CREATING A PRESS KIT

One of the most important steps in marketing your band or act is developing a strong press kit. Press kits can introduce your band to media contacts, talent buyers, booking agents and record labels. Your press kit should be creative, succinct and should accurately represent the image of your band. A Press Kit typically consists of the following elements:

Band Biography
The bio should include a brief history of the band and its accomplishments. If you're a new band don't make things up, just list your influences and a brief musical history of key members. Avoid over-selling your band. Never use statements like "the greatest band since..." You can always list influences but keep the list short. Include anything unique that sets your band or act apart from others. Hopefully music journalists will use this as a foundation for any articles or reviews on your band, so help them make it interesting.

Press clippings
Include any favorable reviews of recordings or live performances. Make sure press clippings are presented in a visually appealing format. If necessary, re-type them with correct attribution in the same font.

Band Photo
The photo should be black and white so it can be easily duplicated in weekly entertainment newspapers. Make sure to include booking information at the bottom of the photo as well as a logo if you have one. Venues can use this to create ads for upcoming shows featuring your band, so it is important that the picture represents the band. Creativity is important even in your promo photo. There are several promo photo cliches to avoid: band against - brick wall, chain link fence, train track, in an alley etc.

Quote Sheet from music professionals (including club talent buyers, radio, press, music professionals). The quotes you include should hopefully highlight the quality of your music, skill at marketing concerts and your level of professionalism.

A CD with your two best songs.
Remember that most people are busy and get plenty of CDs in the mail so you've got one song, two at the most to really make an impression.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Overall Design
Consider hiring a designer. A press kit says a lot about an artist and if you send your press kit in a plain folder with basic xeroxed information you may miss the opportunity to even have your music heard. Remember clubs and record labels receive a high volume of press kits each year.

Electronic Press Kits
Electronic Press Kits are a new web-based alternative to traditional printed press kits.

Airplay Direct
http://www.airplaydirect.com
Airplay Direct is a new, revolutionary, efficient and cost effective way to securely deliver your “broadcast-quality” music and artist press kits to music industry professionals around the world. AirPlay Direct is an easy to use digital file transfer system that was developed to streamline radio / artist promotion activities for today's music industry. AirPlay Direct’s FREE services replace the unnecessary time and expense of putting together and sending out costly traditional artist packages and press kits via snail mail.

Sonicbids
http://www.sonicbids.com/
Sonicbids is a simple alternative to the endless clutter of physical press kits that is exchanged daily between musicians and the people who promote music. Our main product is the Sonicbids Electronic Press Kit (EPK™). It's an easy-to-use, web-based graphic interface that contains all the basic information of a musical act such as music, photos or date calendar. The EPK™ can either be emailed to anyone with a click of the mouse or submitted in online promoter accounts through a virtual "Drop Box."

Artistopia.com
http://www.artistopia.com/index.asp
Artistopia is committed to building the ultimate end-all solution for music artists, musicians, songwriters, and industry professionals to develop and do business in one spot. Armed with comprehensive membership plans, industry experts, expert technologist, business management, and solid online presence, Artistopia is leading the frontier in online artist development. Unlike all the other artist portals available on the Web who tickle your fancy with common non-productive tools, Artistopia is an unprecedented independent artist portal with a real-life professional development program. See for yourself!
$0-$99.95

Talent Match
http://www.talentmatch.com/Chome.asp?GroupID=1
Talent Match offers EPK features including 10 images, 10 audio tracks, 4 videos, 4 documents (reviews, art, resume), performance calendar, fan club manager

RFX - MyEPK
http://www.rfx.ca/pdf/EPK.pdf
MyEPK™: The Electronic Press Kit is a new tool for musicians who are serious about the business of their music.The EPK uses Enhanced CD technology to deliver not only actual music samples that can be used by any CD-Player, it also utilizes a resource kit on the disc where users can view anything from band information and press reviews, to requirements and set lists.
$1295-$2795

nFluent Music
http://www.nfluentmusic.com/
nFluent is a free music community that features hundreds of indie and local bands presskits filled with bios, music, photos, events, and news. Fans can find some the best new indie music, interact with artist and other fans, signup for local band updates and much more. For bands and artists, nFluent offers free 30MB electronic press kits that will enable you to create and manage fans and friends!

prepared by Andrew Leeper, Texas Music Office (512) 463-6666 music@governor.state.tx.us

---

© 1995-2008, State of Texas, Office of the Governor, Texas Music Office
This is a reference website. No endorsement or quality judgement is implied. Unless noted, all information is provided by listee.