Every week our desk reads artist bios. Most of them make the same mistakes. They open with adjectives ("soulful", "genre-defying", "a sonic journey"), bury the facts that matter, or are so long nobody reaches the useful part. A good bio is short, specific and checkable. This guide explains how to write one, based on what editors, playlist curators and festival bookers actually use.

It's a companion to our electronic press kit guide. The bio is the most important text inside that kit.

What a bio is for

People use your bio to answer five questions quickly:

  1. Who are you? Name, solo or band, members if it's a band.
  2. Where are you from? City and state. Editors sort coverage by scene.
  3. What do you sound like? One plain genre phrase and one or two honest comparisons.
  4. What have you released? Titles and years.
  5. Why now? What's new: a release, a tour, a milestone that has already happened.

If your bio answers these in the first paragraph, it works. Everything else is optional.

Write three versions

Short (≈50 words). For streaming profiles, festival line-ups and social media bios. One paragraph that answers the five questions.

Medium (≈150 words). For press emails and playlist pitches. Add one detail about your story and one notable fact: a festival slot, a review, a collaboration.

Long (≈400 words). For your website and press kit. Origin, line-up changes, each release in order, live history, what you're working on. Only mention unreleased work if it has a confirmed date.

What to put in

  • Real facts with dates. "Jaipur band. Four self-released albums since 2021." That beats any adjective.
  • Released work, named. Title, type (single, EP, album), year.
  • Language(s). Very useful for Indian artists, and it helps editors slot you into the right coverage. See Indian indie languages.
  • Verifiable milestones. Festival slots, editorial playlists, reviews, with the outlet named.
  • Contact. One email address. A management contact, if you have one.

What to leave out

  • Adjective stacks. "Ethereal, haunting, genre-bending" tells an editor nothing.
  • Stream counts you can't keep current. They go stale within days. If you include a number, date it.
  • Inflated claims. "India's biggest new band" gets your email deleted. Our editorial policy explains why we check claims.
  • Unconfirmed future plans. "Album coming soon" means nothing without a date.
  • Your whole childhood. One line of origin story is enough.

Write in the third person

Press bios are written in the third person ("[Name] is a singer-songwriter from…") so editors can quote them directly. Streaming profiles can use first person if that suits your voice.

A fill-in template

[Name] is a [genre] [solo artist / band] from [city, state]. [If band: The line-up is A (role), B (role), C (role).] [He/she/they/The band] [sing/write] in [languages]. [Name]'s releases include [Title] ([type], [year]) and [Title] ([type], [year]). [One verifiable milestone with outlet/event and year.] [What's new: latest release title and date.] Contact: [email].

Fill it in, then cut every word that isn't a fact.

Examples of facts that work

Taken from our own artist pages, which follow the same rules:

  • "The band was formed in Kochi in 2016 and sings mostly in English and Hindi, with occasional Tamil and Malayalam lyrics." (When Chai Met Toast)
  • "Taba Chake is a fingerstyle guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter from Khunglo village in the Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh." (Taba Chake)
  • "Debut album Rakshak came out on 18 February 2022." (Bloodywood)

None of these lines use an adjective to do the work.

A worked example

Here is how the template looks filled in with facts we've checked for our own coverage. The Lost Symbols' official site lists the line-up, and their albums are on Apple Music India.

Short (about 50 words):

The Lost Symbols are an indie band from Jaipur. The line-up is Aman Raj (lead vocals), Gunjan Soral (lead guitar and production), Gaurang Patel (rhythm guitar), Akhil Sindhwani (bass) and Arun Singh Naruka (drums). They have self-released four albums since 2021.

That's it: who, where, members, releases. No adjectives. A medium version would add the album titles and years, one verified milestone and the latest release date. A long version would add the band's history, in order, with every claim checkable. Read our Lost Symbols guide to see how much a writer can build from those plain facts.

Common mistakes we see

  • The bio contradicts the streaming profile. If your bio says "debut album" and Apple lists the release as an EP, editors notice. Match the release type to your distributor's metadata.
  • Different founding years in different places. Pick one year, make sure it's right, and use it everywhere: website, press kit, streaming profiles.
  • Names spelled three ways. Fix your artist name, band members' names and release titles before you send anything. Search engines and editors both treat variants as different artists.
  • No date on "latest". "Our latest single" is out of date the day the next one arrives. Name it and date it.
  • Copy-pasted bios on aggregator sites. Update old profiles when your facts change, or they'll keep feeding wrong information to writers.

Where your bio goes

Checklist before you send

  • [ ] First paragraph answers who, where, sound, releases, why now
  • [ ] Every release has a title and year
  • [ ] No unverifiable superlatives
  • [ ] No undated stream counts
  • [ ] Short, medium and long versions saved
  • [ ] One contact email

FAQ

How long should an artist bio be? Keep three versions: about 50, 150 and 400 words.

Should a musician's bio be first or third person? Third person for press. First person is fine on your own profiles.

What should I not put in a bio? Adjective stacks, undated numbers, inflated claims and undated future plans.

Does Discography use artist bios? We read them, but we check every fact before we publish. See how to get covered.

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