Step by Step Guide to Writing Your Artist Biography

Your artist biography is an essential part of your EPK (electronic press kit). It gives people an immediate image of you (or you and your band).

You don’t need to be an experienced writer to craft a compelling bio. You just need to take the time to write, edit and rewrite your biography. The following steps will show you how.

#1 – Summarize Your Background

When writing your artist bio, you’re not going to start at the top. You’re going to skip the introduction and come back to it when you’ve completed these steps.

The first step is to summarize your background. Talk about your history, in relation to your music career. You can discuss major events or milestones in your music, musical education, and other details.

If you can’t come up with any highlights, write down two or three interesting facts about your past. For example, you might mention what led you to pursue a career in music.

Don’t worry about the length. You want to keep everything short, but you’ll edit out the filler later.

#2 – Discuss Your Music

After talking about your background, you’ll discuss your music. As with your background, it might help to list a few accomplishments, such as:

• Big gigs or shows that you’ve played


• Major acts that you’ve opened for


• Chart-topping successes


• Any other impressive musical achievements

Again, don’t worry about the length. Write two or three paragraphs discussing your music.

After writing about your past music, summarize what you’re currently up to. Talk about your latest releases or tours.

#3 – Write an Introduction

You can now write the introduction. This summarizes the info that you’ve already written, in just two or three sentences.

The first sentence should include your name, location, and style of music. Next, include a sentence about your background, followed by a sentence summarizing your music and latest releases.

#4 – Writing Biographies for All Band Members

If you’re in a band then your artist biography will require an extra step. You should still follow the previous steps, except the background will be a little different.

For the background, talk about how your band came together and where you’re from. And, remember to keep it short.

The extra step is a short background of each band member. This should go after the other paragraphs. Each member should get his or her own paragraph. Limit each paragraph to two or three sentences.

#5 – Edit Your Initial Draft

You should now have several paragraphs, including an introduction, background, and music discussion. Go through and edit these paragraphs, removing unnecessary content. Shorten your sentences and stick to the facts. You may even need to remove a few of the highlights from your background.

The goal is to get this down to about 250 to 300 words. This will act as your “base” artist biography. It will be used in electronic press kits and on your online profiles.

Though, there are times when you’ll need a condensed artist biography. For example, a press release might need a short blurb. For this, you’ll use the introduction, as it summarizes the key details.

Remember, your artist biography should be written in the second-person – he, she, or they.

After you’ve condensed your artist biography, you should proofread it. Read every line out loud. This will help you catch any grammatical errors or missing words. This will also help ensure the biography flows well and is easy to read.

Before adding your completed artist biography to your website or an EPK, you should let someone else read it. Get input before you complete your final draft.

#6 – Create Multiple Variations of Your Artist Biography

You should now have one artist biography that covers all the details that you want to be included. It should also be edited and proofread. But, there’s still another step.

The final step is creating multiple variations of your artist biography. For starters, you should create a second version of your biography. Use the same tone. Keep it professional and straightforward.

When you rewrite your existing biography, you might find ways to reword sentences or better explain certain details.

Along with the second version of your original bio, you can create fun or humorous bios. Or, you could create biographies for specific markets. For example, you might have certain experiences that will play better with one crowd than another.

The idea is to have a variety of bios at your disposal that you can use for any situation. Whether you need a short blurb for a radio station or a full biography for a detailed music review, you’ll be ready.

After you create these variations, you should repeat step number 5 – edit your biographies. Remember to proofread them out loud and get other people to read them.

You should only include one of these bios in your EPK. In addition to the bio, don’t forget to include the other parts of a typical electronic press kit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVI4W6pf-oc

That video provided a detailed look at creating your own EPK with Microsoft Word. Though, you can use other computer programs.

Source: ArtistPR Artist Biography