Word before metal or music

SHEET

Think of a flat, thin material that can be made of paper or used to cover a bed, also found in spreadsheets.

The clue hints at a word that can come before both "metal" and "music" to form common phrases. "Sheet metal" is a thin, flat piece of metal, while "sheet music" refers to printed musical notation. The answer is simply the shared word that fits in front of both—"sheet.