Press outreach checklist

Get Your Pitching Links Together

(    ) Private Streaming link

The URL you'll send to press contacts to let
them stream the album in full. Soundcloud and
Bandcamp both work well for this.

(    ) Downloadable music
A link where journalists can easily download
MP3s or WAVs of the tracks. Recommended:
Dropbox, GoogleDrive or Bandcamp codes

(    ) Video streaming links

URL for any videos already on Youtube
and/or Facebook. Youtube ones could be
set to unlisted if not publicly available yet.

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(    ) Press photos
1) A collection of 3-5 photos that you’ll give
press access to if the want to review the
album
2) A file with all sorts of photos that you can
use on social media during the campaign

(    ) Album artwork
Image files of your front cover, back cover
and inlay. A lot of press will want to use this
next to a review.

(    ) Videos
A folder with any video content you have, so
it’s ready to upload ahead of release (if not
already done) and available to cut up into
shorter clips. If you’re working with no budget,
check out free tools like iMovie.

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(    ) Biography
Find your previous biography (if you have one)
and update it. This can be given, in full, to press
contacts as well as used, shortened, as part of
the press text. It’s a good place to start with
getting new promo text together.

(    ) Press release
The piece of text which announces the album
and gives the key story and highlights in a
concise way. LEARN MORE

(    ) Liner Notes
Credits for the musicians, studio, producer,
composers. Some journalists will want this as
background info.

(    ) Track-by-track
A few sentences about each song that you can
use during the campaign as social media posts
(graphics, for example) or just as extra content
online.

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(    ) First pitching email ("Wake up" email)
A draft of the initial email you’ll be sending out
to journalists to introduce the album and offer it
for review. This should be shorter than the full
bio/press text, but include the key elements
and a way to get the rest of the 'story' if they
want.
(    ) Second pitching email ("Shake up" email)
A draft of the follow up email you’ll be sending
out to any journalists who don't respond to your
first mail. It should remind them of the key album
info and include another new piece of content
like a quote or another video.

(    ) Final pitching email ("Break up" email)

A draft of the 3rd and final email you’ll be
sending out to any journalists who don't respond
to the first two. We call it the 'break up' email,
because it politely lets them know that this is
the final time you'll reach out to them about this
album.
Want to learn how to write pitching
emails that WORK?
LEARN MORE
We've shared some
of our best ones in this guide...

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(    ) Gig List
A list of any upcoming shows you have that
press should be aware of and also a good
reminder for you as to where you might push for
local press.

(    ) Spotify Access
Make sure you have your account set up at
artists.spotify.com and that the
bio/links/photos etc are all up-to-date and
that you have added at least one playlist to
your profile. LEARN MORE

(    ) Previous press
A collection of your best press quotes from the
past (assuming you have some) that you can
use in your press release and pitching emails.

(    ) Physical CDs
It might seem surprising in this digital world, but a
lot of jazz journalists still insist on physical CDs to
do a review.

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Collect & Store everything...

(    ) Google Doc/Dropbox
Put together all this key content into one
place that can be shared easily and, if
necessary, edited by other people involved.
Google drive or Dropbox works best for this.

(    ) Project page
Somewhere, online, where all this material is
collected and publicly available to press
contacts. The easiest way would be a page
on your website like these examples.

Good luck!
Looking for more help on your next release?
Check out the Jazzfuel Manager community