8 Things That Should Be In Every Band’s Digital Press Kit
Guest Post by Dave Cool
There are many different kinds of people that will be visiting your website, but likely for different reasons. These include your current fans, potential new fans, as well as media, bloggers, bookers, and other industry folks. For example, your fans might go to your website to read your latest blog post or download your latest song. But with media and industry, they’re probably visiting your site to find things like your official bio, or some promo photos.
To make it easy for media and industry to find the information they need (and quickly), the best thing to do is create a Digital Press Kit section on your website.
What should you include in it? Here are 8 things that should be in every musician’s digital press kit:
1. Bio
The first element to have is your most current bio. Bookers and festivals often have different needs and word limits for bios, so it would also be a good idea to include a few different versions, including an elevator pitch, a short bio (1 paragraph), a medium bio (a few paragraphs) and a long bio (4+ paragraphs).
2. Photos/images
The next element to include in your digital press kit is a section with downloadable (professional) photos. Have a few different official photos, with vertical and horizontal options, as well as black & white versions available. Make sure some of them are hi-resolution in case the media person or festival programmer needs to use the image for print. You can also include the image for your most recent album cover, which can be especially helpful for reviewers.
3. Music
You’ll of course need to have your music available to listen to, including a few tracks available to download. If a media person wants to get a copy of your full album or EP for review, just put clear information on who they can contact to get a copy.
4. Video
Many blogs and media sites love to embed videos of the artists they’re covering, which helps make the article more visual and engaging. Embed a few of your best videos in your digital press kit to make it easy to find a quality video that best represents your band.
5. Press articles/reviews
It wouldn’t be a press kit without some press, so post links to a few of your best reviews and interviews. Don’t assume that people will click on each article and read them in full. Pull the best quote from each review and include it underneath the link. You can also spice up this part of your digital press kit visually by including the logos of the media source next to each article/review.
6. Notable achievements
If you’ve been nominated for any awards, charted on radio, performed at noteworthy festivals or conferences, you should definitely include this information. Anything that can help to give positive context to your music and career should be in your digital press kit.
7. Contact info
Although you should of course have a “Contact” section on your website, you should also have detailed contact information in your digital press kit to have everything in one place. Include an email address as well as a phone # where a media person or booker can reach you if they need to speak to you in a hurry, they’re often working on tight deadlines.
8. Social media
And finally, include your social links on the page so that if the media person or booker wants to quickly check out your social media presence, they have all the links right there. You don’t have to overdo it, simply list the social media networks that you are most active on.
Want to see some great digital press kits? Check out these from Bandzoogle members:
www.briaghamctavish.com/epk
www.neilwatsonmusic.com/press-kit
www.tylerkealey.com/press-kit
Hypebot contributing writer Dave Cool is Director of Artist Relations for musician website and marketing platform Bandzoogle. Twitter: @Bandzoogle | @dave_cool
Good idea. The press kit can be pulled from a site. I usually just make one and send it out before a new release or gig.
Presskit.to is a great EPK service! We use it and love how it works. For instance, they have a section called Wins where you can write entries about achievements in a timeline format and categorize the type of Win (e.g.: Press Quote, Shoutout, Milestone, Affiliation, etc.) And you can deploy a Presskit widget on your own website.