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Cullen Hendrix tells you exactly how NOT to write your band’s bio in this post I stumbled across when looking for resources about putting the story of your music online. If you’re not ready to hire a pro to do the work, take a minute to consider your approach.

Your band’s biography is the essential welcoming point that connects your band’s profile, website, and music to a new visitor when they first visit one of your pages. You want that biography to be as detailed and interesting as possible. The wrong message can either bore or worry away new visitors while the right message can convince them to stick around and listen to a few more tracks. Here are a few tips to nailing that band bio the first time through:

Forget Who You Are “Like”

Too much emphasis is placed on defining music based on existing genres and musical styles. The best part about the Internet is that you do not need to spend so much time saying you’re a cross between Guns n’ Roses and Nirvana. Not only are such vague, hard to imagine definitions generally not very accurate, they tend to pigeonhole you into an image. People will associate you with those two bands before they even hear your music.

Because almost any website or profile you create will have a music player, you can upload songs and let people hear for themselves what your music is like. In describing your genre, try to keep your descriptions limited to “we were influenced by bands like Guns n’ Roses and Nirvana” while making casual mention of 80s rock and grunge as influential genres.

Tell Them Who You Are

Most of the time, your band’s bio will be placed on a social network of some sorts. Make sure that it adheres to the usual expectations of a social network by telling people exactly who you are. When someone looks at a profile, they expect to learn things like where you’re from, how long you’ve been playing music, when the band members met each other, and a few basic interests that guide your music style.

Don’t get carried away here, but try to include a short narrative that describes what brought your band together and how that history has shaped the development of your band. Work with the facts you already have and try to integrate them into how your music has developed.

Throw in a Little Extra

In a successful band biography, you want to mix things up just enough to ensure it sounds like something that could be interesting on a greater level than just “the usual old garage band.” Throw in an anecdote that sums up how you think and how you play. If your van lit on fire and you were stranded in the middle of the desert between shows and you ended up writing two of your most popular songs while waiting for a tow truck, find a way to integrate that story. It will humanize you even further, provide a back story for your music and help you connect with fans.

Remember above all else that anything written for the web must be snappy, relatively brief and quick to grab attention. Try to keep your band bio shorter than 300-500 words while fitting as much information into it as possible. Don’t drone on about any one topic and always keep your audience in mind. The right pitch and tone can be extremely effective in making sure your profile really pops off the screen.

Want to know more about promoting your music online? Get a FREE chapter from  The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Music Online or buy it now.

More resources for writing your band’s bio:

Writing A Band Bio by Suzanne Glass

Lay It Down Clown - Writing The Bio by Tim Brennan

How to Write an Artist Biography: A Bio Made Simple by Christopher Knab

How To Write An Effective Bio by IndieRocks.org

***UPDATE***

Here’s 7 more great tips from Jimmy Shelter. Check out his other posts too - good stuff!