How to write a musician bio: start with your fans' words
By the HyperTribe team. Reviewed by Kimberly, founder. Updated .
Your artist bio is the one line a stranger repeats about you after they've gone. Everything else in the box is there to earn that line. Most bios never get one, because they're written from the artist's side: a genre, a list of places played, three influences and the word "versatile". Here's how we write it with every artist we work with, and the exercise you can do tonight.
Why your bio doesn't work yet
Read yours back and look for these. A genre mash with a slash in it. "Multi-genre" or "versatile", which tell a stranger you haven't decided. A list of achievements with no feeling in it. Three influences a new listener has to know to understand you. Written in a voice that isn't how you talk. If two of those are in yours, it isn't a bio yet. It's a form.
The fix isn't better adjectives. It's starting from the other end: what you want people to say, and working back to the words that make them say it.
The exercise: five years from now
This is the first thing we do with every artist, before the photos, before the logo, before a single post. Do it tonight, in one sitting, phone in hand.
Imagine you're five years in the future. You've just come off stage, and in the corridor you can hear your fans talking about you. What are the words you want to hear? What will people say about your music, your shows, you? List every word you'd want associated with you. As many as you can. Don't edit, don't rank, don't worry that two of them contradict each other.
Then two image boards, hundreds of images, gut feel only, half an hour at most. One board for your world and what it means. One for how you look on stage and in photos, and for that one go editorial, never commercial. If a field with a cow in it feels on brand and you can't say why, it goes in. We're getting the vision out, and we match the vision to you afterwards.
You'll have fifty words and a few hundred pictures. That's the raw material. Nobody writes a good bio without it.
Compress to two to five words
Now the hard part, and the part most artists do with us on a call: bring the list down to two to five words. Not the five most impressive. The ones the others sit inside.
The move is upward. If "honest", "raw", "unfiltered" and "says the thing nobody says" are all on your list, the word is "honest" and the others are what it looks like. Go specific when your audience is small, because the first hundred people need to recognise themselves. As the audience grows, you move up to the umbrella word.
Two things people get stuck on. First, "is that a value or just an aesthetic?" It doesn't matter. Some artists name "bright colours" as a value, and it can run through everything from the sound to the sleeves. Keep it, and ask what's underneath it. Second, the words that come up without you listing them. When we read a list back, we listen for the thing running through every answer that the artist never wrote down. Ask someone who knows your music to read your list and tell you what they see.
Those two to five words aren't the bio. They're the test for every sentence in it.
The one line
Every bio needs one line that does the work when nothing else is read. It goes in the streaming profile, the top of the press page, the first line of the festival form and your own head.
Build it from two parts. Something familiar, so a stranger can place you in a second. And one thing nobody else has, so they remember you. A familiar sound with an instrument nobody expects in it. A familiar genre from a place it never comes from. A familiar form with one of your words in the wrong place.
To find the second part, do the comparison set privately. Two or three artists you'd be privileged to be listed next to, and why each one. Then one or two you'd never want to be compared to. The second list draws the line as sharply as the first. Then put none of the names in the bio. "For fans of" borrows someone else's line. You want your own.
Last check: if a new listener hears one song, what's the feeling you want them to have? If your line doesn't carry that feeling, it's describing you rather than selling the song.
Three lengths, one bio
Write it once and cut it three ways.
One line, around 15 words. Social profiles, the streaming "about" preview, the first thing on your site. The line above.
Short, around 50 words. Playlist pitches, show listings, a press release's last paragraph. The line, where you're based, what's out now and the one thing that happened that proves the line. A room you sold out, a track a station played, a funded project.
Long, around 150 words. Your press page and the full streaming profile. The short version, then the story in one paragraph: where the words came from, what the current release is about, what's next. Finish with how to reach you.
Third person for press and profiles, because editors paste it. First person anywhere you're talking to fans directly. Both in your own words. If a sentence is one you'd never say out loud, it comes out.
What stays private
A bio is not a confession. It needs the real you in it, and it doesn't need all of you. Before you write the long version, decide which parts of your life are for the music and which are yours. Your city can be part of the brand or it can be private. Your family, your health, your old job: your call, made once, in advance, so you're not deciding in front of a journalist. Leave a gap on purpose. That's where the songs live.
Keep it alive
The words stay. The expression changes. An artist might run monochrome with one colour for the first EP and bring the colour back for the next one, and the bio changes with it: same two to five words, new current release, new photo, new "what's next". Revisit it every six to twelve months or at every release, whichever is sooner. The first one often takes a few tries, and that's fine: at the start it's all experimenting, so don't overthink it. Start with your fans' words and the second draft is already better than most finished bios.
Where this fits
This is the "craft and brand" stage of artist development, and it comes before the fan plan: the question "what do I post?" is usually the bio not being finished. Once the two to five words exist, the 90-day plan's week three is done, the first 1,000 fans guide has something to point people at, and every pitch in the getting-heard guide has a line to open with. If you'd rather do the exercise with other artists in the room, that's what the community sessions are for.
The bio sheet is one page: the exercise, the three lengths and the checklist. Print it, do the five-years-from-now list on the back, and bring both to whoever helps you compress.
- Artist development: what it is, what it costs, and how to tell it's workingthe hub
- How to grow as an independent artist: the next 90 days
- How to get your first 1,000 fans (not streams)
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- How to get your music heard as an independent artist
- Artist development for singer-songwriters
- The HyperTribe communityartists at your stage, in your city
- How to make an EPK
- EPK templatefree tool
- Instagram for musicians: what is it actually for?
Questions artists ask
How long should an artist bio be?
Three lengths from one bio: a line of about 15 words, a short version of about 50 and a long one of about 150. Most places that ask for a bio want the short one. Nobody wants 400 words.
Should an artist bio be in the first or third person?
Third person for press pages and streaming profiles, because other people copy and paste it. First person where you're speaking to fans, like a newsletter or your own site's welcome. Both in words you'd actually say.
Should I list my influences or "for fans of" artists?
Use the comparison set to find your line, then leave the names out. A bio built on other people's names tells a stranger what you're like. Your own line tells them what you are.
What if I haven't achieved anything yet?
Then the bio is the line, where you're based and what's out now. One proof is enough once you have it. A bio with no achievements and a sharp line beats a list of support slots with no line.
Can I write my bio before I've worked out my brand?
The exercise above is the brand work. The words come first, the bio compresses them, and the photos and posts follow. Writing the bio first and the words later is why most bios get rewritten every month.
How often should I update my artist bio?
Every release, or every six to twelve months. The two to five words shouldn't change. The release, the photo and what's next should.
What do I write in the streaming profile "about" box?
The long version, with the one line first, because only the first sentence or two shows before the listener taps. Put what's out now and where you're playing next in the first 50 words.
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