A couple months ago, I got an email asking how much it would cost for someone to get their music posted on this site. The email bummed me out. It wasn’t the first of its kind, but it was spammy, and wrong. Like most sites, The FADER does run some paid posts, sponsored by brand partners, which are marked as such. But The FADER would never, and has never, accepted payment in exchange for editorial coverage.

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And I would know: I started working at The FADER in 2010, and I’ve written thousands of posts for the site. Over those years, I’ve seen how frustrating pitching music premieres can be — for artists, publicists, writers, and editors alike. Things work differently from site to site, and artists who are just starting out, or don’t have money to pay for publicity, often get the short end of the stick. Even so, I’ve premiered a ton of music that I care about, in partnership with all kinds of people — not just ones who work with major labels, or big PR firms.

One of the people I’ve worked with most is Rahim Wright, a managing partner of 740 Project, a digital-focused agency that helped break Migos, Kevin Gates, Kiiara, and NBA YoungBoy online. (I’m not sure, but I think we met first through a cold email about premiering the “Bando” video, which I paid attention to because I was excited about Migos.) I called Rahim up to help me create this guide, because the way I think about premieres now was shaped in part by our work together.

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This guide for pitching is based on my own experience, Rahim’s perspective, and how things work at The FADER. It is not a definitive bible, and it applies specifically to premieres — not all the other types of stories that The FADER does. But I hope it might help make the pitching process more transparent for both artists and people who work for them, so that everyone involved might better understand why premieres exist, who they benefit, and what some paths to success look like.