When pitching music regularly, it is very easy to lose track of what was sent, who it went to, and how different playlists relate to the same project.
A few weeks later, you may be asking questions like:
Did we already send this to them?
Which playlists went to that company?
How many film pitches did we send last month?
Which playlists included this artist?
Was that internal shortlist, or was it actually sent?
A good pitch-tracking system in DISCO helps answer those questions quickly.
The goal is not just to store sent playlists somewhere. It is to make outbound activity easy to review, filter, and report on later.
Start with a Pitch Log Channel
One of the simplest and most effective habits is to create a dedicated Channel for sent playlists.
A Channel called Pitch Log gives your team one clear place to store outgoing work. Inside it, you can add folders for each month, each company, or another structure that makes sense for how you pitch.
For many teams, monthly folders are the easiest starting point because they keep activity moving in a clear timeline. Others may prefer to break things out by client group or project type. The exact structure matters less than the consistency.
The important thing is that your sent playlists live somewhere intentional instead of remaining scattered across active work areas. A Pitch Log Channel also makes it easier to filter reports later.
Save sent playlists in a consistent way
The best reporting systems usually start before you ever open the Reports area.
When you save or file a playlist that has been pitched, try to do it consistently. That might mean:
- adding it to the Pitch Log Channel
- placing it in the correct month folder
- applying the right playlist tags
- marking it as a client-facing playlist if appropriate
If different team members all follow slightly different habits, reporting becomes less useful. A simple repeatable workflow is usually better than a very elaborate one.
For example, every outgoing client playlist might follow this pattern:
- save the playlist clearly
- add the relevant playlist tags
- add it to the Pitch Log
- turn on Client List if it was actually sent externally
That gives you several useful layers of context later.
Use playlist tags to add reporting context
Playlist tags are one of the most useful tools for pitch tracking because they let you describe the context around a playlist without changing where it lives.
This is especially useful for tags such as:
- company or client name
- project name
- media type
- territory
- internal campaign name
- department or team
- other relevant pitch categories
For example, if your team is pitching to a bank, you might tag all relevant playlists with that bank’s name. If the work relates to advertising, you might also apply an Advertising tag. Later, those tags make it much easier to see every playlist connected to that client or media type, even if the playlists live in different folders or were created at different times. This is one of the biggest advantages of playlist tags. They make pitch history easier to reconstruct.
Use media-type tags to track different kinds of work
Many teams pitch across several kinds of opportunities. A playlist sent for a TV show should be easy to separate from one sent for a trailer, ad, branded content project, game, or film.
That is where media-type playlist tags become especially useful.
If you consistently tag playlists as Film, TV, Advertising, Radio, or another relevant media type, your reports immediately become more meaningful. Rather than just seeing a long list of playlists, you can filter outbound work by the kind of opportunity it supported. Reports can also be filtered by playlist tag, and including tags in the output makes that context much easier to interpret later.
This is especially helpful when you want to answer questions like:
How many film pitches did we send this quarter?
What playlists went out for advertising?
How much TV-related pitching did this artist get?
Use Client Lists to separate sent playlists from internal work
One of the biggest reporting problems is that not every playlist created in DISCO is actually sent out.
Some are internal shortlists.
Some are research playlists.
Some are working documents between team members.
Some are final client-facing playlists.
That is why Client Lists matters so much.
If you consistently mark playlists that were actually sent externally as client lists, you create a very useful filter for reports. It becomes much easier to distinguish true outbound activity from internal preparation.
This is especially useful when you have many variations of playlists around one project. You may have made six internal versions while narrowing things down, but only two final playlists were actually sent to the client. Using Client Lists helps reports focus on the activity that matters most. Reports filtered to Client Lists only = Yes are especially useful when you want to review real pitch history rather than internal prep work.
Build a reporting workflow around a few key filters
When you open Reports in DISCO, it helps to begin with a simple question.
What exactly do you want to know?
For example:
- all playlists sent to one company
- all client playlists from the last 30 days
- all playlists sent for film
- all playlists containing a specific artist that were sent externally
- all playlists in the Pitch Log Channel with a particular project tag
Once you know the question, the filters become easier to choose.
Some of the most useful reporting filters are:
- time period
- Channel
- playlist tag
- artist metadata
- Client Lists only
- include tags in output
If your team uses playlist tags consistently, reports become much more valuable. They stop being just a list of playlists and start acting like a workable history of your pitching activity.
Example workflow: report on playlists sent to one client
Let’s say you want to see everything sent to a specific company.
A clean way to do that is:
- make sure playlists sent to that company are tagged with the company name
- make sure the playlists that were actually sent are marked as Client Lists
- open Reports
- filter by that playlist tag
- set Client Lists only to Yes
- include tags if you want more context in the exported report
This is especially useful when several different people or departments at one company receive playlists over time. Even if the work spans multiple projects, one client tag helps you see the bigger relationship.
Example workflow: report on work by media type
Now imagine you want to review all playlists sent for film work.
If your team has consistently applied a Film playlist tag, the report becomes very straightforward.
Choose the time period if needed, filter by the Film tag, set Client Lists only to Yes, and include tags in the output if you want the context to travel with the report.
This makes it easier to answer broader strategic questions too, such as what kinds of opportunities your team is spending most of its time on. Playlist tags are especially useful here because they let you group work by context without needing to keep all related playlists in the same folder.
Example workflow: report on a specific artist in pitched playlists
Sometimes the question is less about the client and more about the artist.
For example, you may want to know which externally sent playlists included a specific artist over the last month.
In that case, use the relevant artist metadata filter, combine it with Client Lists only = Yes, and include tags in the report so you can also see the media type, project, or client context around those placements.
This is especially useful when updating artists, managers, labels, or internal teams who want to understand what outbound work is happening around a particular repertoire. Reports can combine artist metadata with playlist tags and client-list filtering to create that fuller picture.
Include tags in reports whenever they add meaning
A report becomes much more useful when it includes context, not just file names.
That is why it often helps to include tags in the report output. Playlist tags can show things like media type, company, or project, which makes the exported CSV much easier to interpret later.
Without tags, a report may show what playlists existed. With tags, it starts to show why those playlists existed.
Keep your tagging system simple
As with organization, the best pitch-tracking systems are usually the simplest ones that people actually keep using.
A few clear playlist tag groups will usually do more for your reporting than a huge, overly detailed taxonomy that nobody applies consistently.
For most teams, useful playlist tags for pitch tracking include:
- company or client
- media type
- project or campaign name
- territory if relevant
You can always add more detail later if there is a real need for it. It is much harder to clean up a messy tag system after the fact.
Common mistakes to avoid
One common mistake is relying on memory instead of building a real pitch log.
Another is creating playlists for external pitching without marking them in a consistent way. If sent playlists are not filed in the Pitch Log, not tagged properly, or not marked as client lists, reporting becomes much weaker.
A third mistake is tagging too many edge cases and ending up with a reporting structure that is so complex no one wants to maintain it.
A cleaner approach is usually better:
- one Pitch Log Channel
- a simple folder structure
- a manageable set of playlist tags
- consistent use of Client Lists
- reports built from those habits
Wrap up
Pitch tracking works best when it is part of the workflow from the start, not something you try to reconstruct later.
Use a Pitch Log Channel to keep sent playlists organized.
Use playlist tags to add context such as client, project, and media type.
Use Client Lists to separate externally sent playlists from internal working lists.
Use Reports to filter and review that activity over time.
When those pieces work together, DISCO becomes much more than a place to store playlists. It becomes a clear record of what your team has pitched, where it went, and how to understand that activity later.