Publicity is everything to a beginner artist. You want people to know about your music to get ahead in the music industry. However, if you are a beginner, most likely you don’t have anyone who can represent your interests and advertise your music. It might be hard for you to present yourself properly without having a team of professionals to support you.
Don’t worry, I’ve got your back. In this article, I will give you some tips on writing a top-notch press release, that is guaranteed to attract attention to your music. Feel free to bookmark this article to use it later when you will be doing your press statement.
Let’s start with the basics. To write a press release, we need to know what it is. A press release is a statement addressed to the representatives of the news media. Its aim is to get publicity, draw attention to your music and get the media interested. Writing a good statement is tricky, but if you succeed, you will get several publications and all of them for free! So it is worth looking into this topic.
How to write a press release for your music
Now let’s get specific and talk about components of a great press release.
Be remarkable
Before you even start writing, have a brainstorming session and think about what makes you stand out from the crowd? What is unique about your music or your personality? These are hard questions to answer, and if you have trouble answering them ask your friends or family members to help you. The outside perspective is valuable when it comes to assessing your music. Answering these questions will help you avoid mediocrity and capture attention.
Leave what is important - delete the rest
Always think about the person who will be reading it. They don’t have time to read a four-page essay about your life story. Once you’ve written the first draft, read through it, and get rid of anything non-pertinent to the story. Then reread it and shorten it even more. Ideally, you will end up with one page of the condensed story that reflects your personality and style. Remember to include your contacts so if you get published, agents will know how to reach you.
Use she/he instead of I/me
If you Google how to make a music press release, you will find that the general requirement is to write in the third person. This is one of the strange rules you have to follow to write a good statement. You have to use third-person pronouns. If you are confused, just imagine that you are a journalist writing about an aspiring artist (yourself). It will also help you come up with ideas. Ask yourself what would be interesting for a journalist to read about you, what will get their attention?
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Use paragraphs
When writing, always break your text into paragraphs, it makes your message more readable. And don’t make your sentences too long. Break them into smaller sentences whenever possible. You may include bullet points if you want to highlight something important. It increases readability as well.
Liven it up with visuals
To make your release visually appealing, consider including a high-quality photo. It can be a photo of yourself, your band, or the image of your album. As to where to put it, it doesn’t matter. You can put it after the first paragraph or in the end. But remember to preserve readability.
Come up with a title
Don’t overcomplicate it, trying to come up with a clever, witty title for your release. The best option is when your title reflects what you want to promote. Here you can be direct and get straight to the point.
The first paragraph is the most important
If you wonder how to write a perfect music press release, my answer is to focus on the first paragraph. Once the journalist opens your email and starts reading, you have seconds to get him /her interested. So make sure you gather all the key facts in the first paragraph. Ideally, you have to be able to leave only the first paragraph and still get exhaustive information about who you are, what you are promoting, why, when, and where.
The second paragraph is there to reveal more details about your personality and your music. Here, you can take what you wrote in the first paragraph and write two-three sentences about each statement you made in the first paragraph. Try including quotes and feedback on your album.
The last paragraph should contain all the info the editor needs for further use. Such as links to your social media, your contacts, links to the streaming websites, where people can listen to your music. Include only those links and contacts that you feel comfortable sharing publicly.
End your press release with a note to the editors
It is not compulsory but advisable to have a note to the editor’s section that you include at the very end of your text. This section is needed to provide further information. There you are expected to write your work email and phone so that the editors can reach you if they need photos or other details for the publication.
After you finish, run your text through Grammarly to catch any mistakes and ask someone to read it for you. Sometimes we lose our focus and make silly mistakes that make our language seem unprofessional. To avoid that, ask someone to check your release for you.
Now you can save it and send your release to the editors! The best format to use is pdf. If you use pdf, you can be sure that it will look exactly the same when another person opens it on their laptop. With Word, you can never be sure that everything will stay in its place.
So I hope that now you understand how to make a music press release and feel more confident about it. Learning to create great press releases is hard, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t get it the first time. Just keep trying, and you are sure to succeed one day.
