How to Make a Musician or Band Profile
Photography by Tim O’Brien.
You have a band, or are a solo artist, but getting gigs is often really hard.
It’s a hard-knock life for us music-lovers.
I used to have band. In our local town, there were a few clubs, and getting a gig there was tough, but not impossible. I learned a few tricks from teachers and professionals, which got me the edge over the competition.
The key, is to do business. Market yourself.
We achieved this by creating a band profile, a thin file with information and media about our band. Here’s how to do it:
You will need:
- A thin file with preferably four punch hole holders.
- A good word processor and some layouting skills. I like Apple Pages or even just LaTex. Microsoft Word is usable, but I strongly discourage it because of the generic look word documents tend to have.
- An empty CD.
- Some good high quality imagery of your band.
Now, create a document outlining your bands history. Keep it short, then shorten it even further. Clubs don’t want sob stories about how you found your musical soulmate, they need a quick background to get the big picture. Include some good images of yours and make sure the layout and typsetting looks nice but still professional.
You want to make an impression that you’re a routine musician, who knows what he’s doing.
Add a timeline. If any, list previous gigs.
Add a track listing of your repertoire. Clubs need to know what songs you can play, if you’re a cover band, and your own song titles leave an impression of your image, too.
Make a Demo-CD. This was crucial for us, and we spent a little bit of money on getting some time at a cheap unmanned recording studio. Get a few tracks recorded, because the music itself leaves the biggest impression.
Pack it all together into your file, slide the CD into a paper cover at the back and hand that in to your club when applying for a gig. You’ll definitely make an impression.
Super Important: Include as much contact info as you want and can, so there’s no chance of the club not being able to reach you if they decide to take you!
POSTED IN: Marketing & Branding
3 opinions for How to Make a Musician or Band Profile
rewsnat
Dec 12, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Approach a good, reliable and ethical agent.
1) Hotels and clubs often deal with agency companies, instead of any individual who walks into thier office and tells them he has a band.
2) Agents usually have a few contract in hand, thus giving you more options.
Arjun Muralidharan
Dec 13, 2007 at 9:52 am
Of course, that’s the way to go when you plan on taking your band to the next level. I’m talking about really small-time clubs and bars that you can use as a launch pad.
After all, an agent gets paid, and depending on his policies, he’ll charge you even if you don’t get gigs…
But agents really are the way to go when you want to step up a notch, I agree.
rewsnat
Dec 13, 2007 at 2:28 pm
seems like things work quite different between your country and mine. Over here in Malaysia, agents will only take a percentage from the total income. Which means they won’t get anything either if you don’t..
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