A press kit is an all in one advertisement that is sent out by a band, solo artist or by a marketing team to different companies (such as a record label, a magazine, a blog or a PR company) or venues in hope of being signed, booked for gigs or promoted by blogs.

When making a press kit you need to include a multitude of information while also keeping it simple so the organisations it is being sent to can use sections of the press kit in radio advertisements and venue bookers.

 

A press kit needs to include everything that the press will need in order to advertise the artist. This will include:

• An official musicians biography

  • A musicians biography will need to be included in the press kit because it will include all the useful information the organisations need in order to advertise you as an artist or the artist that you are managing. There are a few different ways that you can present this information, most organisations will need only a few sentences (this is called an elevator pitch) but there are others that will require a longer biography that differ from 1 paragraph to 4+ paragraphs. 

  • Things you will need in the biography are:

    • An engaging introduction, this is because you are ultimately trying to sell not only your music but you as a person to the places you decide to send this kit to.

    • Your name, this will be your band name or your onstage alias that you want to be known as. 

    • Where you are from, this doesn’t have to be specific but it's good to say the region.

    • What music you make, whether it is heavy metal or it’s pop you need to include this because you can’t sell music without a genre.

    • What influences your music, this doesn’t necessarily mean all of your life struggles as you don’t want to give so much away while you're first starting out it can just simply be about the current affairs in the genre of music that you are making. 

    • Your background information, you must keep this information relevant so include your musical history and it will make it easier if you write in third person as the organisations will then be able to copy and paste certain information that they think is best from it, if you find this difficult ask someone to help you write it. 

    • A description of your music, you should keep this simple and quick and you should use terminology that is already associated with the genre of music you are producing, include what you are currently working on and choose some relevant and recent things you have done.

    • Your career highlights, this could be as simple as a livestream that got 30 views or it could be a festival that you have performed at, one thing to remember is don't exaggerate your achievements and you should stick to facts  

    • Quotes, if you are a more established artist you could use any media reviews that you have gained but it isn’t essential for your growth if you are a lesser known artist, it will come with the progression of your career. 

    • Links to your social media and if you have a website you should include this as well, your social media includes instagram, facebook, Soundcloud, Spotify, YouTube, Twitter ect.

• Promotional photos 

  • These should be official promo photos and they should also be downloadable for the places to use them. You need to offer a wide variety of different photos, this means you need to include landscape and portrait photos, colour as well as black and white photos, photos that have extra space around the subject of it so that people can crop them if they want to, and they need to be photos to do with your music as well as album artwork if there is any.

• Music 

  • This is especially important as this is what you are advertising, you should pick your most popular tracks and ones that you feel represent you and your music. You need to include/embed a music player that plays your music in full as well as links to your music. It is wise to add some text that describes your music. 

• Video 

  • This is for any videos that you have so this could be music videos, add some text to them as it can make the videos more compelling.

• Your contact information

  • This needs to be detailed and it needs to include your email and other ways to contact you, this is because everything needs to be in one place for organisations like booking agents.