Building An Effective Press Kit For Your Band

One of my hobbies is running an internet radio station and consequently I deal with bands and musicians trying to get airplay on a regular basis. The thing that strikes me most of all is not the variance in the quality of music, but the variance in the quality of the correspondence I receive. To be quite blunt, most of it is poor. Luckily for most bands this is my hobby and not my job so I tend to be a bit forgiving and listen to the music anyway. If this was my full-time job most of the material I get would go straight in the bin. Again, most of the music is great but it simply wouldn’t get listened to because of the lack of quality in the written materials. I’ve received hand written scrawl on a scrap of paper through to very professional printed press kits and everything in between.

Having a professional quality press kit doesn’t have to cost you the earth though. Most fall down due to the quality of the info presented and not just the presentation quality although both are important. In a lot of cases a simple tidy up would improve the band’s chances enormously.

So what should be in a press kit for a start? A press kit can contain any or all of the following components depending on your audience.

• Covering Letter
• Cover Page
• Band or Artist Bio
• Band photos
• Equipment Requirements Page
• Booking and Contact Information
• Demo CD
• Sample Set List
• Newspaper/Press Clippings, Show Reviews etc

As you can see there are quite a few parts that go to making up a successful press kit and that can be a bit daunting if you don’t know where to start. Also, as I’ve already said, your press kit will need to be appropriate for your intended audience. For example, if you are trying to get radio airplay or a record contract you don’t need an equipment list. So taking a minute to think about your intended audience will be time well spent.

It’s beyond the scope of an article like this to cover every aspect in thorough detail so I’d like to pick out a few things you can do to put the odds in your favour and to get started.

One last tip. Make sure YOUR name & contact information is included on everything you send out. I’ve received some great stuff from time to time with no contact info at all. That makes it very hard for the reader to actually find you if you do manage to impress them.

As you can see this is a big subject and I’ve only just looked at the tip of the iceberg here. Check out the articles below for more information and if you have specific questions about any of the topics then please let me know in the comments below each section and I’ll attempt to help you out.

"Thank you for your interesting take on press kits. I am in the process of creating one for a client, EPK as well for his website, and your points were well taken. While creating his, I took time to create one for my band as well. Multi-tasking is not a lost art. Once again, my undying gratitude for the information."
Beth Hammer
www.velvethammerproductions.com

Full list of sections in this chapter:

• Making A Band Or Artist Bio
  

  The very first thing you need is a Band or Artist bio. Wikipedia defines a bio like this:
  “Greek words bios meaning “life”, and graphos meaning “write”) is an account of a person’s life, usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form… A biography is more than a list [...]

• Your Contact Sheet
  

  First things first, put your contact info on everything!
  Make sure that every piece of information you hand out has some form of identification and contact info. Make it easy for people to get to you. A simple way to do this is to include a Header or Footer in all of your documents that contains [...]

• The Covering Letter
  

  In this section I’d like to do a brief exploration of the covering letter. This should be purpose written to suit the intended reader exactly. While a bio can be written to serve a multitude of purposes, the covering letter should be specific to the task at hand. It should be neatly typed, not scrawled [...]

• Your Demo CD
  

  There is absolutely no excuse these days for sending a poor quality demo to someone. Gone are the days of the badly duplicated cassette tape. It’s beyond the scope of this topic to discuss recording technique except to say that recording quality is such these days that even the most basic of home studio’s can [...]

• Channel Assignment Sheet
  

  There are many times when you will be performing using a production supplied by someone else. It may be a venue with an in-house system or a festival with lots of bands and a common PA. At times like this you need to be able to communicate your production needs and one of the most [...]

• Equipment Requirements
  

  There will be occasions where you will play without being able to use your own stage gear. Just like using a different production, using different stage gear means that you will need to provide a very accurate spec in order to get what you want.
  Like always, be honest and reasonable in your requests. Don’t spec [...]

• Stage Plot
  

  A stage plot is just a simple map showing the layout and positioning of your band members and their equipment.It usually shows the positioning and grouping of the monitors as well.
  I know this is getting repetitive but please be honest and reasonable in your requests. Just outline your minimum and recommended stage layout.
  You don’t need [...]

• How do I make my press kit stand out from the crowd? Introduction
  

  A little while back I did a small mailout to the readers of this site asking for their questions relating to Press Kits. The subject of “Press Kits” is by far the most popular topic on this site and the results of my mailout back that up.
  I simply asked
  “If you could sit down with me [...]

• How do I make my press kit stand out from the crowd? – Content
  

  We have looked at the content of a Press Kit previously in this article, but here we are going to go into much greater depth.  Let’s face it, you can spend all the money and time in the world on the styling and packaging of your Press kit but if it doesn’t contain good content [...]

• How do I make my press kit stand out from the crowd? – Permission
  

  As I said in the introduction to this series, this is one part that you need to get right. The simple reason that most folks have ineffective results from their marketing efforts are because they are not targeting their audience. You WILL increase the success rate of your press kit if you specifically target who [...]

• How do I make my press kit stand out from the crowd? – Format
  

  In the first two articles in this series we looked at the importance of good content in your press kit and how to increase your success rate by putting it into the right hands. In this article we will be looking at the “Format” of your press kit. Format covers a number of aspects including [...]

• The Simple Press Kit Checklist
  

  Content

  Be descriptive. The reader should have a fair idea of what you are about even without a demo
  Be imaginative and Honest.
  Tell a Story.
  Use Testimonials.
  Check your spelling and grammar.
  Sell benefits not features.
  Have a “call to action.”

  Your Demo

  No more than 3 tracks.
  Put the Killer track first.
  Use songs with short intro’s.

  Permission

  Target who you send it to.
  Never send a [...]

"I've already found it really helpful as I have been stumbling over writing a bio, and your site has set me on the right path! Thanks heaps"
Ali Skarratt
www.myspace.com/aliskarratt