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Essentials in
Quartet Singing
Make A Great Quartet Press Kit
Telling your story as a quartet starts with an attractive, easy-to-read press kit. Brian Lynch tells how.
Updated: 7/28/2003 10:09:00 PM
A simple but effective press kit is an essential part of your quartet’s public relations arsenal, operating on several different levels. The press kit is the story you tell about yourself to book performances, so it is in one dimension an initial sales tool. It helps the press tell the world about barbershop harmony and about your quartet specifically, so it’s also a news story.
Finally, the press kit helps audiences establish a personal connection to the performers by learning more about their offstage lives, making it an effective tool for generating goodwill toward the quartet—a vital part of your long-term success. A good press kit is your promise of something good, something exciting, something the audience wants and will enjoy.
"Just the facts, man"
The first and most important function of your press kit is to provide the basic facts about your quartet, in clean, readable prose. Use a separate page for each of the following.
Describe what it is you do.
This is the meat: why does anyone care about the rest of this? Why should anyone hire you? Because you can entertain them! Tell the potential client what you intend to deliver them. Be specific: if you have specialty packages, list them and the appropriate venues for performing them. Include sample sets for varying performance lengths, so the client knows exactly what to expect. Of course, you’ll want to be flexible and accommodating in crafting the package to fit the specific needs of the customer, but provide this information as a starting place.
Quartet biography.
In 500 words or less, tell the story of the quartet. It can be as serious or light-hearted as you wish, depending on the image you are trying to create. If the bio can relate to the content of your performance package, so much the better.
Provide capsule biographies of the individual singers. Tell the story behind the story, as it were.
Performances and awards.
Most notable first, of course. Break out into: shows, civic performances, awards, TV/Radio appearances, etc. This is your “brag” sheet. It tells potential clients that you are a proven quantity and that similar organizations have hired you and found you effective. (With their permission, provide phone numbers of references.)
Include a tape if you have one. Most swinging quartets can get one or two good cuts down on tape. Make sure the audio quality is suitable for broadcast. Pay the mechanical license fees.
SPEBSQSA background info.
Get a press kit from Harmony Hall, and use the important backgrounders: SPEBSQSA Fact Sheet, Origins of Barbershop Harmony, and Preserving an art form. Photocopy or adapt these materials for your press kit. These materials are also available from our web site at http://www.spebsqsa.com.
You are what you wear: laying out the package
Just as your quartet’s costuming builds impressions and expectations, so too does your press kit’s packaging. The package needn’t be expensive, provided it’s neat, attractive, and above all, easy to use.
Keep your layout simple and neat, with clear headings and large, readable type. Nothing says “amateur” like a confusing jumble of decorative, hard-to-read typefaces. Pick two classy, simple faces, one for headers and another for body, and stick with them throughout.
One of the best tests of readability is to photocopy a page of your press kit, then fax it. Why? Because this will happen all the time: someone will need the information right now, and you’ll need to fax it to them. If it’s illegible when it arrives, it’s worthless.
In particular, watch for how your logo and other art are rendered in black and white at low resolution. Designs that look great in color on your computer screen can turn to mush when printed in black and white by a fax machine or photocopier.
Make it easy to find important information by breaking the material out onto multiple pages. Every page should have a header or footer with your contact information, so that it can be useful if it stands alone.
You needn’t spend a fortune on your press kit, but spend enough to make a good impression. The difference between your home dot-matrix printer and laser output from a quick-print shop or your office is only a couple bucks, but makes a huge difference in your image.
One nifty solution is to spend your money on color adhesive labels with your logo and contact info, and then attach them to everything: plain or colored envelopes, letterhead paper, folders—even business cards! This can give you an attractive, unified design system, with only one print job to be updated when addresses or phone numbers change.
Get a great quartet photo
Don’t use a static pose of yourselves with a trophy. What do you intend to do for an audience—stand in front of it with your trophy? No—you’re there to entertain. Provide a photo that tells the story: “We’re here to make you laugh, cry, clap your hands, scratch your head—” whatever. The sky’s the limit. The important thing is to make the viewer think, “This looks like fun!” and to stimulate further inquiry.
Novelty shots are fun, of course, if they relate to the entertainment package you present. Don’t be pigeonholed by them, though—it’s a good reason to offer both a “straight” and “wild” photo in your press kit.
The weakest photo you can offer is four guys in tuxes with their hands hanging at their sides. What kind of story does this tell? “Waiters return to civic center for annual convention?” At a bare minimum, the photo should reflect the friendship and teamwork of the quartet. Strike an unusual pose, go for a dramatic and interesting camera angle. They don’t all have to be face-on to the camera, three-quarters full! Good sources of inspiration are newspaper ads for concerts, album covers (not just barbershop albums), and magazine interview illustrations.
A great place to shoot quartet portraiture is on an actual performance stage. If the opportunity presents itself, wear your performance costume during a sound check before a show, and ask a good photographer to shoot a few rolls of stills. He’ll have the flexibility to move where he likes, a well-lit stage to shoot, and your quartet doing what it does best—singing and entertaining.
Most photographers will give you a good price if you purchase in quantity. If the quantity is great enough, you may also find it effective to have machine prints (halftones) made.
Make arrangements for a number of 4 x 6 black-and-white photos that are suitable for use in show posters, programs, newspapers, bulletins, etc.,—all the usual suspects. A good-quality black-and-white photo can be your best friend in the publicity game, so don’t be afraid to get plenty.
What about the Web?
Many quartets have discovered the World Wide Web is an inexpensive means of making their press kits available to the whole world.
The same content ought to appear on your web site. GO ahead -- spend the money -- get your own domain name and host it with a quality provider.
Additional content for a quartet web site ought to include:
- Calendar of upcoming performance
- Audio clips (public domain music)
- Fan's guest book
- Email links
- "Join our mailing list" -- opportunity to communicate with fans, friends and patrons regularly.
Got a great press kit?
We’re always looking for good examples to showcase at COTS, Harmony College and district schools. Send your press kit to Brian Lynch, at Harmony Hall.
Oh yes, a final thought about the “B”-word
Should you use the word “barbershop” to promote your quartet? Not if you don’t want to. It doesn’t matter what you call yourself—so long as you’re honest and accurate. If you promote your quartet to barbershop chapters wanting a hardcore barbershop sound and you promise a hardcore barbershop sound, deliver on your promise!
If you promote yourself as a “close harmony” quartet, or an “a cappella” quartet, that’s fine too. The important thing is, once you’ve gotten its attention, and given the audience goose bumps with a smoking, ringing, thrilling barbershop song, you must tell them “I don’t know what you’ve heard before, but that was barbershop harmony.” No one will ever know what good barbershop sounds like unless you tell them.
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