The self-promoting musician of the past needed to always have a presskit (with CD and photo) nearby and ready to send.
The modern self-promoting musician needs to keep a “PROMO BOX” folder on the desktop of your computer.
It will take you just one hour to put together, and you’ll be able to use it again and again and again:
Make a folder on your desktop called “promo box” and put these things inside for quick easy access:
1. At least one full-length MP3 file of a track from your CD. Encoded at the standard 128k bitrate. Give it a nice long name, without spaces, so that if anyone runs across it on the web they know who it is. (Example: RACHAEL_SAGE-sistersong.mp3 ) Preferably have 3-5 songs from your CD encoded here, ready to go.
2. An entertaining bio written four times, in four different lengths.
– Long long version (over 3 paragraphs. 1-2 pages. exhaustive and rarely used.)
– Medium long version (2 – 4 entertaining and important paragraphs. the top end of what people will sit and read on the web.)
– Short version ( 1 killer paragraph)
– One-liner ( 1 killer sentence )
3. Quotes from reviews:
– one big text file with every review you’ve ever gotten, all typed out and credited
– one text file with just the best short quotes from these reviews
4. Graphics, with a few different sizes of each:
– artist photos (studio shot, live shot, up close, far away)
– album cover graphic (big version, small version)
– your logo, if you have one
IF YOU DO THIS, JUST ONCE, then the job of uploading your information to another website will be painless. You’ll just say, “da-da-da! all done!” and let your MP3s upload while you go make dinner.