We all know MTV does not play music anymore-that is well-worn territory-but there are thousands of blogs who do love to post videos everyday. A music video that is captivating, colorful, funny, interesting (the list goes on, but you get the idea) greatly helps with a press campaign. The video can be used in the initial pitch to blogs about your album to make for a stronger pitch.

Another thing you can do with a video is secure an exclusive premier of the video on one blog ahead of the album release date to start generating buzz. Or if you don’t have the video ready in time for the release, you can also drop it a month or two after the release date as a tool to continue to build awareness and draw attention back to the release.

You should have at least one official music video for an album to use in your press efforts, but you should plan on making videos for every song on the release. The idea is you want to build a fanbase and get as many people listening as possible and YouTube is where millions of people are going to listen to music. Many artists will upload the song’s audio to YouTube with a static image of the artist or album cover, but people are much more inclined to listen to your music if there are moving images. A slideshow video is one method or a better solution is to make lyric videos, here’s a great example from one of our clients, Ole Skool Kule-https://youtu.be/_NUncwzjV8A 

The 8 Essential Items You Need in Your Digital Press Kit

To make it easy for the media, industry, and your potential fans to find the information they need about you, the best thing to do is to create a Digital Press Kit section on your website. This kit will ensure you as a musician to have everything that anyone in the industry might need from you. For example, your fans might go to your website to read your latest blog post or download your latest song. With media and the industry, they’re probably visiting your site to find things such as your official bio, or some promo photos. The Digital Press Kit has all of these in one.

So what should you include in your Digital Press Kit? Here are 8 things that should be in every musician’s digital press kit:

• Bio-The first element to have is your most current bio. Bookers and festivals often have different needs and word limits for bios, so it would also be a good idea to include a few different versions, including an elevator pitch.

• Photos/images-The next element is a section with downloadable (professional) photos. Have a few different official photos, with vertical and horizontal options, as well as black & white versions available. Make sure some of them are hi-resolution in case the media person or festival programmer needs to use the image for print. You can also include the image for your most recent album cover, which can be especially helpful for reviewers.

• Music-You’ll of course need to have your music available to listen to, including a few tracks available to download. If a media person wants to get a copy of your full album or EP for review, just put clear information on who they can contact to get a copy.

• Video-Many blogs and media sites love to embed videos of the artists they’re covering, which helps make the article more visual and engaging. Embed a few of your best videos in your digital press kit to make it easy to find a quality video that best represents your band.

• Press articles/reviews-It wouldn’t be a press kit without some press, so post links to a few of your best reviews and interviews. Don’t assume that people will click on each article and read them in full. Pull the best quote from each review and include it underneath the link.

• Notable achievements-If you’ve been nominated for any awards, charted on radio, performed at noteworthy festivals or conferences, you should definitely include this information. Anything that can help to give positive context to your music and career should be in your digital press kit.

•  Contact info-Although you should of course have a “Contact” section on your website, you should also have detailed contact information in your digital press kit to have everything in one place. Include an email address as well as a phone #, where a media person or booker can reach you if they need to speak to you in a hurry, they’re often working on tight deadlines.

• Social media-And finally, include your social links on the page so that if the media person or booker wants to quickly check out your social media presence, they have all the links right there. You don’t have to overdo it, simply list the social media networks that you are most active on.