What is an EPK?

An EPK (electronic press kit) is a window to who you are as much as basic content for media, promoters, influencers etc use and reflects you, your music and your brand.  It is important that you get this right in order to make the correct contacts and, when we’re able to play live again, to land the gigs you want.

So we’re starting with the basic premis that, and you won’t like hearing this, nobody gives a damn.  Yes it is true but we’re putting together an EPK, as with your other PR, which will hopefully make them give a damn!

So what do you need to put in your EPK? It should contain your artist bio, music, high res promotional photos, tour dates, high-quality videos, relevant media achievements, links to your social media, and contact details.  Connect your EPK with all your social media and your website if you have one. Websites such as Sonicbids, ReverbNation, Adobe Spark, and Wix offer EPK templates and tools to create press kits and hosted landing pages. However there is no need for you to use these companies as with effort you can create a really striking EPK reflecting you and your brand.

Artist bio

In the trade we call it a ‘one sheet’ and it’s called that for a reason … it’s just one side of A4.  You want a short description of who you are, if relevant where you come from and how you got to where you are now.  This should be tight and concise. A couple of paragraphs max.  This should be interesting, a bit amusing and not too heavy.

This will form the base of all your press releases and be updated each time

Music

Many people will dip in briefly so make sure that you list this in the order to which you want it to be listened. So your best track first. 

All tracks should be ‘radio friendly’ – no swearing or references to substance abuse or graphic violence etc. “It doesn’t matter. It’s cool” I hear you say. Yes it does matter as it won’t get played if it’s not radio friendly and that’s really NOT cool!

Don’t put anything up that isn’t great quality … If you’re not proud of it then it shouldn’t be there. Bad recordings will only do you harm.

Make sure that you’ve got MP3s and WAVs of each of the tracks downloadable so that radio producers and presenters can choose what’s required by their station.  However links are always best as most don’t want to download a wav file or go to drobox or we transfer.

Promotional photographs

Here you need a selection of large (600 pixel width minimum) high res (300 dpi) and lo-res (72 dpi) versions, promotional pics taken by a professional photographer if at all possible. These can be studio or outside shots – that show you and/or the band looking at its best within your brand.

High res is required for print only high res is of any use as low res pixellate.

You’ll need head and shoulders and full-length images. Pop a few great live shots in there as well.  Also important that you have landscape and portrait presentation shots to fit whatever space the editor has available.

Artwork

Include headers and logos so that they can be used to support your branding by media.

Videos

It is always nice to have a high quality video for each release. Whether a story or performance video it is high quality that’s important.

Lyric videos have become increasingly more popular and are easy to produce.

Promoters are more likely to book you if they can see you perform.

Tour Dates

Straightforward this one.  Just list your gigs as soon as they’re booked with an on sale date.

1. Day/date/year/time
2. Name of venue and address  Link and phone number to purchase point.
3. Nice to put a link to Google maps for the location.

As soon as the gig has passed please remove it from the list!

Reviews and quotes

• Links to any radio, tv or online performances.
• Good media reviews
• Great quotes

Links to all your social media and purchase point for your music and merch.

Tech rider and stage plan

This gives venues details of what  technical requirements you have. This includes number of mics, plugs etc.

Contact details

If you have a PR or a manager it's their details you have here.

• Email address
• Phone number
• Social media addresses

A big thank you to Kairen Kemp for this insightful blog piece. Kairen is a Music PR Manager, Booking Agent, a Producer/Presenter of BBC Introducing & Radio Reverb,  as well being an Author, Lecturer, and Music Mentor.