Guide · Updated November 8, 2026 · 7 min read
How to write an artist bio (with examples and a template)
What a good music bio holds, three example bios in three lengths and a simple template you can fill in for Spotify, press and your socials.
An artist bio is the few lines people read about you before they press play, or right after. It sits on your Spotify and Apple Music profiles, on your artist page, in your press kit and under your name in a festival lineup. A good one tells a stranger what your music sounds like and why it's worth their next three minutes.
Most musicians need the same bio in a few lengths: a line or two for socials, a paragraph for the stores, a longer version for press. This guide covers what goes into each one, with an example of each and a template to start from.
Key takeaways
- Open with who you are, where you're from and what your music sounds like, in concrete words.
- Give one story or detail that belongs to you and nobody else.
- Name the release you want people to hear now.
- Keep three lengths: short for socials, medium for the stores, long for press.
- Write in the third person for press, and keep it current with every release.
What a good music bio holds
A music bio has a different job from a painter's or a writer's. Its reader is deciding whether to listen, so everything in it should help them hear the music in their head. The strongest bios hold:
- Who and where. Your artist name, whether you're a solo artist, a duo or a band, and where you're based or from.
- The sound. Genre, plus two or three concrete details: the instruments, the mood, the artists you sit near. "Fingerpicked guitar and close harmonies" says more than "unique sound".
- Your story. One detail that is yours: how you started, where the songs come from, what a record is about.
- What's happening now. The new single, EP or album, and when it's out.
- Real milestones, if you have them: shows, collaborators, radio plays, a playlist. Leave out anything you'd have to stretch.
- Where to find you, for the long version: a press contact or your artist page.
What to leave out: your whole life story, a list of every influence and words that could describe anyone ("passionate", "unique", "genre-defying").
Short, medium and long: where each one goes
- Short (one or two sentences). Instagram, TikTok and YouTube profiles, a festival listing, a post introducing you.
- Medium (one paragraph). Your Spotify and Apple Music profiles, your artist page, the "about" line in an email to a blog. Spotify gives you up to 1,500 characters for your bio, and you can tag artists, albums, playlists and tracks in it.
- Long (three to five paragraphs). Your press kit, a label or booker who asked for more, the press page of your website. See our electronic press kit guide for what goes around it.
Write the medium one first. Cut it down for the short version and add to it for the long one, so all three tell the same story.
Artist bio examples
Three made-up artists, one bio each, written for this guide. Each shows one length.
Short bio example
Corvina Hale is a singer-songwriter from Duluth, Minnesota, writing quiet folk songs about lake towns in winter. Her debut single, "Ice Road," is out now.
Medium bio example
The Saltmarsh Telegraph are a four-piece indie rock band from Norfolk, Virginia, built on jangling twelve-string guitar, a drummer who sings harmony and lyrics about the shipyards their parents worked in. They met at a Tuesday open mic in 2021 and played their first show three weeks later, before they'd agreed on a name. Since then they've played the bars and basements of the East Coast, self-recorded two EPs in a rented church hall and been played on their local college station. Their new single, "Dry Dock," is the first taste of an EP recorded live to tape over one long weekend, and it sounds like it.
Long bio example
Oskar Brightwater makes slow, warm electronic music for late trains and early mornings. Working from a converted garage in Tucson, Arizona, he builds tracks from field recordings (desert wind, a neighbor's wind chimes, the hum of a freight yard) layered over analog synths and broken-up house rhythms.
He came to electronic music sideways. Brightwater spent his twenties as a sound technician for a touring theater company, recording the rooms they played in on a handheld recorder. When the tours ended he had hundreds of hours of rooms and no idea what to do with them. His first tracks were attempts to make those recordings feel like places again.
His debut EP, "Freight Hours," came out in 2024 and found its way onto late-night radio shows and listener playlists for slow focus music. He has since played sunrise sets at small desert festivals and scored two short documentaries.
His first album, "Monsoon Season," is out in spring. Recorded over one summer of storms, it's his warmest and most rhythmic music yet, with a cellist and a trumpet player joining him on several tracks.
Press and booking: through his artist page.
Notice what each example does: the sound comes first, in words you can hear, then one story, then the release. None of them calls itself unique; the details make the case.
A simple artist bio template
Fill in the brackets, then rewrite it until it sounds like you. A template gets the facts down. Your own words make it worth reading.
Tips for writing it
- Third person for press and stores, first person for socials if that suits you. Third person reads as a quote a writer can lift.
- Read it out loud. If it sounds like a press release, loosen it. If it sounds like a diary, tighten it.
- Swap every adjective for a detail. "Haunting vocals" becomes "a voice recorded in a stairwell."
- Update it with every release, so the "now" in your bio is always now.
- Keep the facts the same everywhere. The same name spelling, hometown and release title across stores, socials and your press kit.
Where Audora writes your bio
On Audora your bio is part of your artist profile, made with you from your genre, your references and what you tell it about your music:
- A bio in three lengths (short, medium and press-ready) in your voice, which you adjust until it sounds like you.
- Cover art, a Canvas and a logo alongside it, made to the stores' spec, with full commercial rights to everything made.
- Your bio, photos and logo on your artist page's press page, with a press kit to download.
- Every bio kept in your Library, copied with one press wherever you need it.
The bio is one step of a release on Audora, and the steps for yours, dated to your release day, are in your account. We keep tuning them as we learn what works best for our artists. To see the rest of what a release gets, read what every track gets, or start with our guide on how to release music.
Questions
How long should an artist bio be?
Keep three: one or two sentences for socials, a paragraph of about 100 to 150 words for the stores and your artist page, and three to five paragraphs for press. Spotify allows up to 1,500 characters.
Should an artist bio be in first or third person?
Third person for the stores and press, because writers and bookers can quote it directly. First person works on your own socials if that's how you talk to fans.
What should I write in my bio if I have no achievements yet?
The sound and the story. A new artist's bio leans on what the music is like, where it comes from and the release that's out now. That is what a listener wants to know anyway.
How often should I update my artist bio?
With every release. Change the "now" sentence to the new release and add any new milestones, in all three lengths.
Where do I add my bio on Spotify?
In Spotify for Artists, under your profile's About section. You can write up to 1,500 characters and tag artists, albums, playlists and tracks.