A brief commentary on band websites and bios

I get a bit frustrated when I’m working to promote a band and they don’t have what I need in an easily-accessible format.  Considering that all promoters are looking for the same things from artists, it always boggles my mind a bit when I can’t find what I’m looking for an an artist’s site, or when their bio is so poorly-written that it’s unusable.

Remember when writing your bio that you’re talking to several audiences – fans, bookers/promoters, and media.  Make sure that what you’re writing would be interesting and useful to those audiences – are there descriptive sentences that reporters and
promoters can use to tell their audiences quickly who you are and what your music sounds like? Are there some unique facts about you as an artist or group that would help them sell you?

Lots of people started bands in university or started playing their instrument a 5 years old; this is not a unique or interesting thing to put in a bio.  Read through 50 artists bios online and you’ll get a sense for what works, what doesn’t, and what’s being repeated over and over.

And for crying out loud, please put your high res band photos, a useful bio, and a few other resources (logo, songs, printable posters with a blank area where promoters can add gig info) in a clearly-marked, easy-to-find spot so that I don’t have to hunt high and low and eventually resort to Google Image Search to find a photo that I can send to the local papers.