Think of Kiss, The Rolling Stones, Wu-Tang Clan or Fatboy Slim – they all have a huge music brand. You can instantly identify their music via their brand, their logos, their pictures, their style – and of course via their unique music. Now it’s time to create your music brand and start getting noticed.
And that is the power of good music branding: it makes you stand out, it makes you recognisable and it spreads your musical message faster than you can say Billboard Top 100.
Building a music brand is key to making it in the music industry. But what is a brand? It’s a name, design or logo that sums up your music/personality. Your brand should encapsulate your music – so that if fans see your logo, hear your music, wear one of your T-shirts, they instantly know it’s your brand. Your brand starts with you – your style, your music, your look and feel. And creating it is easier than you think, with our easy-to-follow guide…
- Capture the perfect press shots
- Write your own bio and press
- Find the right logo
- Get your design right
- Create your Electronic Press Kit (EPK)
Say Cheese. How To Get The Perfect Press Shot
Your photo is, for many, their first impression of you online. So it needs to be carefully thought out and represent your brand, your personality and your music.
#1 If in doubt, keep the photos and the shoot simple.
You’ll want to present a range of photos including black and white and colour, some action shots and some more staged arty and colourful shots. Giving a full range means that your photos are more likely to fit the remit of magazines and blogs. Especially if they’re looking for cooler, edgier shots or more professional portraits.
2# Make sure the theme fits your music.
There’s no point doing a high energy shot with a graffiti background if you’re an acoustic folk quartet. There’s definitely something to be said for contrast, but make sure the photos represent the band’s ethos and personality. If you’re a fun band, try not to look like you’re here under duress.
3# Look to others for inspiration.
Check out band photos from your favourite acts and DJs and ask the photographer to use that as a basis. It’s an easy win for everyone and gives you a template to work towards.
4# Use cool locations and quirky shoots to make you stand out.
Be different, be unique and create a signature look for the band. If you have a band style or uniform, use it and turn your photos into another element of branding. Props are generally a no-go, however, especially for staged photos and portraits. Nothing screams ‘cheese’ louder than an unplugged set of decks or set of drum sticks in the picture.
5# Oh, and use a professional photographer.
This could be a friend, this could be someone you’ve found online but make sure it’s someone who knows their way around a zoom-finder and knows their aperture from their ahem…
6# Make sure the photos are clearly labeled.
The photographer is credited. Try to keep the file size as small as possible if you’re emailing the images direct (use a file converter or zip file if you have to email them direct). Better still, upload them all to a private Dropbox link and send that over. Files should be 300 PPI resolution and be good enough to use in print media – generally, anything from 200kb to 5MB is good.
7# Don’t use photos from Facebook or Instagram.
They’re low-res, low quality and will look cheap and nasty. If you want to get a stylised image, ask your photographer to tweak and work on the images in Photoshop.
The Write Stuff
Biographies – or bios for short – are used to tell your story and give you an introduction: your influences, first gigs, career highlights, music releases and a few quotes. In short, they sum up your brand, ethos and attitude in about 300 words, so they’re pretty crucial.
The way bios work has changed. Where before a bio could go on for 600 plus words, now you’d want to condense yours to 200-300 – they’re much shorter, sharper and snappier. If you really want to showcase your story, then have two – a longer, in-depth bio and a shorter, more factual version.
You can also go out on a limb with bios – there are funny ones, really good long ones and just terrible, terrible ones that go viral for all the wrong reasons. We’ve put together a simple list of tips and ideas to get your bio off the ground – but if in doubt, think of KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid.
How To Do It
8# Write down all your DJ achievements in ranking order.
If you’ve played at Creamfields or Glastonbury, that goes at the top. If your band played at your Dad’s 50th, that doesn’t go anywhere near the list. Then write down a list of any releases/remixes you’ve had, again in descending order.
9# What makes you unique, what makes you stand out from other DJs?
Do you have a broader range of music, are you a skilled decknician, can you cut and scratch, or do you play something no one else does?
Do you make your own music, do you or your act have a niche sound, do you write for music magazines? You can even step outside of the music realm if it’s interesting enough – if you were part of the NASA program, a professional footballer as a kid or a trained airline pilot, feel free to name-drop.
You want the bio to be interesting and stick in the memory. Write down everything and try to find the balance between being humble and showing off – it’s a bit of a tightrope, but read it out loud to yourself and then a friend and you’ll soon find out how it really sounds.
10# Get some testimonials.
Press cuttings and quotes are best, but if not, ask previous club owners, promoters, fellow DJs (the bigger/more current the names the better) for quotes about you and your performance.
If you turned up, vomited on their decks and punched the promoter’s girlfriend, then you might not want to go there… Pick out your biggest gigs – there’s no reason to list everything, but cherry-pick the best gigs, the biggest festivals, the big names you’ve played with. And be honest – if you were first on the bill 10 hours before Jamie Jones or Arcade Fire came on, then don’t say you’ve warmed up for them.
11# List all your internet homes
These include the likes of Facebook, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, personal email and phone number.
12# Compile Step 1-4 in order.
In 4 separate paragraphs or if you’re feeling confident try to weave it into a story.
Congratulations, you now have a bio.
Get The Right Logo For You
Think of your favourite brands and you can nearly always visualise their logo. The two go hand in hand, which means your logo needs to represent your music, your identity, your personality. That can be a mega-expensive process, but thankfully, there are plenty of online logo generators and even some free ones!
13# Your logo should relate to your music.
It should be unique and it should be instantly recognisable. It could use your name in a stylish font or it could use your influences to create a look and feel. Alternatively, you could play with a variety of fonts, colours and designs to create a bespoke piece of art.
14# Start by compiling other logos you like.
Google images is a great place to start. Save the images as you go along or add them to your Pinterest account. Then decide what’s going to be in your logo – your initials, your full name, your catchphrase?
14# Doing it the cheaper way
If you’re looking to do things cheaply, there are plenty of online logo generators out there. They’ll run through a series of questions and generate a logo for you. You might strike gold first time around, or it might take you a few goes to get something that’s workable. Check out Tailorbrands.
16# Get it done professionally.
If you’re serious about your career, however, it’s much better to go to a professional designer that you pay for. There are plenty of sites that will develop a logo for you. Sites like Looka, Canva Logo and Squarespace Logowill work through the process for you, letting you alter and adapt as you go.
17# Ask Your Friends
Another good way is to get a logo is ask on social networks if you’re connected with any designers or ask for recommendations. Your designer might charge by the hour or for a completed project. And they’ll be able to take your ideas and influences on board, creating a professional logo that could last as long as your career. They’ll also deliver your logo in a range of formats including JPG, PDF, Vectors etc, designed for a range of uses.
Create The Right Design For Your Music Brand
An extension of your logo, you should ideally create a design ethic for your brand. Your logo will lead the way, creating a rough template, but you’ll need to consider a range of different factors. Your logo designer or website might be able to help with the process, otherwise you’ll need to tackle the points below on your own.
18# What font style?
Deciding which font you want to use might be the last thing you’d want to tackle, but it matters a lot to many people. There are around 300,000 fonts in the world, so finding the right one can be a challenge. Do you want it to be fun and playful? Serious and official? Unique or easy to read?
19# Finding a font
Head to a site like Dafont for inspiration. It has thousands to choose from and handily breaks them down into a variety of categories, styles and designs. You can then download your font or even use that font for your logo.
20# It’s all in the colour
As well as getting the right font, your design look and feel also needs to include what colours you use. As well as your own favourite colours, you’ll need to consider what colours work well for marketing and branding. This piece has some great insight into the psychology of colours. As a quick takeaway, up to 90% of people will judge your marketing and make a snap judgement based on the colour, so it’s worth getting right from the start!
21# The home of your brand
The colours and font you use are particularly important when you decide to launch your own website. Using sites like Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud etc will work in the early stages of your career, but having your own website is invaluable once you can afford the running costs.
You can then control your own content and you’re not beholden to other sites that might close or change their content rules overnight. And you can use it to push and promote all your content in one space, build up a database, create sales and more.
Create an Electronic Press Kit (EPK)
An Electronic Press Kit (EPK) brings together everything above – your logo, your bio, your press images and your brand’s design. It’s everything a promoter or record label needs to know about your music in an easy-to-read format that puts everything in front of them.
Your EPK should include…
22# High res press images
Saved on a Dropbox link plus a selection of hi res images spread through the document
23# Social media links
that you use – Facebook and Instagram are generally the most popular but make sure you start utilising video ie Youtube as this is a music marketing trend in 2019.
24# Links to your online music
be that Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify, Beatport etc
25# A biography
A well-written short, sharp and sweet biography that covers all the bases and lets people know just how awesome you are
26# Testimonials and quotes
If you’ve warmed up for Paul McCartney and he loved you, ask for a quote and stick it in. The bigger the better. If you’ve done your mate’s wedding, then maybe not…
27# Select discography
Don’t reel off pages and pages of your releases, but pick some key singles, EPs and albums that reflect your journey and make you stand out
28# Videos
It’s the 21st century, and people expect that you have good video content. Add links with a good thumbnail image to the EPK demonstrating how kick-ass you are
29# Press Clippings
Compile your best press cuttings, interviews, reviews and online coverage
30# Contact details
An obvious one, but you’d be surprised how often it’s missing. Add in your country and your email and phone number if you’re happy being contacted there
31# Create your EPK
An easy way to make an EPK yourself is to use Google docs– they have a range of templates you can easily use and edit, allowing you to add photos, weblinks and more.
The easiest way to make your EPK stand out is for it to truly be electronic – embed videos and music links into the page and use hyperlinks that will take the reader directly to your music, website or social media page so they can check our your new track or gauge your audience.
Once it’s ready, you can then send the link directly as your EPK or you can then save the page as a PDF or Word Document and use that.
Conclusion
Alternatively, you can get in touch with Ma’ana, and we’ll create your EPK, biography and press photos for you, taking the stress out of promoting yourself.
If you wish to know more then please check out these other helpful blogs.
How To DIY Your Own Music Video For Free
A Step By Step Guide To Middle East Streaming Site
Promote Your Music With These 7 Tips And Get More Fans
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