Press Kit - live gig booking materials

[pounce]

i intend to have this thread eventually be a sticky/tutorial. however, i wanted to try something. instead of me typing up a primer on band promotional materials, i wanted to provide a link or two to articles on the subject that i'd read. they all tend to have a common set of ideas. then, i'd love to see input here from folks about their press kits with extra emphasis on what you have done right to help get gigs with them. how have you made your press kits show your band off best? anything that is especially working well for you? photography? reviews?

here are some links to articles which give an overview of press kits. i followed these kinds of guidelines with my own press kit (when i was using one) and thought mine had lots of positives, but i'd still do it even better today knowing what i do now.

http://www.getsigned.com/presskits.html

http://vt.essortment.com/buildingpressk_rfwu.htm

http://www.hitme.net/useful/interviews/blacktips.html

http://mediawebsource.com/bandpresskitsample.htm

so, these links are a pretty good start and standard overview for what is expected in press kits. obviously, good ones will get you gigs, get the info about your band in the reviews, get your picture out for the reviews, and feature an appropriate cd of your music. so i'd love to hear from you guys about what is working (or not) for you.

especially if anyone here sees large amounts of press kits coming in (like they work at a club or other live venue or booking agency) you'd have some perspective that i'd love see in this thread! i've seen -some- press kits, but someone in that area will have seen more than the usual amount of them and can provide some real life stories of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

[pounce]

by the way, there are some other resources on the net. one of my favorites is rock and roll confidential.

http://www.rockandrollconfidential.com/hall/index.php

might give you an idea what people do wrong with press photo's. kind of a side note to the press kit thread.

on another note, a great site for techies is

http://www.roadie.net/portal/html/modules/news/

with stories and pictures that are a hoot. check out their top ten lists.

[Swafford]

so i'd love to hear from you guys about what is working (or not) for you.


What has worked very well for my band for out of town shows is a standard press kit: bio, press quotes, photo and one sheet, if applicable, and an invitation to take a look at our website for more information, or if the booking person is just using EPK's, which I prefer, then I direct them to our website.

My own personal preference on websites is straight html. I look at websites as information delivery.

you can see what I've done with ours here:
www.lenslounge.com

[pounce]

it's a smart website that gets lots of things right. seems to have a strong live sound emphasis. the only thing i'm missing there is a obvious and simple way to buy any of the cd's that you are on.

[Swafford]

Yeah, duh, great point. Used to have a link to the label site who links to a local retailer, I think, but for some reason I deleted it. I'm sure I had what thought was a good reason, but for the life of me I can't iamgine what it was. Anyway, I'll add something back in that gives a choice between CD Baby, Amazon, iTubes and a local retailer. Thanks for you input, much appreciated.

[bunnerabb]

a decent live video with tight edits and a desk 2 track from a gig can book huge quan.

[saxplayerz]

What has worked very well for my band for out of town shows is a standard press kit: bio, press quotes, photo and one sheet, if applicable, and an invitation to take a look at our website for more information, or if the booking person is just using EPK's, which I prefer, then I direct them to our website.

My own personal preference on websites is straight html. I look at websites as information delivery.

you can see what I've done with ours here:
www.lenslounge.com

U Played Patrick Sullivan's and The Pilot Light ! I'll buy u a beer the next time. :Coolio:

[Swafford]

Been awhile since we been back down to Knoxville (my sister's a resident, so I get down there about once a year). Always love playing in the Old City, though. Patricks is such a cool room, shame they don't do more with it. The load in up thlose stairs off the street - man it looks like a million people been up those old wooden steps.

[Droolbucket]

Great website, Swafford.... very nicely done.
Extra credit for quoting Howling Blind Muddy Slim!:lol:
He's one of my favorites!
(Well, he and Gilbert Gnarley G-N-A-R-L-E-Y)

Droolbucket

[Swafford]

Hey thanks, man.

Got to admit to not listening to Gary Burbank's show much, but he is one of the finest gentleman I've met who works in commercial radio. Always gracious, genuinely interested in -->you< and a real connoisseur of rock and roll and guitars - he flipped over my '35 00-18 a brought in for his show once and launchd a long monologue on small body golden era Martins vs. golden era Gibsons and the blues, while pulling off those Mississippi delta style licks. Treats you like a peer while dogging Cheap Channel and the muckity-mucks he has to answer to.

He played drums in some late 50's era rock band. Can't remember the name...The Mysitcs? Mystiques? Dunno.