Developing a simple Band or Business Press Kit
This can work not just for bands, but as a simple info pack for businesses in case they have media requests for information about the business for a news story or background for an article. Don’t just give a huge dump of information, drop a simple summary at the start to make it easier for someone to find what they really need from the press kit.
The basics you want to cover
Band Bio
This is the history of the band to the present. Covering off when they started, who is in the band, the area the band lives, the musical styles and influences, and some of the highlights of the band, like a big festival they played, or supporting a famous musician and so on. Break out some of the highlights as its own list as ‘achievements’ or similar.
Photos
Good photos of the band, including some professional shots of the band together on a plain background, or together somewhere appropriate to the band or their current tour (like if they are touring Sweden, you wouldn’t be including only photos of them in the Egyptian desert for example). If you have some good live photos, include them as well. Possibly include photos of the latest album with merch and so on. I would also include copies of the latest tour poster and so on.
Latest News
This is current tour info, album release date, or similar. If there is an album launch coming up, give some details about the background of the album so it can be given better context by any press that end up covering the launch.
Samples
This can be a pre-release copy of an album (with a street release date indicating how far off it is) a sample of the best tracks by the band, links to live performance recordings or official music videos and even think about something unique to offer like generic station identification sound clips or ringtones.
Social Media and websites
Include links to all the bands social media channels, especially if they are sub-pages of a record label and are hard to find. These are Facebook, instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and so on. As well as the various ways to purchase their music or listen to music, iTunes/spotify/etc.
Contact details
For further info and so on, so its the contact details for the band, their manager, agent, record label and so on.
Press reviews/articles
Drop some previous press articles or reviews as samples in as well, as this same document can be handy for sending to potential booking agents and so on.
There are quite a few places that provide an online solution to creating one of these kits, and most record labels would have a template that they could use. But honestly a new startup band/musician might just find it easier to generate something themselves and build it out as they get more popular.
Expanded things to consider
Although some of these things are covered by managers and so on, its a good idea to get on top of these early as they tend to take time to go through the approval process.
Have you logged all your songs for royalties?
Have you signed up for one of the music charting groups so you appear on Billboard/ARIA charts.
Have you logged all your live performances for song royalty payments?