Pitching is all about timing - both in terms of a particular release, and the career progression of an artist.
In terms of the release schedule, conversations about submitting a release for playlists must begin taking place at least 6 weeks before any given release date, and products must be submitted at least 4 weeks in advance of the release date.
In terms of an artist’s career progression, the picture becomes a bit more complicated. There are no specific events, numbers, or accolades that must be achieved for an artist’s track to be successfully added to playlists. However, our team uses the information you give us about press coverage, live shows, radio airplay, social media, and more, to “sell” your release to the platform’s curation teams. It’s important to note that there are thousands of releases fighting for every playlist spot, and therefore the playlist curators look at artists’ profiles in the market to make decisions about who should be considered more closely. This means that we aim to ensure that every track we put forward for playlisting has consistently strong marketing drivers that give it a chance against other releases.
Here are some examples of information that would be considered as a yardstick by curators when deciding which tracks are considered for playlisting.
Existing organic growth on platform
This could be previous streaming numbers including monthly listeners and followers, or previous playlist placements.
Radio
Playlisting and prime time plays across a number of stations. These could for example include KROQ, Kiss FM and Z100 in the US. It could also include BBC Radio 1 and 6, Capital FM, Radio X, and Kiss FM in the UK; or Triple J or ABC Radio in Australia.
Live
High profile support slots for well known artists, festival performances, live TV performances, headline tour dates.
Press
Premieres and features on major blogs relevant to your genre, national press pick up and features, highly rated reviews in genre-specific magazines.
Marketing Plan
Such as digital advertising campaign and social media plan, and how the artist will be driving fans to the digital music services, for example by tagging the digital music services in their advertising.
Other
High profile sync licensing opportunities on TV or films, brand partnerships, appearances at music industry events, high video streaming figures, previous playlist successes.
Also, we've pulled together some expert advice on how best you can work with AWAL and the streaming partners to secure editorial support in this AWAL Academy Video: Q&A on Playlisting & Editorial Support with Sam Potts (VP Promotions at AWAL)