Bands, your press kit stinks
Notice: If this seems like familiar ground from your humble narrator, it is. But then if I stop receiving awful press kits, I won’t have to keep writing posts like this. Help me help you.
Dear musicians,
Actually that’s not fair. This is addressed to both musicians and publicists. Plus, I know you didn’t ask for this advice, but I’m giving it to you anyway. Why? Because you need it - even if you don’t know you need it. How do I know you need this advice? Because I receive press kits every day.
The first thing that needs to be addressed is the publicity photo. You may not know this, but the writers who receive pitches about artists judge (at least to some degree) those artists by their publicity photos. Without naming names, allow me to give an example. Today I received a pitch about an artist. Part of that pitch was a publicity photo that could only be described as absurd. I shared it with a writer friend of mine, and her response was, “What in the fresh hell is that?” Before you put together and send out that press kit, take a long (hell, it doesn’t even have to be long) look at that publicity photo and ask yourself if that’s the kind of response you want from the writers who receive your pitch.
What I can’t begin to understand is why so many (and there are generally more than one per day) of these ridiculous publicity photos are sent. I get it. Everyone has their own interpretation of what’s ridiculous. But my persistent question is this: Does no one see the publicity photo before it’s included in the press kit and sent? I assume that no one really looks at these stupid publicity photos before they are sent out because any reasonable person would look at these things and say, “THAT’S the photo you’re sending?” Artists, you especially have to understand that your publicity photo is the first impression that a lot of writers have of you. So you need to take a look at your publicity photo and ask yourself, “Is that what I want to be the first impression of me and the music I’ve worked so hard for?”
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that the music should stand on its own merits regardless of the publicity photo. And you’re right. It should. But don’t forget what I’ve just said: your photo is the first impression - before a writer even hears a note of your music. And just know that the first impression could be something like, “What in the fresh hell is that?” That being said, if the music is good, the writer can move past your stupid publicity photo. But your music will have to be that much stronger to overcome the ridiculous photo.
The other advice you don’t know you need is to consider the first track on your album. Yeah, I know. You’ve already considered that. You and your team all got together and decided what should be the lead track. Here’s the thing though. I receive A LOT of albums where the first song is Boring (yes, with a capital B). I’ll just tell you this because I am usually on the side of musicians. I know not every song is going to sound like the first couple albums of The Sonics.
However, when your first track is Boring, you’ve really put yourself in a hole. Here’s why. Writers receive a lot of music every day. We sometimes get to the point where we have hundreds of unread emails from publicists simply because we don’t have enough time in a day to get to all the music we receive. That means an artist really has to grab our attention immediately. I know you don’t make records for music journalists. You make records because you want to express yourselves. And you should. Express yourself however you see fit. I’m just presenting you with the writer’s perspective because that’s all I have. Oh and I should say that if you have a bad publicity photo AND an opening track that is not very exciting, you have acres of ground to make up when it comes to writers. I don’t expect you to start tailoring your music to writers. That would be disingenuous. However, you should know what you’re up against when that press kit goes out to the world.