Client communication

Presto

The email has been open for two days. Not because it is hard, but because answering it properly means switching out of the part of your brain that writes music. Presto writes the first draft so you only have to do the deciding.

Reach for it when: A client brief is sitting unanswered
What it works from: The brief, plus the bio, rates and tone you saved once
Available on: Free with one reply a day · unlimited within plan limits on Professional

The problem

Why this one exists

Freelance composing is two jobs. One of them is the music. The other is quoting, scoping, scheduling, pushing back on a revision that goes past what was agreed, and doing all of it in a register that keeps the relationship intact. The second job has no fixed hours, and it tends to collect at exactly the moments the first job needs continuity.

The blank reply is the expensive part. Not the writing — the starting. And a generic assistant will happily produce a polished, friendly email with a placeholder where your fee should be and another where your delivery date should be, which leaves you with the two decisions you were avoiding plus somebody else's voice to edit out.

Presto is built the other way round. It already knows your rates, your boundaries and how you sound, so the draft arrives with the professional structure already in place and your judgement as the only thing still missing.

The specialist

What it actually does

Presto learns your bio, rates and communication tone, then drafts a reply you review, adjust and send yourself.

You save the context once: who you are, what you charge, how you prefer to phrase a decline, what you will and will not take on. From then on every draft is built around that rather than around a generic template, so the reply reads like your correspondence and not like a well-written email from nobody in particular.

Presto has no ability to send anything. It produces a draft in your account, and every send is a decision you make in your own mail client. That boundary is deliberate: correspondence with a client is a professional relationship, and the last step of it should never be automatic.

There is also an optional browser extension, which puts the same drafting alongside whichever platform the conversation is actually happening in.

The same request, two ways

You ask

Reply to this director asking for a quote and a delivery date.

A general assistant

Produces a polished, friendly email with placeholders for the fee and schedule.

Presto

Builds the draft around your saved bio, rates and communication tone, while leaving the decision and send action with you.

The reply begins from your professional context instead of sounding like it could belong to anyone.

In practice

Typical moments in a working week

Quote requests

A director asks for a fee and a delivery window and the reply needs your rates and boundaries already in it.

Scope changes

A revision request arrives that goes past what was agreed and the answer has to stay professional.

Backlog of unanswered mail

Several briefs are waiting and each one needs a first draft before you can decide on it.

How to use it well

Fill in the profile properly

Rates, availability, the kinds of project you take. Presto is only as specific as the context you gave it.

Paste the brief as it arrived

Including the awkward parts. A draft written around the real constraints is worth more than one written around a summary.

Say what you want the answer to be

"Yes, but the date moves" or "no, and keep the door open". Presto handles the phrasing; the position is yours.

Edit before sending

Read it once as yourself. The draft exists to remove the blank page, not your final word.

What it will not do

Presto does not send, does not negotiate on your behalf, and does not decide what to charge. It will not commit you to a date or a fee — those stay decisions you make and type in.