By Michele Wilson-Morris

Working in the music industry has its perks, privileges, and pains as anyone who works in it knows. No matter what your genre is, one thing remains the same for all artists: You need to bring attention to yourself, your music, and your events. And while there are several ways to do so, few are as effective (in terms of cost or exposure) as a well written press release…There are many tricks to the trade, and I’m going to share some of several of them with you: The Seven Essentials of Press Release Writing.

Essential #1: “Who, What, When, Where, and Why?”
A good press release must clearly convey who is doing what and when, where it’s happening, and why.

Essential #2: “Less Is More”
When you’re writing a press release and answering the what, where, when and why, remember that less is more. Not less information, but fewer words. Short, detailed sentences are best.

Essential #3: “The Early Bird Gets The Worm”
If you haven’t grabbed your target audience’s attention by the end of paragraph one, you’ve probably lost the opportunity to do so.

Essential #4: “Thou Shalt Not Lie”
One thing that writers and music professionals are able to do is to quickly spot a press release that has been, shall we say “highly exaggerated”.

Essential #5: “Spice, Please”
Use audio and video links whenever possible. While press releases are most certainly a business document, that doesn’t mean it has to be a boring document. Capture your reader’s attention with a photograph or an audio URL.

Essential #6: “Quotes: He Said, She Said…
One way to infuse life into your press release is to incorporate a quote. Find a good quote that is relevant to your press release and use it.

Essential #7: “In The Beginning…”
The title of your press release is especially important as it is the first thing one sees and the scale that will be used to measure their interest in actually reading your press release or moving on to the next one.

Obviously, a lot of work goes into writing a great press release. But it’s definitely within your reach if you utilize the essentials outlined above. With online marketing being more important than ever before because of social networking sites, blogs, and countless other sources of music buzz, you have to put your best foot forward with your press release.

To read the entire article, click here.