MyMusicSuccess receives hundreds of unsolicited CDs, emails and press kits every day, most of which have cost the sender considerable amounts of money and time for the CD pressing, printing and postage costs. With emails it’s taken time and effort to send out the email whether it’s through an automated system or bulk blind CC.

As a music industry professional, I feel compelled to give feedback to the independent music community on how to achieve better results when sending out press kits to the media. All of the advice I’m about to give you might seem obvious; however, 99.9% of all the press kits we receive at MyMusicSuccess miss these out. So listen up, and learn how to get the attention of the music media. You’ve invested in a great recording, committed yourself to promoting it, don’t fall down at the last hurdle!

Press kits

First up lets look at the contents of a press kit, and what it should contain. Number one, it should contain the music. I said this was going to be obvious, but seriously, we receive emails and letters at MyMusicSuccess with just a flyer, no information except an invitation to a website. A full 100% of record executives and music industry professionals do not have time to surf the web; spare time is a commodity they just don’t have when running a business, so asking a music industry professional to just visit your website alone will guarantee that you get overlooked.

Include Music!

Make sure that if you are mailing your press kit that you include a CD, and take off any shrink wrap too before you send it, if there is one thing that will stop your CD being listened to its shrink wrap. It might sound crazy but the easier you make it for music professionals to access your music, the higher the chances it will get listened to. Make sure your contact details on the CD, or if they don’t appear put a post it note on the inside of the jewel case with your email and telephone number. Don’t put it on the outside of the CD, it’ll fall off and if your CD gets separated from your cover letter no-one will know who to contact.

If you are sending a digital press kit, make sure that you attach an MP3 to the email, or a direct link to a download. Ensure the file size of the MP3 is as small as possible (under 5 megabytes, otherwise it will probably get rejected by the recipients server) and make sure it’s a full track not a clip. Don’t sent a link to a player, its going to confuse the recipient, they want to hear your best track not your entire catalogue, remember music professionals are short on time, so hit them with your best track, not your entire catalogue. If they like you’re best track they’ll make time to listen to the others.

Include a bio with a photo of the artist or band!

When you send your press kit out, always include a biography of the artist or band. Keep it to one page, and include all the successes however big or small to date. Don’t make your bio cheesy or clever, music professionals don’t have the time to work out esoteric messages, they want to know where you have played, what your goals are, and what you have achieved so far.

They also want to SEE YOU. When you are sending out press kits, you are selling your product, and sales transactions are built on trust. If you want someone to do something for you like review your CD, or come see your gig with a view to record company interest they want to see WHO they are dealing with. Human interaction is still the number one way people judge whether to do business with people. Include a good artist or band picture, if you can’t get a professional photographer to take a headshot or band shot, then do your best with a good quality domestic camera and print it on 4 x 6 glossy cards on your home printer. Never print it on cheap letter paper, it looks plain awful.

I can’t stress enough how important a picture of the artist or band is. I understand that many musicians want to hide behind the music, whether due to a lack of confidence or for artistic reasons, but if you are going to hide, nobody will find you, music professionals don’t play hide and seek – period.

Compliment slip

Include a simply designed compliment slip or short cover letter, clearly explaining what you would like the music industry professional to do. I can’t tell you how many media kits I receive anonymously that I have no idea what the sender wants. If you want the recipient to review your CD, tell them, if you want them to listen to your CD in consideration of licensing, tell them, if you are pitching to a compilation or a publisher, tell them what you would like them to consider you for. The easier you make it for the recipient to instantly understand your message, the more likely they’ll take notice of you.

What else?

That’s it, really that is all you need to send. Don’t send stickers, don’t send gimmicks, don’t send bribes, don’t send T-shirts or merchandise, don’t send freebies. They’ll all end up in the bin guaranteed, and that’s your hard earned cash that the music professionals throw away every day. Save that money and invest it in something more worthwhile like extra promotion, petrol for the gig van, or a good nosh up for the band after one of your great gigs!

Your approach

First and foremost the most effective way of making sure that your press kit gets missed is by unsolicited mail or spam. Nearly all major record companies, publishers or other music industry professionals are extremely wary of unsolicited packages simply because of the threat of plagiaristic law suits. If an A & R person listens to a song, and one of there future artists comes up with a similar sounding song or set of lyrics, whether its connected or just synchronicity you can be sure a law suit will follow. How does an A&R avoid this, simple, just don’t open any unsolicited package or email. Yes tha’ts your press kit I’m talking about here, and that’s the sound of it hitting the trash can…

Number one rule for your approach to music industry professionals, ask them if they will accept your submission before you send it. If you don’t follow anything else in this seminar, do this one thing, it will save you hundreds of dollars and countless hours of your time.

Send an email to the media professionals first politely asking them if they accept submissions, and remember the key word here – ASK! Have the courage to just outright ask them if you can send something, you’ll be surprise how many will say yes when you simply ask their permission. If they say no then you have saved yourself the cost of sending your press kit to someone who doesn’t want it. Good job! If you ask questions, you will also be surprised at the answers. Music industry professionals are born networkers, so even if the person you are contacting is mismatched, the simple fact that you asked permission for their time will probably illicit a response with some leads that will be matched. People are always willing to help and feel privileged to receive an email asking for their help first.

Do your research too though. I can’t tell you how many people send me press kits asking to be signed onto my label. Is MyMusicSuccess a record label? No we are a publicity and promotion company, we don’t sign artists or release records, so what do you think the success rate of these applicants are? Of course, Zero. Why? Because they didn’t do their research. I told you some of this would be obvious.

Here’s a great exercise. Pick a respected music industry professional who you would like to comment or write about your CD. Look them up on linked in, Facebook, twitter, and other social networks. Follow them for a few days; think about what it would be like to be them for a day. What would their routine be, what would their current likes and dislikes be? If they have a website or blog, the most important page for you to visit is their ABOUT US page. It’ll tell you all about the company or individual and what they do or do not do.

LinkedIn is a particularly good site to research industry professionals, it will give you a good overview of their background and what they have worked with before. Humans are creatures of habit, and music industry professionals are no different, they tend to lean towards areas that they enjoy working with themselves. If they haven’t worked in the genre or field that you are in before, the likelihood that you will convert them is very small.

When you are writing your one sheet or Bio, don’t put words in people’s mouths, never assume anything and don’t make decisions for the reader. Telling them you are the greatest band on earth is probably true, but people like to make their own decisions, and that is certainly true for music reviewers. The more you try to force someone to write what you want about your band, the more they will either ignore it or write the complete opposite.

Simply introduce yourself and keep to the facts, making sure you highlight your successes and explain what goals you are trying to achieve, that alone will catch people’s eyes. Keep it honest, by all means embellish, talk up and promote your previous successes, but never ever lie on your one sheet or Bio. In the digital information age it’s just a mouse click to Google that will verify whether your Bio is true or not. No one will deal with a dishonest person, period.

Make sure that your one sheet has full contact details at the bottom of the page, with a contact person’s name, telephone number, email address and website. Check that your phone number, email and website are working correctly too. Out of all the email I receive from bands every day I would say at least 20% of the emails I reply to bounce back as undelivered, just because they didn’t send themselves an email to check if their mail server is working ok. Broken website links, bounced emails, or out of service telephone numbers do nothing to help your credibility or reputation, and are a guaranteed way of killing your submission campaign stone dead.

Follow up on your submissions too. Remember that music industry professionals are busy people and are usually swamped with both their own work and the mountain of submissions they receive every day. If you asked their permission before sending, they wont mind you contacting them after a week or so just to check that they got your CD ok. Drop them a quick email or call them and ask if they got your package. If they did they and they are willing to give it a look, they’ll tell you when, if they do, respect this.

If you’re told for example “I am going to be taking a listen to this next week when I fly out to a conference”, then thank them, and tell them you look forward to their feedback after they have taken a listen. Note the conversation down and book into your diary a follow up with a call or email a few days after they said they would listen to your submission. Be consistent, persistent and resistant. If you receive an outright rejection, ask them why they think that you were mismatched. Listen to the answer, you’ll gain excellent intelligence from their answer, and this intelligence will help you identify better targets in the future, saving you even more time and money.

If you follow these simple rules when sending out your press kits, not only will you save yourself hundreds of dollars, and countless hours of time, you will also get a better response rate, more reviews, and a huge amount of respect from the professionals you contact.

Get serious about your approach to submitting your press kits to the music industry, and be professional. Music industry professionals will treat you seriously and professionally back…

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