Press Kits

[kenmarold]

Just getting together a 4 song press kit, besides the songs, the CD design itself contains lot's of content, (band bio, press, contact info). My question is, when sending this out to radio stations, promoters, etc....what else should be included in the package? A cover letter? promotional materials? any ideas to make our submission really stand out?

[glynb]

I'd advise to look at the submissions policy of each individual radio show/reviewer carefully, often it's on their website. you'll note that some of them want exact opposite things.
For example some say only send in a three song demo and a brief Press release (PR), whilst others want links to MP3s and if they like what they hear they'll come back to you whilst others say they under no circumstances will they listen to MP3s, then others welcome 'anything' including promo materials like free T.Shirts etc. !

My point is, sending stuff that they don't want/need or in the worng format, is wasteful and will risk p*ssing them off, so try to tailor the package to suit them.

As to all the infor on one CD, whilst it is a good use of resources you may find that some people can't be bothered loading the CD on a computer to read your digitised biography/PR. So by all means do it, but i would advise including a paper copy of the stuff (at least a PR) and photo if they want one. Again, some places explicity say DO NOT send photos.

With my submission i sent a one-page PR including a very brief biog, I was advised against send lots of pieces of paper, but by the same token they do want to know something about you. Included a 'notes' section at the bottom on which I scribbled a hand written note mentioning the name of the contact, maybe mentioning any contact I'd had with them (like email or whatever). i don't know if this was liked by reviewers or not - difficult to prove either way?

WARNING: Be carfeul what details you include in your biog, because they WILL find their way into any reviews you get, and be mentioned by DJs .

Later, when I'd had a few reviews, I included some quotes from reviewers. Again, don't know how impressed people are by that stuff, but i did it anyway! My thinking was that people don't like to feel they're missing out on something so if they see it's had some positive reviews they're more likely to look at it - all psychology!

I'm considering getting some colour 'postcards' done for the next release, just something to insert with the PR and the CD with a photo and information on the rear. But if the submission policy asks NOT to send such stuff then i won't.

I'm certainly no expert, just finding out myself what works.
Hope that helps.
Good luck.