ACS PressKit.org

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!

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.

Stop wasting time on band promotion tactics that simply do not work and drain you of all your money.  There are simple and effective ways on how to promote your band that cost next to nothing.  This article gives you 5 steps on how to promote your band.

Step One

There are resources online you can use that are free, so why not use them?  If you have more time than money right now, then free is the way to go.  Just do a Google search on keywords like “band promotion”, “how to promote your band” and “band promoting”.  Many of these websites will have free tools for you to use where you can upload your music online for no cost.  You’ll probably even stumble across a blog that will let you post your concert dates, which is even better.

Step Two

Go to the websites and blogs where your listeners are.  There are websites where listeners rate and vote on the music on the site.  This is an added bonus.  In the same token, go to blogs and forums where your target audience is and post links back to your blog or post free song downloads.  There are no real secrets in how to promote your band, but there are some really effective cheap ways of doing it.

Step Three

Start a MySpace page and a Facebook page just for your band.  Even if you have a website, these social networking sites will give you more exposure than you can imagine.  Some other good sites to have free websites on are Squidoo, Blogger and Hubpages.  All of these sites are easy to use and they rank in the search engines well.

Step Four

Use as many free methods of band promotion as you can until you can afford to pay for advertising.  For example, there is a site called band-flyers.com.  This site allows you to make flyers and print them out on their website for free.  There are even online printing companies where you can print out 100 brochures or 100 flyers for free, just pay for shipping.  Again, learning how to promote your band is not rocket science, it just takes a little work and creativity.

Step Five

Read books about how to promote your band and band promotion.  There are a lot of resources out there for you to use.  Face it, you didn’t learn how to sing or play an instrument over night.  You’re not going to master band promotion over night either.  Do your research online and don’t be afraid to invest a couple hundred bucks in your education.

Learn about sonicbids.com and other ways to put your electronic press kit online in this free band management and promotion video with music business tips. 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

Find venues that your band can play shows at: learn tips, tools and resources that will help you book venues for your band in this free 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

A start-up rock band must come up with an impressive band press kit to be given out to recording studios. The press kit or portfolio is a musician’s first step to success. Furthermore, quality music portfolio can bring more opportunities for a specific rock band. With this, it is important for the band members to focus on the things needed to complete the package.

Printed Documents

Printed documents like cover letter, band profile, song list, record of gigs and shows must be included in a band press kit. These documents must tell potential clients about a band’s objectives, history and profile. Moreover, recording studios may want to ask what kind of genres and the cover songs included on the list of a specific band. It is also important to provide a band photo so that the profile will become reliable.

Music Sample

A start-up rock band must come up with a demo CD that records at least three of its best songs. Representatives from a certain recording studio may want to hear a specific band’s music for evaluation. Before recording a demo CD, it is important for the band members to rehearse their part. They just have to remember that they need to produce a quality demo CD to impress the clients.

Visual Identity

A professional business card for the whole rock band can be included on the press kit. Most of the time, the name of the band leader is indicated on the business card. It is also important to come up with a creative and unique business card design to create visual identity. The logo, band name and contact details are also important in printing this kind of material.

These are the things that should be included in a band press kit. A start-up rock band must take this first step in order to achieve their dreams of becoming popular in the music industry.

Band Promotion for every musican is the key to success. To sell your music online, promote your band, promote your music or just showcase your band to the world you need to be able to promote your music with success.

As you well know, blogs have been all the rage for the last few years and rightly so. Blogs provide the reader with current news and content rather than some of the out of date and stale content that may appear on a lot of websites. If you are a musician or have your own band then starting a blog could help promote your music. Band Promotion is difficult enough and this is just one way to help in promoting your band.

Blogs also rank highly in the search engines for a number of reasons, most notably for their current and relevant content. There are, however, several key elements to creating a successful blog about your band or music as outlined below. You are competing with thousands of other bloggers within your subject area of music so you need to be different and follow each of the key steps as outlined.

Do your research! You must know what is already out there in terms of competition. You can do this by typing in your blog subject matter into the search engines and seeing what appears in terms of blogs. Also, search the many blog directories to see who is already writing about your topic of interest. Use the Google keyword search tool to see what people are searching for each month in relation to your topic. For example, you would be best suited to focus on a topic that people are searching for and attracts more than 50,000 searches a month. When it comes to music, you could write about band promotion which has over 70,000 searches for these keywords each month. Or maybe write about how to sell your music online or a related topic that people want information about.

Find Your Niche! As already mentioned there are thousands of blogs out there on the internet about music, bands etc. They key is writing about a niche topic and then you will be more likely to attract a targeted audience. To try and compete with an already established blog that has high page rankings, a strong viewer base, and lots of existing content is going to just get you frustrated. Focus on one key area of music or playing in a band and you will create your own loyal fan base who will crave informative articles.

Think about your blog title, domain name, description and content. Take your time in thinking about a catchy but relative domain name. It is very difficult to find the domain name you want as most one, two and three word top level domain names have already been registered. You can buy one of these top level domain names from the owner but often the requested purchase price is unrealistic and just too costly. Also, try to get a popular domain name extension. Try to get the keywords in your domain name and blog title. This will help in the search engine rankings.

If you already have your own website then create a blog using your own domain name. Why? If you create a blog from your own band or music website then you will provide readers with the opportunity to explore and navigate to other pages on your website. This will also help in branding, brand exposure and providing one link for fans to find you.

If you don’t your own website and are not keen to start your own blog then try starting a blog on one of the top music network sites such as MyBandMate or MySpace. Both provide tools for musicians to promote their music in many ways for free and one is in the form of a blog. This way you will already have an established audience to read your blog. I would recommend doing this even if you do go ahead with your own independent blog. The more exposure for your band then the more band promotion you will achieve.

With your own independent blog it is important to develop keyword rich content with the keywords appearing in the title, description, first paragraph without going overboard. You will be penalised if you just “overload” your pages and articles with too many of the targeted keywords. You just don’t need to do it and Google is aware of all the tricks webmasters try to use when it comes to achieving high page rankings.

It’s all about the content! Readers will return to your blog if you provide them with informative and valuable content about the subject you are promoting. You are reading this article most likely because you want to start your own blog or are looking for ways to promote your music. As a result, if you gain some valuable information from this article then there is a good chance that you would return again to my blog to read other articles.

The content needs to be informative and relative. You will lose your reader just as quickly as you got them if you have nothing to offer. There is just too much competition out there so you must add top quality content. If you are not sure what to write about then read other blogs, not to copy their articles but to get ideas. There is nothing wrong with seeking out ideas and then writing your own article with a different twist or adding new material. If your readers like your blog they are likely to refer it to their friends which will increase your subscriber base.

Provide some incentive to get your reader to join your blog newsletter or RSS feed. One of the trends in recent times is to give away eBooks when someone signs up. You can create a 5 or 10 page eBook about your niche topic. It has to be catchy enough to get the reader to give up their name and email for it.

Promote your site via bookmarking. Some of the most popular sites include Digg, Technorati, Reddit, Jumptags, stumbleupon and many more but these are the top ones. You will be accused of spamming if you constantly promote and add your own content or site so get some of your friends to help you out with this. These sites will track your IP address and can permanently shut down your account so you will need to respect their terms of use. You can find that these “bookmarks” will give you some promotion on the first few pages of the search engines for your keywords.

Use RSS feeds. RSS feeds provide the reader with an option to receive updates when you add new content to your blog. Once again you will need to submit regular articles or news to your site and it needs to be worth reading to keep the reader subscribing to your blog. I have subscribed to blogs, newsletters and sites before only to be bombarded with emails selling products. I quickly went to the “Unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the email.

Encourage readers to submit comments about the various blog entries to submit. Your readers are there because they have an interest in your topic so try to create a bond with them in making them feel a part of your blog. If they leave a comment be sure to respond otherwise you will find that they are less likely to write a comment again.

You will need to market your blog. This can be done by submitting your blog to the various blog directories or by writing articles and submitting them to article directories with an active link back to your blog. Submit a free press release about your blog, get into related forums and include an active link. Be sure not to spam or just sell your blog as you will be expelled from the forum, be discrete in promoting your blog in these forums.

Form joint ventures with fellow bloggers or websites. Invite other bloggers to submit content to your site and in return you can submit content to their blogs and therefore cross promote. Most bloggers will follow up on a lead that will increase their exposure. As long as you are not in direct competition and only complement another blog then this can be a valuable option. You will also gain more content for your blog.

Make your blog stand out! Add other forms of media to the site. Add MP3s, videos, photos or even an audio interview. There are plenty of cheap ways to add this rich media content to your site. Make sure that they provide relative content that your readers are craving.

Fresh Content! I can’t state enough how much your blog needs to contain fresh, informative and related content. It will take some work to maintain a dynamic and successful blog so devote at least an hour a week to working on your blog. Improve the appearance, promote it, add new content or pursue partnerships.

You can make money from your blog by adding Google Adsense, affiliate links or generating income from advertising on your blog. You will only gain interest from advertisers if you generate a significant number of hits each day. If your goal is to promote your music or band then don’t lose focus of this by distracting your readers. Good luck in promoting your music or band.

Use T-shirts, stickers and other merchandise to publicize your band and establish your identity; learn more about branding and bands in this free 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

Self promotion is becoming increasingly popular for bands and musicians the world over. Managing your own marketing materials

saves money and puts more in your pocket while allowing you to control your image. Your band press kit is the number one

weapon in your band promotion arsenal; but you have have to make sure you include the right components in your band press kit

to impact booking agents, venue managers, radio program managers and record label executives. This article explores what you

need to include in your band press kit to come across as a professional act that hiring personnel can count on to deliver.

Band Bio Sheet

Your band biography, or bio sheet, showcases your band. You might include:

A brief summary of your band and its members.
A sample set list
Your musical influences
What style of music you play
Equipment list (for live venues)

Business Card

Music is a business, after all. Include a business card so prospects can keep them in their Rolodexes if they need a band in

a pinch.

Band Poster

You’ve seen them on the walls at radio stations, live venues and the bedrooms of teenagers everywhere — the band poster is

your calling card to fame, and keeps you fresh in the minds of prospects.

Band Photo

Your band, immortalized in a black and white professional-quality photo. It’s necessary, and it’s cool.

CD/DVD

The most important part of your band press kit; anyone who is going to drop a boatload of dough on a band wants to hear what

they sound like first. Make sure you include one in every band press kit.

Pocket Folder

You need a pocket folder to put all of this stuff in, right? Your folder should include pocket slits for your business card

and CD or DVD. This puts everything right at easy reach for hiring managers.

Press Releases, Newspaper Clippings, Upcoming Gigs, etc.

Any other relevant information, such as media coverage and press releases you’ve submitted, should be included in your band

press kit. If your band is already popular, you don’t need to include everything — just the most recent and/or highlights.

There you have it — everything that you need in your band press kit.

For more details: WWW.THEBANDPRESSKIT.COM

In the world of online media, there is a new tool that can help your band find fame.  This tool is called an electronic press kit.  Without this tool, getting the media coverage of the big label bands is almost  impossible.

The electronic press kit is a valuable collection of information about your band.   In most cases, the assembled press kit is placed in a zip file and stored on your web server.  Links to this downloadable file can be placed on the site itself or emailed to media outlets that might be interested in covering your band.

The contents of the electronic press kit will include pictures, contact information and biographical information about your band and its members.  This content is used by the media representatives, like bloggers, journalist and music magazine writers, to create informed articles about your band and musical style.  But, you may be asking, what does this mean for your band?

The biggest thing is publicity.  In the world of music, publicity is life.  If you are unknown, you can stay in the dark corners for decades.  Media gets a lot of attention.  A single blog can have hundreds or thousands of readers.  When that blog owner decides your band is worth writing about, you have just received A) a huge endorsement and B) the chance to impress all of those readers, which is made much easier by the fact that someone they trust to provide good information has just given you a recommendation.

If you can use the electronic press kit to draw the attention of the media, the media will help you draw the attention of the fans.  There is no reason to remain a complete unknown when creating a press kit is so simple and so important to your success.

See online press kit examples in this free band management and promotion video with music business tips. 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

It is very important as a musician to heave a well put together press kit that will help steam roll your path to success in the music industry. Press kits are also commonly called “media kits” and “artist bio” but they all used for the same thing which is to help with Music Promotion, Music Publicity, Booking Agents and Band Promotion. There are a lot of bands out there all gunning for the same venues, radio play and magazine interviews which is why you are more likely to successfully snag all of these opportunities with the Press kit I’m going to help you build.

Lets get started with the basics and go from there:

COVER- A first impression is a lasting impression so make sure this aspect of your press kit really shines, let this be the part that introduces you to the venues, radio stations and magazines. Include what genre of music you play, your band logo (eye catching) and your contact information for the band (Myspace, Website, Phone numbers and email).

ARTIST INTRO PAGE (Bio)- Start off by introducing your group followed by the band members (if any), follow that with the style of music you play and list any genres you may have. Go into naming some quality venues, clubs etc. you have played at in the past and which cities or regions they were in. Also list important equipment you may have such as amps, PA, Microphones, lights, etc. and any personal you may have that runs the production for your shows. Talk about your fan base, include the size of it and how you communicate with them. List any street team supporters you may have and where they are located. Make sure to differentiate between original music or cover music depending on which one relates to your style and also if you’re an acoustic or electric act. List any promoting techniques you may use to help bring people to your shows seeing how this is the only way to make any money at live venues it is a very important part to getting venues to book your show. List any websites, social networking sites and or flyers you use for promoting shows and music presence. One way to get started is to attend open mic. nights and leave your press kits with venue managers after the show in hopes of getting a gig in the future.

ARTIST PHOTOS- Lets take a look at why it is so very important to have good photos before we talk about how to acquire them. Take a look around at today’s communication behaviors and you will quickly notice that visual imagery is king in the world’s communication. You see it no matter where you are and it would seem that almost everyday new technology comes out that even furthers how we view this media on a day to day basis. This should be setting off a little red alarm in you head telling you that if this is true then it must be vital the way people are viewing you which brings us back to your photos. First impressions are lasting impressions so if you really want to have those in the industry and amongst the music community to take you seriously you will want to get some Professional 8×10?s taken of your music group or single act. Be resourceful in about getting your photos, be sure to shop around and maybe ask friends and family if they know of anyone that can help you out. There isn’t really any need to spend a fortune here if you take your time and do some research first. Have fun with this as well, use your imagination and come up with some fun ways to accurately portray your music.

Booking Information - This is the section of your press kit that contains all of your Booking Information such as the best way to contact you, preferences in types of shows and areas you can travel to perform. It is important to have your contact info in multiple places through out your Press Kit so go ahead and add your phone number and address again in this section as well.

Demo CD You are rarely going to run across a club or venue that will agree to have you come play before they have heard your music and the best way to have them take is a listen is to create a Demo CD. The Demo CD should consist of 2-4 songs each being the best of your material, this is the time to really show them your good stuff. Once again add your contact info to the label that will be placed on this Demo CD which should also include your band name and the list of songs on it. All of this is to help ensure that even if the person or venue you gave the press kit to looses the kit, there might be a good chance that your CD could still be floating around along with how to contact you for gigs. Spend some time into a nice looking CD Cover and label so that who ever sees it will know that you are serious about your music.

SONGS LINEUP Put together a list of your songs that your band might play on a average basis including the best of any cover songs you might add in with your original work. If you might be wanting to do anything else such as a light show or some sort of skit on stage this would be the place to add that in as well.

SHOWS SHEET Your bands shows sheet should include any past gigs you have played and any future ones that you have already lined up to perform at.

BAND / MUSIC REVIEWS To show credibility of your bands music it is very important to include any Music Reviews or news paper clippings on your band into your press kit. If you do not have any of those items then you might want to start getting your music out to resources that can do a review for you such as local newspapers and organizations like www.LocalProMoConnect.com & www.lpmvoice.com

BUSINESS CARDS- Were not saying that you have to present your self as some corporation only aimed at making money but we are saying that you need to treat your music as a base line business which means you will need a card to pass around at every show you go to. You can include your Independent acts business card in the mix of your press kit as well as always keeping a few on you at all times in case you run into the right person that will be able to help you out. You can make your own business cards at almost any copy store for a relatively good deal seeing how they are only made up of paper and ink. And almost every word program comes with a few templates you can use at home and have printed on card stock paper or even just very thick regular paper. Make sure to include your bands Name, Phone, Contact Name, Websites, Email, and any logos you might have to represent your act. You might want to make up a small batch of high quality cards to pass around to industry reps and a bigger batch of average business cards to pass around to the common person but it is up to you and your budget to determine how and when this is all possible.

ENVELOPE- Depending on who your planning to receive your press kit you might want to come up with two very different designs for the envelope it will be going into. Your going to want to stand out in a pile of many envelopes so be sure to use a load color and unique design that captures the attention of the beholder to ensure your press kit wont be overlooked on the desk or in the file cabinet of a venue owner or booking agent. On the other hand you will want to be a bit more settle when it comes to sending your press kit out to record labels or industry reps so try to think of a design that is appealing to the eye but not to distracting. Just be sure to have both styles ready to go on a moments notice in case you have to send them out or hand them off to any and everyone that might be able to help further your musical career. Thanks you for following along with us on successfully building your press kit and we hope all the best to your near future and utilizing these tools.