A band bio comes in three lengths. The short bio runs 40 to 80 words for promoters and event listings, the medium bio runs 120 to 200 words for your EPK and streaming profiles, and the long bio runs 250 to 400 words for journalists. Every version opens with the band's name, genre, city and line-up, then gives one credential a booker will check.
Which length goes where
| Length | Words | Who reads the bio | Where the bio goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-liner | Up to 15 | Fans, poster designers | Social profiles, line-up posters |
| Short | 40 to 80 | Promoters, venues | Top of your EPK, gig listings, emails |
| Medium | 120 to 200 | Curious fans, bookers who want more | EPK about section, streaming profiles |
| Long | 250 to 400 | Journalists, festival programmers | Press releases, the long bio on your EPK |
Write the short bio first and grow the others out of it. Start with the long one and you end up trimming a story when you should be building a pitch.
What a band bio needs beyond a solo bio
Bookers want to know how many people they're booking, what the stage needs, and whether the line-up will still be the same in six months.
- Line-up size. "Four-piece" or "five-piece with horns" tells a venue about stage space and backline.
- Who plays what. Name members and their instruments once, in the medium and long bios.
- Time together. A band formed in 2019 with three releases reads as a working unit.
- Live proof. For bands, headline shows, support slots and sold-out rooms count for more than streaming numbers.
The template
[Band name] [is / are] a [line-up size] [genre] band from [city]. [Sound, with one or two reference points]. [Strongest credential: a support slot, a sold-out show, a radio play, a label]. [What comes next].
Put a fact in every bracket. If one stays empty, the band needs a gig or a release, and no adjective will cover for the gap.
Examples at three lengths
Velvet Static, its members, and the quote in the long bio are invented. Each length shows the same band, so you watch the bio grow.
Short (63 words)
Velvet Static are a four-piece post-punk band from Manchester, with wiry guitars and the deadpan vocals of Dry Cleaning and Shame. They sold out their first headline show at a 250 capacity venue in 2025 and supported a touring indie band across six UK dates. Their debut EP, Grey Weather, comes out in February, with a spring tour of UK cities to follow.
Medium (138 words)
Velvet Static are a four-piece post-punk band from Manchester, with wiry guitars and the deadpan vocals of Dry Cleaning and Shame.
Singer Nadia Okafor and guitarist Tom Reilly met at an open mic night in Salford in 2022 and recruited bassist Priya Shah and drummer Ellis Ward within six months. The band recorded their first single in a rehearsal room on a four-track and released the song on Bandcamp, where the first pressing of 100 cassettes sold out in three weeks.
They sold out their first headline show at a 250 capacity venue in 2025 and spent the autumn supporting a touring indie band across six UK dates. Local radio picked up their second single.
Their debut EP, Grey Weather, comes out in February on a Leeds independent label, with a spring tour of UK cities to follow.
Long (about 250 words)
The long version keeps the medium bio and adds a scene-setting detail, a quote, and more about the songs.
Velvet Static are a four-piece post-punk band from Manchester, with wiry guitars and the deadpan vocals of Dry Cleaning and Shame.
Singer Nadia Okafor and guitarist Tom Reilly met at an open mic night in Salford in 2022. Okafor was reading poems over a drum machine. Reilly offered to play guitar under them the following week. Bassist Priya Shah and drummer Ellis Ward joined within six months, and the band played their first show in the back room of a pub to 30 people, most of them friends. Within a year they were playing every second weekend across Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, often to rooms of 80 or more.
Their first single, recorded on a four-track in a rehearsal room, came out on Bandcamp in 2023. The first pressing of 100 cassettes sold out in three weeks. A second single followed and picked up plays on local radio, where one presenter called the band "the most nervous-making live act in the city."
In 2025 the band sold out their first headline show at a 250 capacity venue and spent the autumn supporting a touring indie band on six UK dates.
Grey Weather, their debut EP, comes out in February on a Leeds independent label. The five songs deal with rent, night buses and leaving the north, recorded live in two days with minimal overdubs. A spring tour of UK cities follows, with dates in Glasgow, Bristol and London.
In your own bio, only quote real, named sources.
Notes on the examples
- The opening line never changes. A promoter reading the short bio and a journalist reading the long one get the same hook.
- Members get named once. The short bio skips names. Bookers care about the band, not the drummer's surname.
- Numbers carry the weight: 250 capacity, six dates, 100 cassettes, three weeks.
- The long bio adds texture, like the poems over a drum machine, and the facts stay the same.
Mistakes band bios make
- Opening with how you met. Sound first, origin story second.
- Listing every influence. Pick two reference points. Ten names describe no one.
- "We are a four-piece." First person forces every promoter to rewrite your bio. Use the third person.
- Old line-ups. Update the bio the week a member leaves or joins.
- Different facts in different places. Keep one master copy of each length and paste from there.
A one-liner for posters
Line-up posters and social profiles need one line. Take the first half of your short bio:
Velvet Static: Manchester post-punk four-piece.
Where your band bio lives
Your bio sits at the top of your EPK, above your music and your gig list. On Artist Kit, the About section holds the bio, Music shows your releases with listen links, Videos plays live clips right on the page, and Gigs lists every date. Pro adds a photo gallery for band shots.
See what an EPK for bands includes. Our artist bio guide covers bio structure in more depth, and how to get gigs as a band shows you where to send the finished bio.