The simple answer: Yenos!
I know, not helpful, but think about it. Not every band needs a photo. Take all of that work that’s gone into your branding, finding who you are as a band, what you speak about, who you speak to…doing that work will make the answer to the above question pretty obvious for you.
But I’ll break it down a little bit. Are you mainstream? Top 40? Hot A/C? Country? CCM? Rap? Solo artist? If you answered yes, then I would venture to say that it would be in your best interest to have a great photo that matches your branding and speaks to your music by looking at it. These genres need that visual and the fans want to see you!!
If you’re in Metal, Electronic Rock, Underground, Avant-garde, Indie, DJ – you get the picture – you have a lot more creative leeway with what you can do. In these genres the music/songwriting/mixing is really front and center of the artists. Think about it.
Need help? Take Innerpartysytem (one of my fav electro-rock bands), for example. In pictures and videos, their faces are distorted; and even during their live performances, the light shows and staging are so intense that you never get a “full frontal” of them in their musical glory. Their music is front and center for them and that’s what you get…music. There are countless other bands that would go unnoticed in the grocery store because of the use of their name or logos as their sole presence. You may get a glimpse of them in a video or in a Zine or blog or some hit on PerezHilton…or if you just stalk them.
No. I’ve never done it so don’t ask me for tips.
So really think about how you want to brand yourself in terms of picture or no picture. You are your band and your band is you – what do you look like and how do you want the world to see you?
