Making the Best Promotional Packets

As soon as you begin planning your tour, one of your top priorities is sending promotional materials to your Tour Manager. Your promos are your voice and your only chance to represent yourself to potential venues and promoters. The caliber of the content is hugely influential in securing the best possible performance opportunities. Presentation is important, too, as potential hosts and promoters tend to assume that the quality of promotional material reflects the quality of the group.
 
Unless your Tour Manager specifies otherwise, electronic versions of the following materials are preferred.
 
What Do Promotional Packets Include?

     

  • Recordings: Your sound files should be a good quality recording of at least 20 minutes (total) of contrasting repertoire, similar to the program you will give on tour and representative of the group who is touring. Please ensure the sound quality is high; venues have rejected good groups due to their poor recording quality.
  • Repertoire List: One of the most essential elements of the planning process is your repertoire list. We can’t promote your group to a potential venue – and eventually, your concert to potential audience members – without knowing what you will be performing, so this needs your attention as soon as possible. If a list is impossible to procure in the early stages, a representative past program will suffice, but not for long. Audiences all over the world love to hear you perform music that is part of their local culture. Consider programming a few folk songs or pieces by local composers. Please be sure to include titles, timings, required performance forces, the full name of composers and his or her birth and death dates. Many countries have strict composers’ rights laws, so this information is essential.
  • Group Information: This should be a short, current biography of your group. Consider including some of the following: How long has your group been together? What repertoire do you perform and where? Where is your city in North America? What interesting or high profile performances have you done? Have you toured before? What are you hoping to get out of your tour?
  • Artistic Staff Biographies: Be sure to include all conductors, accompanists, and instrumentalists your tour will feature. For the benefit of your international audiences, please explain the significance and stature of any festivals, groups and venues that may not be familiar to them.
  • Photographs: Photographs should be high-resolution color .jpgs, and should be taken professionally for reproduction in a newspaper or similar. Please include at least one formal group shot, as well as some informal photos if you have those.
  • Press Material: Has your choir been reviewed or written about in the local media?  Include the link to the coverage.