How to Run a Music PR Campaign Without Losing Your Mind

A music PR campaign is a structured, time-bound promotional effort, typically 4-8 weeks, in which a specific release is pitched to targeted media contacts across radio, press, playlists, and blogs, with outcomes tracked along the way.

I run campaigns for Liberty Music PR, and some go better than others. What separates them is usually the workflow rather than the talent or the track.

Three campaigns from this year tell the story. EG: 153 plays logged. RB: 96 plays. BE: 39 plays pre-release with 1,790 outreach emails sent. WFUV replied to one of those pitches inside 30 minutes. A handful of UK community stations added the track to rotation without ever replying to the email. That is the job: the WARM play is the result, and the email reply is only ever a hint that one might be coming.

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 rules that compound across every release

Two findings from Liberty's send data that change how every later phase plays out.

1. Tuesday and Wednesday 09:00-10:00 UK is the send window. Across our 2024-2025 sends, pitches landing in that 2-hour band reply at a noticeably higher rate than the same copy sent Monday morning (buried by weekend backlog) or Friday afternoon (planning's done for the week). If you only optimise one thing, optimise when you press send.

2. Named contacts reply at roughly 5x the rate of generic inboxes. studio@, info@, admin@, submissions@: most of these are unread or auto-routed. There are exceptions worth knowing. Bro Radio's admin@ is unmonitored, but music@broradio.fm is read. Flex FM's submissions@flexfm.co.uk is for DJ mixes only. Song submissions go via Instagram DM to @flexfmuk. You only learn these by sending into them and getting nothing back.

Build the contact list with this in mind before anything else.

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

Be realistic about tier. A debut single from an artist with 500 monthly listeners targets BBC Introducing, community radio, and indie blogs, not Radio 1 daytime and NME. Pitching above your tier wastes time and burns contacts you'll want later.

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.

Honest benchmarks for an emerging artist's single:

| Target | Realistic outcome | | --- | --- | | BBC Introducing | 1-3 regional plays | | Community radio | 3-8 plays across stations | | Specialist shows | 1-2 plays if genre fits | | Blog coverage | 2-5 features | | Playlist adds | 1-3 independent playlists |

Put these somewhere you will see them again. If other people are involved in the release, a manager, a label partner, a co-writer, agreeing the benchmarks up front saves an awkward conversation later.

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?

A properly scoped list is typically 25-50 contacts. Larger lists usually indicate insufficient targeting, not thorough research.

Why the research is the expensive part

If you're building contact lists by hand, each contact takes 15-30 minutes. For a 40-contact release, that's 10-20 hours before you've written a single pitch. Most of it is checking whether a person still works somewhere and whether an address still resolves.

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:

Tier 1 (5-10 contacts): High-priority targets where you have an existing relationship or strong genre fit. These get personalised pitches with extra context.

Tier 2 (15-25 contacts): Good fits that need a tailored but more efficient approach. Personalised subject line and opening, standard body.

Tier 3 (10-15 contacts): Worthwhile but lower probability. Efficient, professional pitches with genre-specific hooks.

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

Best days: Tuesday, Wednesday. Producers plan their shows and content schedules early in the week. Monday is catch-up day. Thursday and Friday are too late for the current week's planning.

Best time: 09:00-10:00 UK time. Early enough to be near the top of the inbox, late enough that the recipient is at their desk.

Worst timing: Friday afternoon, weekends, bank holidays. Your pitch will be buried by Monday morning.

First wave: priority contacts

Send your Tier 1 pitches first, 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.

Space your sends across Monday to Wednesday of the first week. This prevents the "blast" feeling and lets you adjust the wording based on early responses.

Second wave: broader list

Once Tier 1 pitches are sent, expand to Tier 2 and 3. These can be more templated but should still include genre-specific hooks and contact-appropriate formatting: streaming links for radio, full press kits for journalists.

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

Most coverage doesn't come from the first pitch. It comes from the follow-up. But there's a way to follow up that works and a way that doesn't, and the line between them is thinner than most people realise.

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.

Follow up once, maximum twice. Three contacts about the same release is the absolute limit. More than that and you're damaging a relationship you will want for the next record.

Reference the original pitch. Don't make the recipient search for context. "Following up on the Maya Blue single I sent last Tuesday, wanted to share that Amazing Radio added it to rotation this week."

Strong follow-up hooks

• Radio play data: "The track has picked up 40 plays on WARM this week across 6 stations"
• Streaming milestone: "Hit 25K streams in the first week"
• Press coverage: "Clash Magazine featured the track yesterday" (with link)
• Live activity: "Just confirmed for Latitude Festival"
• Exclusive offer: "We have an acoustic session video available for first play"

The best hook is social proof from the recipient's peer group. If you can tell a BBC 6 Music presenter that Amazing Radio and BBC Introducing Bristol are already playing the track, that creates real momentum.

The follow-up cadence

| Timing | Action | Hook type | | --- | --- | --- | | Day 0 | Initial pitch | Release details + why this contact | | Day 5-7 | First follow-up | New data point (plays, streams, coverage) | | Release week | Nudge | Live links + momentum summary | | Week +1 | Final update | Highlights, only if significant |

If a contact doesn't respond after two follow-ups, leave them. It is almost never personal: they are busy, the music did not fit, or the timing was wrong. You'll want that contact for the next release, so preserve the relationship.

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

Don't rely solely on email responses to gauge how a release did. Stations frequently add tracks to rotation without telling anyone. Use radio monitoring services (WARM for UK) to catch plays you wouldn't know about from email alone.

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

A release that secured 4 community radio plays and 2 blog features is a legitimate result for a debut single. There is nobody to impress here, so there is no reason to round anything up. Inflating the numbers only means you plan the next release against figures that were never real.

Equally, don't undersell it. If those 4 plays came from stations you found through careful research and a well-aimed pitch, that's a system working, and the system is the thing you are building.

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. Do the research on one day, send on Tuesday and Wednesday, follow up on Thursday, and write it up on Friday. Switching between those four modes all day is what costs you the hours.

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. Over 6-12 months, that list becomes the most valuable thing you own that isn't the music.

The artists who keep getting played tend to have short contact lists and know something true about every name on them, built up one release at a time.

Further reading

• Radio promotion tips that actually work, 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