Once we started taking Matt’s music more seriously, I decided he needed a website. I needed a bio, some good photos, a few songs, performance videos and maybe some album artwork.
Except—where was all of it? This led to the most intensive scavenger hunt I’ve ever been on. The bio still needed to be written. Some photos were on my phone, some were on Matt’s. Music was scattered across folders with incredibly helpful names like Final, Final2, Final Master and Final Master NEW. Videos were in our camera rolls, Facebook, YouTube and who knows where else. I wasn't building a website. I was on a scavenger hunt.
You're Going to Need This Stuff Again
Once you start promoting an artist or yourself, people continually ask for the same things. A venue wants a short bio and a couple of photos. A radio station wants a WAV file. A submission wants album artwork. Someone wants a performance video. A booking contact wants a website, social links and examples of the music.
I realized that every time someone asked me for something, I was wasting time finding it—or worse, trying to figure out which version was the right one. So, I stopped thinking of these things as random files and started thinking of them as artist assets.
Set up folders on your drive with obvious names like: Photos, Videos, STEMS, Lyrics, Album Covers, Flyers, Set Lists, etc. This will save hours of searching for them later.
What Are Artist Assets?
Basically, anything you regularly need to represent or promote the artist.
For us, that includes things like:
- Bios—short and long
- Professional photos
- Performance photos
- Logos
- Business cards
- Album and single artwork
- Promotional flyers
- Final WAV and MP3 files
- Performance videos
- Website and social links
- Booking spreadsheet
- Expense tracker
The important part wasn't creating the perfect filing system. It was creating one place where I knew I could find everything.
Final Really Needs to Mean Final
Music files deserve their own paragraph because apparently most people have a very loose interpretation of the word final. Final. Final Mix. Final Master. Final Master 2. Final Master New. Final Master USE THIS ONE. More than once, Matt set up an Abelton session and pulled in the wrong STEMS simply because my use of the word final didn’t always match his.
When you're working with music files or sending them to someone else, you need to know you're sending the correct version. Be intentional with your naming schema and remove older versions so you’re not wasting time listening to Arizona – Final, Arizona – Good, Arizona – New, Arizona-Old. Nobody wants to hear that much Arizona.
First Impressions
When trying to get gigs, venues will want photos. They are evaluating whether you match their vibe. Can they promote you? Do you look natural on stage? You will need some good photos – headshots and performance. Keep in mind that even though AI can create some realistic good quality photos, some sites will not accept AI generated artists photos. Make sure you have actual headshot photos as well as performance photos that represent you well. Canva can help adjust the lighting on photos since performance shots seem to have shadows or harsh stage lighting.
I've learned that sometimes it makes sense to keep different versions of the same asset ready to go. High-resolution photos for print and marketing, smaller photos for email or web use, WAV files when quality matters, MP3s when meta data is needed, short bio, long bio. You don't want to create all of this from scratch every time somebody asks.
Get your assets together before you need them.
Organization Isn't the Exciting Part of Music
Nobody dreams about becoming a musician so they can organize folders. And I'm fairly certain nobody has ever become a fan because an artist had an exceptionally well-organized asset library. There are a lot of boring little systems behind the exciting parts.