact

• Pitch sent: date, content summary
• Response: replied (positive/negative/request), no response, bounced, out of office
• Outcome: played, featured, playlisted, passed, no response
• Follow-ups: dates and content of each follow-up
• Notes: anything useful for next time

Monitoring plays

Check confirmed broadcasts separately from replies. Programme tracklists, recordings and monitoring reports can provide evidence within their coverage. Read a monitoring service’s station coverage and limitations before using its totals.

Similarly, check Spotify for Artists and Apple Music for Artists for playlist adds that may have come from your pitching but weren't communicated directly.

Phase 7: Writing it up

Nobody is waiting for a report from you, which is exactly why this step gets skipped. Do it anyway, for yourself. Four weeks after the release you will remember roughly none of it, and next time you will be starting from nothing.

What to write down

The window: dates, target outlets, total contacts pitched.

What happened: plays secured (station, show, date), press coverage (with links), playlist adds (with playlist name and follower count), blog features.

The rates: reply rate, and how many pitches turned into plays or coverage.

By tier: how many contacts at each tier, reply rate by tier, notable feedback.

Streaming: any movement during the window, remembering that a rise alongside a release is not proof the release caused it.

What next: is there momentum worth extending? Which contacts should be first next time? What angle worked best?

Be honest with yourself

Use the counts you can support, with the window and definitions stated. Do not inflate totals or count a request for audio as a confirmed broadcast. The purpose is to make the next plan against what actually happened.

Running a release around the rest of your life

The real test comes in week three, when the day job is busy, you are mixing the next track, and four follow-ups are due on Tuesday.

What breaks first

Follow-ups. They are the first thing to slip. You intend to follow up on Tuesday, then something takes the evening, and suddenly it's Friday and the moment has passed.

Contact confusion. Pitching the same person twice, or pitching someone who already replied, reads as careless. Without one place holding the history, it's easy to do.

The write-up. It gets postponed until you have forgotten the details, which is the same as never doing it.

What prevents the breakdown

One place for contacts. A single record showing every contact, every release you pitched them for, and what came back. This is what stops the overlap and keeps the relationship healthy.

A schedule you set in advance. Plan the sends and the follow-ups at the start of the release, not day by day. Block the follow-up time before the week fills up.

Batching. Set aside separate time for research, pitch review, replies and the write-up. Choose days that fit your release, your calendar and the recipient’s instructions, rather than treating a weekday as a proven send window.

The compound effect

Every release you run teaches you something that makes the next one better. Which contacts responded to which genres? What follow-up timing worked? Which stations added the track without replying?

That only compounds if you capture it. Update your contact records after every release. Note outcomes, preferences, and feedback. Keep the dated evidence so that you can check and use that history for the next release.

Keep the list focused on contacts whose fit and submission route you can establish. Use what you learned from the last release to decide what needs checking next.

Further reading

• Radio promotion tips for your next release, practical advice for the radio-specific parts of your release
• Pitch writing for your own music, detailed pitch frameworks and templates
• The complete guide to UK radio promotion, the BBC and UK radio in detail
• BBC radio pitch templates, station by station, what each one expects
• The 47-step music release checklist, everything that needs to happen before the song drops