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Preparing a Media Kit
Jon Carson,
Outer Sound
Overview
According to its obvious definition, a media kit is the package of materials that a
band sends out to people in the media in order to generate interest. But for unsigned
and independent bands, media kits tend to play a more all-around role, becoming the
band's one-stop source of information for all interested (and sometimes not so
interested) parties. A major label band with Sony-bucks backing them can afford
to have information packets and promo materials tailor made for every type of
contact. But if you're in that league, you probably don't need the advice offered
in this article because you have a team of seasoned experts preparing all this stuff
for you anyway. So we'll assume that you'll be preparing one "media kit" that will
actually be sent off to a wide range of folks like club bookers, record label A&R
types, record retail and conference schedulers as well as your typical music
journalist hacks.
Music
Obviously, the first thing you want to include in your kit is a sampling of your
music, as that is what you're trying to promote in the first place. If you've got
a CD out, then you're all set. Boom, done.
But what if you don't have a CD out? Does that mean you can't play a gig, get a
review or sell your goodies in your local record shop? Of course not. It just
means that you have to put a bit more thought into it. Most likely, you'll want
to go the cassette route. This can take many forms, from a professionally packaged
cassette release all the way down to recording yourself on a Maxell tape with your
little brother's boom box. Probably, you'll want to use something in between. Now,
alot of club bookers will tell you they don't care if you just send them a store-bought
blank tape with the song titles written on the little j-card. My humble opinion -- bull
honky. Packaging is an artistic statement in itself and taking a little bit of time and
pride in it shows that 1. you're a creative individual and 2. you're really serious
about your music. So even if its just a couple songs that you dub yourself, tap into
your (or your friends') artistic juices to put together something representative of
the music.
Important Note:
Put your band's contact info directly on your tape (and on everything else you send out).
Your media kit will probably be slowly disassembled over time, with the various parts
scattered across the county. You don't want that
fickle A&R fella to pop in your tape, love your music and have no idea how to find you.
A word about vinyl... Lots of folks -- particularly the types of folks you'll be
sending your music to -- still love vinyl. However, not too many people have a
record player in their car, office, home and boyfriend/girlfriend's home. So
sending tapes and CDs definitely improve the chances of these busy people taking
the time to listen to your stuff. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't send the
vinyl, but you might consider sending a dubbed cassette as well. The exception to
this rule would be college radio and publciations that have special columns for
7" reviews.
Cover Letter
No need for anything too fancy here -- you're not applying for a job. Well, I guess you
could sort of say that you are, but its a job where they don't really care about your mastery
of the English language. But include a quickie cover letter just to introduce yourself to the
specific person the kit is addressed to. Hopefully, you're not sending the kit completely
unsolicited, so remind the person about any past contact you've had with them. If you are
sending it unsolicited, tell them where you found out about them. If you are friends with anyone
who has an "in" with the person, then you can do your name-dropping here. And in general, just write
a few sentences to introduce yourself -- put a verbal face behind the music.
Band Biography
Ah, the elusive bio. Or, how to make your band sound important. Typically the bio
is supposed to include all the interesting historical tidbits that the press would
want to include in their articles about you. However, you might find yourself in
the position of not having too many interesting tidbits. Never fear -- you can
still put together a document that will at least give the reader a feel for what
you are all about. Here are some points you can include:
How the band got together:
Don't get carried away on this one because no one really
cares to hear loads of details about how you found each other. But its nice to include
a couple sentences about the formation of the band just to provide a little bit of
background.
Past bands:
If anyone in the band has been in other groups that reached any level of acclaim
then definitely include that info. This is one type of info that the people reading
your bio really do care about, especially if they liked the bands. A great way to
spark initial interest! My own band is lucky enough to have a member who was in a
band called "ex-Atari Kid" which provides us with the endlessly entertaining
opportunity of describing ourselves as "ex-ex-Atari Kid".
Description of the Band's Sound:
You may think it superfluous to describe your
music to a person who is probably listening to it as they read the description.
Well, you're kind of right. But still, people do like that frame of reference.
So give the reader a nice, concise three or four sentence description of the
sound. You don't have to dress it up to much. If you cover traditional blues
standards, then there's really not all that much to say. If you do something
a little more innovative, then describe appropriately.
Comparisons and Influences:
Most musicians like to think they're doing something fairly original. But noting
some of your band's influences can provide some more of that frame of reference
I've been talking about. Be smart about this though. Saying that you're influenced
by the Beatles and Led Zeppelin doesn't paint a very compelling mental image, does
it? But I've read bios that say things like "Kind of like Fugazi covering REM." At
least that gave me something to think about.
Plans:
Let the reader know what you've got on the burner for the next couple months. Tour
plans, about to go into the studio, just released a 7", playing a big show with a
popular local band? These are all good types of things to talk about.
So those are some things you can use to fill up the space. And speaking of space,
you don't have to worry about filling up tons of it. Even most established bands
don't have a bio longer than one single-spaced page. Generally, three or four
paragraphs should be plenty. There's a good example of a bio on the right.
One more tip -- finding a friend who is a talented writer to write your bio
accomplishes two neat things: it means your bio will probably be pretty good
and it takes an annoying chore off of your hands. Tap into your talented
friends pool for this one.
Band Picture
The "pic" serves a fairly intuitive purpose -- it shows the world your lovely
mug. Most people are pretty familiar with the whole camera process so I won't
spend lots of time describing how to use a Kodak.
Have some fun with your pictures. Most everyone knows at least one person who
is into photography at some level, and budding photographers are remarkably
easy to con into working for free. So spend a little bit of time planning a
creative setting. Take an afternoon to walk around town and shoot pictures
in interesting places. And, of course, make your pics representative of your
band. Below are a few press pics that I find interesting/appropriate/fun.
Once the pictures are shot... The industry standard for band pictures
is an 8 inch by 10 inch black and white glossy photo with the band name, member's
names and contact information printed at the bottom. (Check out the example at
right). You can get these printed up by sending your picture to one of the many
photo companies out there who specialize in this type of thing. As with virtually
everything else, you can find these companies in the classified sections of
musician-geared mags. And not to play favorites, but Quantity Photos in LA is
supposed to do small runs for pretty cheap -- 100 photos for $42. (Competitors
feel free to e-mail me with your remarkable deals). There's an example of an
8x10 glossy photo at right.
However, like everything else in life, you don't have to use the "industry standard"
approach. Your typical photo store 3x5 print doesn't necessarily look quite as cool
as an 8x10, but its cheaper, you don't have to do as big of a run and does the job just as effectively. And if you
really wanna save some bucks, here's a little secret -- the only people that need
a professional print are the press. You can print up Xerox copies for everyone else
and only send the prints to newspapers and magazines. The bottom line is that there
are lots of options and you can choose the best one to fit your budget. Here's an
example of a band that took a cheaper approach:
Press Clippings
If you've gotten press coverage in the past, its important to include this as it
tells the person reading your kit that someone out there has already found your
music "newsworthy." This is real easy and super-cheap. Every time your band gets
a write-up in a newspaper or magazine, clip out the article as well as the logo
of the publication. Also be sure to jot down the date of the article. When it
comes time to assemble your press kit, tape or glue the articles to a piece of
blank white paper with the appropriate logo above it. Then write down the date
it ran next to the article. If the article is from a small local publication
that the person reading your kit might not have heard of, you can write a little
descriptive blurb about it -- something like "Montana State University paper" or
"Local music magazine from North Carolina". Then run off some copies of that baby
and you're done! And if you want to save some bucks, you can make your press
clippings page the back of your bio page. At the right, there's an example of a
typical press clipping sheet.
A word about overdoing it: DON'T. If you've been lucky enough to get a whole bunch
of write-ups, there's no need to include all of them. A good rule of thumb would be
to not do more than three pages worth of clips. Put one on the back of your bio and
then do a front and back of a second piece of paper. Any more than this just won't
usually get read. So how to choose from all those accolades? Prioritize in order of
the size/reputation of the publication first and break the ties with how much they
liked you.
News Release
Theoretically, you're sending out your Media Kit to members of the media in hopes that
they will write a story about you. Therefore, it's important to include a News Release that
informs them of what the "story" is. This can be anything from "Band Lands Deal With
Warner Records" to "Band to Perform In Woxahatchee, Texas". For more details on how to
write a News Release, take a look at the Outer Sound University article called, fittingly enough,
How To Write a Music-Related Press Release.
If you're sending your Media Kit for a purpose other than getting media coverage (i.e. club bookers,
A&R people, etc.) then you don't need to include a News Release.
Extras
Lots of bands like to stuff in extra goodies with their Media Kits. Stickers,
matches and all those other stupid little merchandise objects bands feel obliged
to spend their money on. Well, if you blew 200 bucks on a roll of a thousand band
stickers then go ahead. But don't expect that your local club booker is going to
immediately run out to the parking lot and apply it to their car bumper. It's fine
to include stuff like this, but realize that 99 out of 100 of them will be quickly
tossed into the trash.
Presentation
There are tons of ways you can present your Media Kit. Here's the industry standard:
Start with a two pocket folder (you can slap your band sticker on the front to dress it up).
In the left pocket, put your music, then your bio, then your first page of press clippings. On
the right side, put your news release, then your photo, then any additional pages of press
clippings.
Using the industry standard presentation will win you big points with cranky media nitpickers.
But don't feel completely obliged -- you can be original without losing anything more than a couple
points off your "style" score. Some bigger bands do their Media Kits in the form of a little booklet that they get printed up
by a professional printing press -- comes out looking kind of like a little zine. I've even seen
one band that printed up a corporate style brochure that included a quickie bio,
a few "selling points", a couple small pics and a few of their best press quotes.
It looked very professional and they sent out so many that it ended up being quite
cost effective to take the one-time big hit on mass printing as opposed to lots of
individual printing and mailing costs over the course of several months. Probably didn't
win them too many points with underground punk zines, but it worked well with the market
they were going after.
The bottom line though is that what you really need to worry about is the info. A writer or booking person
is smart enough to see through the fluff to know if you're pretending to be
something you're not. This doesn't mean that you should send out something
that looks like crap. Always put time and effort into making a Media Kit that
looks respectable and shows that you actually care. But the music media is a
savvy and cynical bunch -- a deadly combination -- so make your Kit
representative of the level you're at. A nicely put together
Kit mailed out in one of those plain brown mailing envelopes (buy a box
of 100 at Staples for about $5!) will do the trick in most cases.
Here are some scenarios and appropriate press kits for them:
Beginning band looking to get first batch of gigs:
cover letter
homemade tape with homemade j-card
brief bio with picture pasted onto it
Band with self-released tape or record looking for local press and regional gigs:
cover letter
news release
copy of your release
bio with any press clips on backside
xerox copy of pic for clubs; photo store print for press
Band with CD out looking for press and gigs:
cover letter
news release
copy of CD
bio
press clippings
professionally reproduced glossy 8x10 photo
And here are rough costs for press kit items
(and I emphasize the word rough!)
Music
CD: $1.50 - $3.00 each ..... minimum run of 1000 copies
Tape: $1 (homemade) - $3 (professionally made) ..... minimum of around 500 for the professionally made
Vinyl: $1 - $2 ..... minimum around 300
Pictures
Xerox copies: $.03 - $.10
Prints: $.30 - $.70 ..... very low minimums
Glossy 8x10: $.30 - $.60 ..... minimum 100 copies
Bio and Press Clippings
anywhere from 3 to 10 cents a pop at your local copy store.
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