Press Kit Guide

How to build a world-class press kit.

A promoter, festival booker or record label should understand you in under two minutes. This guide walks through what every Press Kit needs - what to write, what to cut, and what signals professionalism to the people who book you.

Philosophy

Less content. More impact.

The most common mistake in artist press kits is length. Twenty slides of career history, seven pull quotes, a dozen photos, three paragraphs on your influences. Nobody reads it. The strongest kits we've studied - from headliner agencies and label rosters - are almost always shorter, not longer. The four-page structure below is the format every PressKitHQ template exports by default. It's the format labels, booking agencies and festival programmers have quietly standardized on.

Sections

What every Press Kit needs.

01

The hero photo

One portrait, tight crop, honest lighting. Landscape and portrait variants. If the promoter only sees one image, this is it.

02

The short bio - 40-60 words

Name, city, genre, one line about the live show, one credential. Written to be copy-pasted into an event page verbatim.

03

The full bio - 150-220 words

Editorial voice, third person, present tense. Open with what makes the artist rare - not where they were born. End with the current chapter.

04

Music, listed properly

One featured release, label + catalog + date, three tracks max. Spotify, Beatport and SoundCloud on every entry - never just one.

05

Tour data promoters trust

City · venue · date · territory. Include past dates only if they're recent and notable. Leave the section off before you leave it empty.

06

Press quotes with weight

Three quotes maximum, each attributed to a publication or outlet a booker recognizes. No blog quotes, no self-praise, no unattributed lines.

07

Contact by territory

Booking EU, Booking Americas, Management, Press. Real emails, not forms. If you handle your own bookings, one clear booking email is enough.

08

The technical rider (optional)

Only include it if you have a real tech rider. A blank rider is worse than no rider. Keep hospitality one page, keep technical one page.

The 4-page spine

The structure every kit ships with.

  1. 01
    Cover
    Hero image, name, one tagline. That's it.
  2. 02
    Biography & Highlights
    Long bio, four to six career moments.
  3. 03
    Music, Media & Releases
    Releases, platform links, videos, photos and media files.
  4. 04
    Booking, Contact & Downloads
    Booking details, contacts and approved downloadable assets.
Common mistakes

What we cut from most drafts.

A logo wall of festivals

If they're all lifetime highlights, none of them are. Pick three, name them in the bio.

An AI-generated bio, obvious

"Fusing melodic textures with driving rhythms" reads as filler in any language. Rewrite in specifics.

Every social link, ever

Instagram, Spotify, SoundCloud. Add Beatport or Bandcamp only if it's active. Skip the rest.

A press quote from a blog nobody knows

One quote from Resident Advisor beats five from unknown sites. Cut ruthlessly.

Ready to build it?

Open the Studio and draft your kit in ten minutes with the exact structure from this guide.