Your Band Bio: Write What You Believe
6 valuable tips on how to write a great band biography from promoter, Megan Wetzel
I was browsing through band profiles online and came across one in particular that caught my eye. I listened to their music samples, loved their sound and they had great graphics on the website. Then I started reading their profile and got completely turned off from their music. This may sound harsh, but the band biography could potentially make or break you.
The follow steps and guidelines will help and prevent your band from going from a ten to a zero in matter of minutes.
- Don’t worry about writing every single detail of your bands life history. The biography should be the most important facts and can be as long as a page or as short as a few paragraphs. The point is to get your information across to the reader without losing the readers interest.
- Emphasize you and your bands strong points and lean less on what area’s you need to work upon. If you shared the stage with well known acts, mention them here. If you haven’t yet had a gig in your career, don’t mention that. That will only turn the reader off into a potential hiring. While it’s ok to plug your bands achievements, don’t ever tell all out lies to make your musical achievements sound better than they are.
- If you have band letterhead (With your bands logo/contact information) then be sure to always type up your biography on this. You should always keep your band information consistent with the same logo, image, etc. If you don’t have letterhead, a logo or any images associated with your band, you may want to speak with your promotional marketing group or recording studio about getting your promo package together. They can each help you decide what logo your band should be using and how to correctly market your media kit.
- Decide how your band is classified in the music industry. The contact reading your biography needs and wants to know what your music is comparable too.
- Feel comfortable with your reader and your band and use humor or slight sarcasm if it fits with your bands image. Avoid going overboard with the sarcasm because you still want to be professional with your delivery. Also be careful about not offending someone. If you think something could offend someone, most likely it will so you should keep it out of the bio.
- Key points to add into your biography:
- DO list the band’s major musical influences
- DO stress how the band was formed, but don’t go through the whole lineup of who was fired/left/replaced by whom. This is not only boring for the reader, but also shows your inability to stay with a band.
- DO list all of your bands accomplishments.
- DO add a list of all your band members and what part they play in the music.
- DO make sure all your contact information is on your biography.
- DO have a professional read and edit your bio.
Megan Wetzel owns MW Sound Promotions, a publicity agency located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Megan and her team have helped many up-and-coming and established bands get noticed in the Philadelphia and New York area club circuit.