What to include in a PR pack

mjkm

It’s amazing how many bands contact management companies, publishers and record companies with a brief (sometime polite but not always) two line email containing a myspace address. EH Management & Promotions receive on average about forty email inquires a day from bands looking for representation, and unless sufficient detail is included in the email the band will be discarded. From their perspective if they have not viewed the email inquires from new bands for a couple of days, the person reading the emails is faced with inquiries from 120+ bands. Which ones are they going to give consideration to?

Email approaches are fine, but the approach which should be adopted is a polite introductory email to ask whether the relevant company or individual is prepared to accept a pr pack from you. Once you have submitted your pr pack, wait at least two weeks before making a follow up phone call or email to inquire whether they have received your pr pack. A usual time frame is in the region of about four to six weeks for a response.

When submitting a promotional pack it should contain the following:

A polite covering letter addressed to a named contact. (It pays to find out who to address the letter to but don’t mark the envelope as private and confidential).

A demo CD, ideally it should contain your best three tracks and the tracks need to be clearly labelled.

A couple of good photos. (These don’t have to be from an expensive photo shoot, just a couple of clear photos which show what you look like. One photo should be full length).

A biog providing an overview of your band. Include the names and ages of the band members and state which instruments they play. Outline your career history to date and include details of all forthcoming gigs and media appearances for at least the following six month period. If you have released a single or album and it has in your opinion sold well, provide details of the sales figures, your record sales are likely to grab the attention of the professional reading your biog. The one thing not to do in a biog is to write egotistical statements about your band such as “The alternative music scene is rubbish, we are the best alternative band around and we will be massive once we get a break.” Everyone excepts that bands do have egos, but anyone who you submit a pr pack to is potentially going to be working with you and if they don’t like you as people they won’t sign you or work with you!

Media reviews, get into the habit of liason with your local press. Invite them along to gigs and keep any articles that they write about your band. Include details in your pr pack of any press reviews, radio airplay or television appearances.

If you have a promotional video, include it to everyone other than radio stations as they will have no interest in viewing it.

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