ACS PressKit.org

Do you have a Press Kit or a Promotional Pack?

Just like an actor or a model, you need to assemble a marketing package specifically tailored for you and your music. This is like a product brochure where you are the widget to be sold. And make no mistake, this package must “SELL” you because in this arena of the music world, you are a product. Your Press Kit must present you in a most favorable light and must instill in the reader or viewer, enough interest to take the next step.

What Should Be Included in My Press Kit?

Cover Letter

Always make sure to include a letter with your Press Kit, correctly addressed to the right person at the record company. You have already spoken to them or an assistant, and they know this package is coming. Thank them in the letter for their time on the phone, and remind them who you are. Don’t forget to include all of your contact info at the bottom of the letter.

Photos

First and foremost, current photo’s of you and/or your band. Not old wedding photos or high school yearbook pictures, but professional photographs of you. Sometimes called the headshot, because in the past they were generally just “head shots”, but now it is appropriate to include full body shots in color or black and white. If you have a band, then individual shots of the band members while ideal are not necessary, but a group shot most definitely is. Try and put a nice 8×10 Glossy in there. Spending a few extra dollars on your pictures will go a long way in demonstrating to the record company that you are serious about this venture. If you can, include your contact info on the bottom of the picture. If you cannot, then be sure to put it on the back of the photo. A label will work just fine.

Bio

Your biography will contain important personal tidbits about you that the record people will want to know. Remember, they don’t know you except for the brief amount of time you spent on the phone with them. And honestly? They will have forgotten all about you by the time you press kit arrives and they open it. So don’t brag, but you can be a little puffy. Don’t forget you are selling yourself!

• How old are you?

• Where you are located?

• Are you married? Have kids?

• Level of education.

• Any interesting facts about you that might pique the record company’s interest.

• Any fascinating accomplishments?

Resume

This can be added to the bottom of your Bio page if you do not have a lot to fill out here. Do not fill the page with endless Pizza Places and minor bars. List them once, but try and stick to the most impressive ones. A page full of pizza parlors could be to your detriment.

List your top venues.

• Who have you opened for?

• What charity benefits have you performed at?

• What training you have received with respect to your art?

The resume needs to be designed to make you look as experienced and committed to the business of music as it can. But don’t exaggerate or heaven forbid, outright lie. You may get caught up in someone’s due diligence and then after that, everything you say will be suspect. You want to impress them with your credentials, so list everything in a positive light. You did not lose the Seattle Rock Battle of the Bands, you were a finalist.

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I’m doing a paper on music marketing strategies and need a bit of help please! For example topics such as the loudness war etc.

Is there any where that makes electronic press kits for promoting bands? Or any websites where I can do it myself?
And what would I need to do this myself?

Learn about writing songs for your band, playing covers, and making repertoire and set lists in thisfree DIY music management video from a band manager expert. Expert: Kiely Griffin Bio: Kiely Griffin has been playing the flute for ten years. She has participated in many district, state, regional and national ensembles including the National Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. Filmmaker: Christian Munoz-Donoso

Learn how to develop merchandise and get marketing and promotion tips for your band in thismusic business video. Expert: Kiely Griffin Bio: Kiely Griffin has been playing the flute for ten years. She has participated in many district, state, regional and national ensembles including the National Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. Filmmaker: Christian Munoz-Donoso

I need help, but it’s not a press kit I need help with. I am an up & coming local musician, I am trying to e-mail radio stations with my music, the local news also does features on native musicians… I am e-mailing booking agents, etc. How do I promote myself without tooting my own horn? What is the proper set-up for a professional music industry letter? I’d appreciate your help.

I’ve been answering the question “What is a press kit and what goes into it?” over and over again for both PR professionals and business-owners during the past few months. I’d like to answer this question once and for all now, especially for the PR people who ought to already know the answer.

What Are Press Kits And What Are They Used For?
Press kits, which are created to provide information about your company, its products/services and executives, can be given to journalists, sales teams for presentations, or anyone needing company information. Press kits now come in various formats including paper kits, online and CD/DVD-ROM. Paper kits are usually presented in folders with pockets; online kits are typically on the company’s website and can be locked so as not to give away information to anyone who doesn’t have a code/password; CD/DVD-ROMs are a combination of paper and online kits that you hand out.

So, What Goes Into A Press Kit?
Let’s start with the basics (these apply to all formats of kits):

Press Releases.
 

Company Backgrounder – This is a story of how the company began until the present.
 

Company Fact Sheet – This includes a brief paragraph about the company (could be the same as the boiler plate), HQ Address/Phone/Fax/Email and other offices, List of Executive Team and their titles, Official Launch Date, Website, and any other pertinent factual information (example: product designs/cuts, sizes, flavors, etc.
 

Corporate Bios and Headshots.
 

PR Contact

The advanced items in a press kit include:

Press Clips – I advise that you include these when sending to anyone other than a journalist, as most journalists don’t want to read other journalists press.
 

Q&A Sheet – These are talking points, and if you’re comfortable, you can release them to the press; otherwise, they’re for internal/executives’ use.
 

Awards Sheet.
 

Sales/Product/Rate Sheet.
 

Games/Quizzes/Puzzles/Top 10 Quotes and Industry Facts.
 

Product Photos (High-res).
 

Editorials, Speeches and Media Statements.
 

Newsletters.
 

Testimonials.
 

Product samples.
 

Videos – These apply to online and CD/DVD-ROM kits.
 

MySpace/Facebook pages – These apply to online and CD/DVD-ROM kits.
 

Downloadable Screen Grabs – These apply to online and CD/DVD-ROM kits.
 

Downloadable Executive Headshots – These apply to online and CD/DVD-ROM kits.
 

Downloadable Logos – These apply to online and CD/DVD-ROM kits.
 

Anything else you feel is pertinent information that you would like someone to know about your company.

I hope this answers the question.  If anyone has additional items that they’ve placed in kits, other than those listed above, please share your creativity with all of us!

My band’s fanbase is growing, and we’re getting to play bigger venues. Recently one of the booking agents asked me for a demo and a press kit. I looked it up on the internet, so I know WHAT it is, but I don’t have any clue what I should put in it, or how long it should be. Should I do it myself or should I have an editor from a news paper do it? Is there anyone out there who would be willing to do it for me? If you have Paypal, I can pay you!
Thanks for looking for me some more I swear I looked everywher, but maybe it’s cause I have add (go figure…I’m a musician) and I didn’t look hard enough. You’re awesome!

Happy New Year to all bands and musicians out there those starting the year with a new Music Marketing Campaign. I hope you’re selling lots of CD’s I do, but remember to have a back up plan for your business model; I’ve found it’s only getting harder to sell recordings. People still want to spend money where they see creativity and are inspired, but don’t limit that to your recordings.

What I’m really pushing artists to do right now is sell affiliate
products because the returns from commissions are more generous than CD’s and sell better, so it only makes sense, Sell your CD too, sell whatever fans will buy basically, stay innovative. It is the basic idea of Music Marketing Campaign. Use an email newsletter as well as a blog and social network promotions to push various propositions to your fans. It’s important to have many avenues open and have a variety of purchase options available so you can see what your fans are really interested in purchasing.

Kurb promotions are always happy to start with the basic online promotion, but I am interested in the email list you’ve already established. This is main strategy of Music Marketing Campaign. Have you got a strategy to engage this audience, and are you thinking about what you want to happen when we start driving traffic?

We can work towards pushing the album but I think the best ways to be sure that you’re connecting with that traffic is to offer some kind of free download or set up some kind of situation where the fans will want to return so that you continue to have opportunities to interact with them and sell them the album or related propositions. Basically have you got material ready for social networks blogs and newsletters? When traffic arrives on your website, myspace etc. what is the main outcome you’re looking for?

Because rather than have them arrive and go away again we need to be pushing toward a specific direction for fans to act, and if we don’t make that clear and straightforward we won’t be able to bring them to a point of engagement where they are ready to spend money. In some Music Marketing Campaigns we might want to pay attention to
how you can earn in the short term so artists can make money from music related business quickly to cover their initial investment.

This usually for me involves focusing on 1 product or service
combination that we can push at $100+ because it’s much easier to sell 1 x $100 product than it is to sell 100 x $1.
But at the same time I feel you’re pushing toward a earnest connection with fans, I think you’ve got the right attitude and appeal, which means although you need to support yourself the best path may be slowly building up those “real” connections to your fans and me helping you with technology so you can retain that intimate, personal
connected vibe with your fans while still keeping yourself viable as a professional.

It’s a hard road but in the future of the music business it may be the only one. Marketing and promotions can only do so much, and connection between the fan and the artist is now essential to building a business. Getting everything for your Music Marketing Campaign in order and accentuating your artist brand now could set you up for sustaining
momentum long term. Generating income short term although is another excellent way of maintaining momentum long term! If you are interesting in Music and want to know more about it then visit us at: www.MusicMarketingManagement.com

One of the powerful tools you can have as when attempting independent music promotion is a website. This is a given. There is absolutely no excuse for a musician, in this day and age, to not have a website. You website is how you will reach the world. This is how you will market yourself to every single person you come in contact with. The internet and your website will be two of the most powerful music promotion resources you will have.

If you are sold on the idea of online music promotion and are ready to start your site but don’t know what to include, then you have come to the right place. It is crucial that you properly design your site and include all the correct information. You want to be as creative and stylish as possible, all the while staying true to who you are and what your music is about.

Other independent artists are making a killer living online selling their music and merchandise and so should you. Independent music promotion on your website will be best achieved if all the right information is displayed. You online music promotion success depends on it.

First, you need to add all of your contact information onto your site. This includes all phone numbers, email addresses, mailing address etc…In addition to this, you are going to need a bio of you or your band. Remember, with independent music promotion, you have no one else to rely on so try to be as thorough as possible.

Do you have any press releases, reviews or customer testimonials? If you do, incorporate these. It will let your future fans know that you presently have happy, committed fans. And of course you are going to need an upcoming schedule of some sort so your fans know where to go to hear you.

One of the most powerful music promotion resources you can acquire is an email list. With this list you can keep your fans up to date on the latest news and happenings with you or your band.

Lastly, you have your sounds and sights. Post some photos or video clips from live events. Action photos are always great so if you don’t have some, get some. Include downloadable sound clips from your CDs, this will entice folks to want more. And the best part, place your CDs, MP3 tunes and merchandise for sale! Incorporate all of the above things into your site and you will no doubt be an online music promotion success.

So you have a cell phone, a Palm Pilot, an automated office complete with teleconferencing, remote-access, Web site and e-mail addresses. So what? Just because you’re always available to the media doesn’t mean the media has easy access to your clients. What will your high-tech office be able to do when a reporter wants a press kit at 7 p.m. on a Friday evening? Nothing – except hastily prepare the hard copy kit for a costly overnight shipment.

There is a simple way to eliminate the need for keeping a large inventory of hard copy press kits and reduce your dependency on the shipping company guy: publish your clients’ press kits online.

Making the move from hard copies to press kits published online that are always-accessible is essential in today’s age of e-mail. The corporate world lives by e-mail; reporters and other media professionals are no different. These people are busy and time is always of the essence when they’ve got deadlines breathing down their necks. The decision to use your client in a story instead of someone else is contingent on whose information is easiest to get. If it takes all night for your client’s press kit to reach their desk, you might get bumped.

I know what you’re saying right now. “But, Drew, I e-mail my clients’ press materials to the media.” Well, that’s great, but just because reporters use e-mail doesn’t mean they open every stranger’s message that arrives in their inbox and it especially doesn’t mean that they even bother opening your attachments. Why? Because it’s too risky.

First of all, everyone knows not to open an e-mail from someone you don’t know; especially if there’s an attachment. This is e-mail safety 101. Strange e-mails with attachments usually mean one thing: virus. At least, that’s the take of most business’s firewalls and anti-virus protection systems. You may think you’re making waves by mass e-mailing your media lists with attached press releases, but how many calls are you getting back? Not many, since your important e-mail has been tossed out with the “wasser” worm and those annoying “enlargement” e-mails.

So what’s the solution? Reject technology and start snail-mailing and faxing again? No. Embrace technology and publish your press kits online.

Now, an online press kit is not a Web site. Don’t be confused by the term “online.” Though an online press kit can be displayed online and present information like a Web site, it is really a virtual folder or briefcase that allows you to upload and store your press materials on the Internet. Once in your online press kit folder, these documents and images can be distributed as links – not attachments.

When you prepare your sharp, concise e-mail pitch to the media, you simply insert links to your clients’ press kits. When the reporter clicks the link, the document can be opened and saved on their computer. It opens like an attachment, but the documents themselves live online. Instead of piling them onto your e-mail, you’re simply providing directions (a link) to get to them. They become part of the e-mail message, so a media outlet’s virus protection system won’t automatically kick it out of the system.

Virtually anything can be uploaded to an online press kit: press releases, high-resolution images, video and audio clips, graphics and more. Plus, since you have control over your online press kits, you can always be sure they’re up to date.

Now you’re thinking “Wow, these things sound great, but I bet they are expensive.” Not necessarily. Though there are online press kit programs available that cost into the thousands, they usually include extra features you don’t really need and will probably never use. Think of the online press kit market as the binder or folder aisle at your favorite office supply store. Sure there are binders with all kinds of extras, but you pass those by for what you need and the price you can live with.

Face it – technology is only going to get better and faster. Don’t be left in its dust trying to wave down that brown truck with your emergency overnight press kit. By going online with your clients’ press kits, you’re not only making them easy to access, but easy to cover by the media. The media loves that – and so will your clients.

Aside from studio rehearsals and playing guitars, a start-up band must consider other important things to gain more opportunities. This can be done through creating a band portfolio to be submitted to various recording studios and companies.

Every musician of a start-up band must participate in conceptualizing for the overall look and theme of their portfolio. It is also important for them to consider printing some materials like CD covers, band profile, band photo and list of songs. Here are the things that compose a good band press kit or portfolio:

The Cover Page – This page must introduce your band and the type of music you play. Your band logo must be included, along with the band name. Provide contact details if necessary, including telephone numbers, address, email address, website and URL.

Band Profile – This must provide specific information about the band, as well as the individual members. You can tell your band’s history of how you were formed, who plays specific instruments, and what kinds of songs you cover or compose.

Band Photos – You can resort to online printing for fast and quality photo prints. Quality band photos speak of professionalism that is why it is important to take it to consideration. It is also essential to make use of quality stock to maintain the quality of the image for a long period of time.

Demo CD – Provide a CD that contains at least three of your best songs. This will give recording studios a hint of what kind of music you have. Through the demo CD, recording companies can decide whether you have the potential or not.

Song List – Provide a list of songs to be included on the band portfolio. Include the original music and even your best cover songs.

Business Card – This kind of printed material is used to create a visual identity and show professionalism. Furthermore, a business card can be carried anywhere by a recording company’s representative. With this, your band may get an exposure through a small card.

An impressive press kit can make your band step up from the rest. But the most important thing to be considered by a start-up band is to come up with good and original music to be enjoyed by everyone.