In a previous life, I helped to promote  local bands  in our area and now as a graphic designer for a hotel/casino, I do a lot of creative work for our live entertainers – posters, backlit signage, hotel mailers, websites, etc and I’m discovering a disturbing trend in the lack of quality photographs, bios, etc for those entertainers.

I cannot stress enough the need for bands to have a promo kit, preferably an online version, that is easily accessible.

What should be in said promo kit?  I’m glad you asked…

High Resolution Photographs

This is an absolute MUST.  I cannot use a picture that I grabbed off of your website.  The file size is too small and the quality will be poor – which will make the quality of my mailer/poster/etc suffer.  With that being said, I also cannot go without a picture and will usually resort to trolling and raiding your Facebook or MySpace pages as some of those photos might be barely passable if I use them small enough.

Trust me when I say that you would rather have your band promoted with a high quality promo photo.   It will give you a more professional appearance and you can then control the images that are used to promote your band.

Bio of Band and Band Members

Prepare the publicist and/or media contacts as to who you are, what you do and why people should come see you play. Just some suggestions:

• What brought you together as a band?
• Who influences your music?
• Where you have played in the past?
• What awards have you won?
• Are you a cover band? Do you play originals?
• Set List – What can someone expect to hear when they come to see your band?

Video and Audio of Your Performances

From the promotion side of things, I may not be familiar with your genre or your music and being able to see and hear your band in action will help me “see” the best way to present your band in our materials.

From the prospective of someone looking to hire a band, video and audio will let them know exactly what they can expect when they hire you, it builds trust, and will move someone to pay your fee.

From the consumer’s point of view, again, it let’s them know what they can expect to experience when they come see your show and may swing someone to your side who is on the fence about whether or not to spring for that show ticket.

Your promo kit can be in any form although an electronic version makes it very easy for a marketer or graphic designer to retrieve the information without having to call you or have you mail a version.  We’re all busy, do you really want to be fielding my phone calls all day?

In closing, I would like to introduce you to the band that actually sparked this blog post.  Their website (from a marketing point of view) is fantastic. Their online promo kit (website) includes high resolution versions of their logo, an 8×10 promo shot, video, stage plot (again, VERY helpful that we don’t have to ask for it), a description of the band and a ton of contact information.

The band’s name is Dust ‘N Bones, they are a Guns ‘N Roses tribute band out of Southern California.  You can check out their website and see what I’m talking about at www.dustnbones.com