Copy Examples

Elevator pitch examples for musicians

An elevator pitch fails when it describes the business instead of giving the listener a reason to ask a second question. These end somewhere the other person can pick up.

Ten of them follow, written for musicians rather than filled in from a template. Your customer is a promoter, a booker, or a listener who just found one track, and what they are weighing up before they get in touch is booking a set that empties the room, from a description that told them nothing.

The one-liner

I am a musician in [your town] — I play live performance and session work for a promoter, a booker, or a listener who just found one track.

Use this when you have one sentence and no idea who you are talking to.

Problem first

The thing people worry about with musicians is booking a set that empties the room, from a description that told them nothing. That is the part I deal with. I am a musician, and you can hear it before you read a word about it.

Use this where the problem is instantly recognisable and the service is not.

Names who it is for

I work for a promoter, a booker, or a listener who just found one track. Mostly live performance and session work. If that is not you, you probably know someone.

Use this at an event where most people are not your customer, to find the ones who are.

Credential first

I am a performing and recording musician. Releases you can listen to and a live history you can check, rather than adjectives about the sound. I mostly do live performance and session work.

Use this in a room where qualification is the thing that buys attention.

The contrast

Most musicians [what the default does]. I am the one that keeps the dates and the releases up to date. That is more or less the whole difference.

Use this when your market has a clear default and you are not it.

With a number in it

I am a musician — [number] years, [number] shows, and I name the releases and where to hear them.

Use this when you have a real number. Do not invent one.

The origin

I started because booking a set that empties the room, from a description that told them nothing was normal in this trade and it did not need to be. So that is the business: a musician where you can hear it before you read a word about it.

Use this when the reason you started is short and true.

Ten seconds

Musician. Live performance, mostly. [your town].

Use this when someone asks what you do and is already half-turned away.

Ends with the ask

I am a musician doing live performance and session work. If you ever hear someone say [the thing your customers say], that is me.

Use this when the point of the conversation is a referral, not a sale.

The warm version

[their question] — I am a musician. The part people usually ask about is describing the music in terms a listener recognises rather than a press release.

Use this where the pitch would land badly and a conversation would not.

Writing for musicians: what actually matters

What should a musician’s website say that a generic one does not?

Three things, in this order. That you are actively performing and recording. That you understand the thing people are actually worried about, which for musicians is booking a set that empties the room, from a description that told them nothing. And what happens next: listen to a set, then tell me the room and the night you are filling. Everything else on the page is decoration by comparison.

What does a promoter, a booker, or a listener who just found one track check first?

The credential, then the proof. For musicians it sounds like this. I name the releases and where to hear them. I say who I have played with. I keep upcoming dates on the page. Put at least one of those above the fold rather than on a separate page nobody opens.

What is the most common mistake on a musician’s website?

Writing about the business instead of the customer. "We have been established since 1998" answers a question nobody asked. "Listen to a set, then tell me the room and the night you are filling" answers the one they are actually holding. If you only fix one thing, fix that.

How long should the copy be?

Shorter than you think, except where trust is being built. An About page of 120 well-chosen words beats 500 vague ones. The exception is anything explaining booking a set that empties the room, from a description that told them nothing — there, specifics earn their length.

Everything else for musicians

Elevator pitch for other trades

All 49 trades →