Suggestions for press kit support materials

Written by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment

Krafty Entertainment is a music business development coaching company dedicated to providing guidance to musicians (and their teams) on how best to nurture supporters and profit from doing so. Krafty Entertainment’s founder Kyle Kraft has over 20 years experience in assisting both developing and established artists in substantially growing their net income from their music. Interested in working with us? Let’s talk!

Here’s a list of things that could go into your press kit. Not everything on this list is going to be possible for every developing artist yet but this will also give you an idea of some things to work towards getting together:

- A professionally written biography (no more than one page in length), with all of your key accomplishments not only mentioned but also bolded so that they stand out as much as is possible. I recommend including your logo at top, .com domain name web address at bottom, and ideally also have a photo and background on this document

- A cover letter targeting the specific people and situation you are submitting the press kit to, explaining what you hope to achieve and highlighting why they should support you

- A professional press photo

- A good live photo, ideally showing you performing in front of a large crowd (having the crowd in the photo is key here). The more photos you include of you performing in front of different crowds, the better. If you have lots of performance shots with different crowds, include a collage of those. 

- A link to a video EPK w/ live performance footage

- A list of recent previous performances and/ or highlights of your previous performances if haven't performed live a lot recently. Including a list of more established artists you’ve opened for, festivals and other large events that you’ve played, and so on is a wise idea.

- Mock-up artwork or photos of your merch 

- Promo artwork for any prominent tours or shows you’ve been a part of

- A sheet of links to your music videos and other relevant web addresses. Include numbers of views, likes, subscribers, etc IF the numbers are good relative to your peers.

- A screen capture showing you total streams to date from your digital distributor or Spotify for Artists (assuming the numbers are compelling)

- Sheets of support quotes from industry people (other artists, producers, DJs, promoters, radio show hosts, managers, booking agents, label staff, publishers, music organization staff, music supervisors, etc)

- Sheets of media quotes about you. If you don’t have enough of these to fill at least a page I suggest you combine this with the above list for now, but work towards getting more quickly

- Scans, photos, or screen captures of any prominent print or web media coverage

- A summary of the commercial and/or college airplay your music has received, including both amount of spins and chart positions received, if any

- A Soundscan report showing sales of your music if sales are at least in the 4 digits per release

- A list of all your TV performances and interviews

- A list of all the synch license placements your music has received in TV shows, films, video games, and commercials

- A list of award nominations and competition short list selections

- Any other relevant support materials, artwork for promotional posters, flyers, stickers, banners, or merch, etc that you think may help strengthen the likelihood of the person reviewing the press kit supporting you

- Links to additional videos that replicate other support documents in this press kit package (your bio, even your cover letter, etc) – the less people have to read to be sold on supporting you, the better. That doesn’t mean don’t include written versions of everything though, some people want written documents so you have to have your bases covered 

- A list of the members of your support team (ie manager, agent, label, publisher, business manager, publicist, radio promoter, distributors, sponsors, organizations you’re part of, etc) including names of companies, website addresses, and potentially a short write up of each of their most prominent relevant accomplishments/ clients

- A list of grants you’ve received

- IF your project is unreleased: A bio for the producer(s) of your project and/or a list of the highlights of their credits including sales numbers, chart positions, etc

This information was compiled by Kyle Kraft of Krafty Entertainment. Whether you are an artist who is in the early stages of building your career and have next to no money to invest into it looking for the best paths to generating income, are an artist that has established a following and are interested in getting assistance with securing tens of thousands of dollars in funding to further your career, or are an artist or collective with an extensive fan base that would like assistance with increasing the efficiency of your business development, we can help you.

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