What’s in your Press Kit?

Posted on September 20, 2007
Filed Under: Promotion, Music Business

The goal of every band is to play more gigs and get more press. The reason is simple, more gigs and more press lead to more money in merch sales and gig fees. The problem that a lot of new bands/artists face when they start trying to build their music career is that they have a hard time getting their foot in the door. Many venues are wary of booking artists they’ve never heard and it is nearly impossible to get press for much the same reason. To this end, almost every struggling musician has gone through the process of recording a demo.

The demo tape can range anywhere from a home recording with a single mic or tape recorder to a full blown studio effort. With demo in hand, the ambitious musician heads out into the world secure in the knowledge that they can now get a gig anywhere, anytime. Perhaps not surprisingly, it never turns out to be as easy as that in the real world. Come to find out, there are other bands out there in the wild and they’ve got a demo too. It’s time to take it to the next level with a full blown Press Kit.

Don’t fool yourself, you’re not the only local band with a press kit but if you can keep yours organized, professional, and most of all, informative, you’ll be a step ahead of the game.

-The Press Kit-

So what goes into a Press Kit? Well, the short answer is “anything you want people to know about your act”. Of course, being the short answer doesn’t necessarily make it the best answer. What you want to include is only the relevant information about your act. Each recipient of your kit is going to have different priorities and will be interested in different information. If you overload your press kit with every scrap of information you can think of you’ll run the risk of making it harder for people to find what they really need. Given that, there’s certain information that you should include in every press kit.

Business Card
If you don’t have business cards printed up for your band yet, get on it. You can get small runs of business cards printed up at places like Staples or Kinko’s or you can simply buy special sheets of business card paper and print them up at home. Printing out business cards should be a top priority for your band. This is the number one way of getting your contact info out there. Print up business cards and give them out at every club and show.

Cover Letter
Essentially a press kit is nothing more than a resume. As with any other resume you need to draft a concise cover letter tailored specifically to the person you’re sending it to. You’ll want to keep the cover letter brief and to the point. Basically, you want to state your goals and the reasons for wanting the gig/press coverage. This is the one part of your press kit where adding a little bit of hype about your band is OK. You certainly don’t want to go overboard. The person looking through your press kit has probably dealt with a number of bands all claiming to be the greatest and they’ll see right through your claims as well. Be confident and certainly let them know of any benefits you can provide (for example, if you have a following who will make the trip to the show just to see you) but keep things realistic and professional.

Artist Bio
An artist bio is certainly more important if you’re sending your press kit to a media outlet as opposed to a club but you should include it in all cases anyway. If nothing else, the bio will give a booking agent an idea of your experience outside of your current band/act. Given that, your bio does not need to be a full minute-by-minute run down of your life up to this point. It’s best to keep the bio short and relevant. You should include a short overall band bio detailing when the band formed and what you’ve accomplished since that time. You should also include a short bio on each band member. It’s best to keep the info music related, how long you’ve been playing, what bands you’ve played in, etc. Unlike the cover letter, it’s not the best idea to add a lot of hype to your bios. Keep it short and factual and you should be all set.

Fact Sheet
The fact sheet is another item that is more media oriented but should always be included. The fact sheet should include just that, facts. The type of information that you’d want to include would be the band’s hometown, a list of band members and their instruments, upcoming gig dates, management contact info, and, if applicable, any album release info (release date, record label contact, Producer or studio info, etc…).

Promotional Photo
This is an important one. This doesn’t necessarily need to be a professional photo but it does need to be a good one. Try not to pick a grainy, out of focus picture taken with a disposable camera if you can help it. If you don’t have any photos and you don’t want to hire a professional simply borrow a camera and take pictures in your practice space or set up your own shoot. You can also have someone take pictures while you’re on stage. Basically, you want to use a picture that shows your band’s style.

Press Clippings
If you’re just starting out then you probably don’t have to worry about this one. However, if you’ve been mentioned anywhere in the press you definitely want to share that. You can either use photocopies of the clippings or include a link to an online version.

Demo CD
Most importantly, you need to include the demo CD. This is the biggie (for obvious reasons). As with the press photo, the demo doesn’t necessarily need to be a professional job but it needs to be the best recording that you have. The length of a demo can vary but 2-3 songs is ideal. Notice that the title of this section is “Demo CD” not “Demo Tape”. If at all possible you want to send a CD. No one is going to sit and listen to your demo from beginning to end so you want to make it as easy as possible for them to skip from track to track.

There are a number of places that will do CD duplication for as few as 5-10 copies per run (rather than the typical 100+ copies per run) for about $3-5 per disc. This little bit of money invested for a professional looking CD (no sticker labels) and CD jacket is definitely money well spent. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here, a full article could, and probably will, be written about the demo CD, but you want to show as professional a face as possible with your demo.

That’s really it for the important information to include in your press kit. If you have a lot of information you can keep everything on a separate sheet but if you’re just starting out and don’t have a lot to say yet, you can definitely combine multiple items onto a single sheet. For example, artist bio, fact sheet, and press clippings all on one page (called a “one-pager” coincidentally enough). There are other items that you may want to think about adding to your press kit but you’ll need to use your judgement regarding when and where to include them. Some additional items could be: Song list, lyric sheet, separate gig sheet (if your schedule is too large to include on the fact sheet) or radio airplay reports.

Packaging
If you’ll be mailing out a hard copy of your press kit you’ll want to have it organized in a clean, professional looking package. You don’t need to have professionally designed letterhead and folders printed up but everything should tie together. If you haven’t yet, take the time to create a quick band letterhead (Usually fairly easy in any word processor). Make sure that the design of your letterhead matches the design of your business cards and other materials, you want to create a brand.

You should include everything within a folder or binder. Again, the folder doesn’t need to be professionally printed but you want to make sure that it compliments the materials inside. If you have a sticker with your band’s name or logo put it on the front cover.

Contact Info
Last, and most important, is your band’s contact info. This is not a separate item that needs to be included within the press kit. No, your contact info needs to be EVERYWHERE. It needs to be included as part of your letterhead by default. You also need to include it on every piece of material in your press kit. Business cards, cover letter, bio, fact sheet, promo photo, and press clippings should all include your contact info. Your contact info should be listed on the CD insert or jacket of your demo in addition to being printed on the CD itself. Once someone opens your press kit there’s no telling what material may get lost. If your contact info is on everything then that won’t matter. The number one goal of your press kit is to get people to connect with you. Don’t make them work to try and get a hold of you. They WON’T.

Well, that’s it for now. If you have any unique ideas that you’ve used in your press kits let us know about it in the forums.