An electronic press kit is a great way to make your band more known to the public and industry. You can be an indie musician and create one for your band. If your band is new, it may not exist yet but that doesn’t mean you can’t build a press kit for it.
Press kits are not always about followers. Media and journalists approaching you in the hope of getting a good interview/profile to engage with is a way of press coverage too, or at least it can boost your reputation. With a good press kit you will be able to highlight who you are, and you will stand out from the crowd.
An electronic press kit or EPK is a digital presentation of an artist’s music, visual content, lyrics and biography that is accessible to anyone. In contrast to a physical album with a jacket, it is produced digitally and available for distribution online and via social media. An EPK is typically created and released very early in the recording process to allow journalists and industry professionals to preview the music.
Building an authentic and comprehensive EPK is critical to building a healthy relationship and a successful marketing campaign to sell your music and business. It is critical to a successful marketing campaign for your music and business when you’re an independent musician. Focusing your efforts on building and publishing a high-quality EPK will help you demonstrate your relevance in the marketplace and help you reach new audiences. It’s about integrity and building a reputation.
You need inspiration to create a solid, authentic EPK. Your EPK should be an authentic reflection of your brand and who you are, not something easily copied. When people look at your EPK, you want their eyes to light up when the design features your music or visual content.
With that in mind, here are some essential questions to ask yourself to help create a successful EPK:
Your EPK should include a selection of your music plus a selection of visual content relating to your music. Let’s take a look at some common questions about EPKs.
The design of your EPK should be visually engaging so why not use some of your own creative ideas?
Let’s say you’ve just signed a deal with a label and your EPC would contain no music. Your EPC should still reflect your music and would be a great opportunity to show off your studio skills.
You don’t want to slow people down, slowing them down is detrimental to their productivity. Keep things engaging – you don’t want them scrolling list-like. I think of the level of information I would expect to see on TV, radio or newspapers.
You can include as much or as little as you like. You don’t want to bore people, you don’t want to bore your fans. You want your fans to have fun with your credentials, show off their creativity, etc.
Your fans will discover your EPK on Facebook, your website, YouTube, etc. You don’t want to miss out on opportunities to encourage fans to share, comment and look at your EPK.
Your social media presence needs to include updates on your latest music, so this should be a consistent part of your EPC. What is your website and how do you pitch yourself? Show off your music.
Every artist can’t be everywhere at once, so you’ve got to be strategic about how you maintain presence on every platform you’re on. How many channels do you have?
You’ve got to show people what you’re about. You should have a website that’s optimised for a mobile device and use images, videos and sound wherever possible.
Allow yourself to build a press kit that you can manage to grow each year. A press kit is a good opportunity to share something special with the public.
Press kits are increasingly more sophisticated. You can use a video theming system, or a WordPress theme to set up a website.
Sam Elliott’s Pretty Lights created a drum kit program that allows you to upload a drum video. This allows you to create a drum video and share it with the world.
Creating a template for your band to share with their fan base via social media is a great way to share your work-in-progress. It is easy to create a template.
There are also websites such as Bandcamp, Facebook, Youtube that you can use to share your work-in-progress with fans and others.
With today’s music videos being a big thing, band members should have a photo-shoot showing off their skills on the microphone and stage. Just upload the videos of your photos to YouTube. If you are a DJ too, you can create a DJ press kit that shows off your skills and what you do.
If you are a graphic designer, you can produce a few press images that you can use.
Most photographers want a free music band photo-shoot as part of their package.
Include information about yourself and your songs in your bio section. For example, you can include your age, where you are from, who your favorite band is and so on.
If you are an artist, know a lot about your artists and are sure to know their contact details, then include it in your press kit, along with links to various social media platforms such as SoundCloud, Facebook, etc.
For all artist-bands, have you ever thought of having a list of contact details of the people that matter in the industry? Many artist-bands don’t utilize this and hence miss out on opportunities.
Having video content is great for showcasing your talents and what your band is about. And there are some social media platforms where there is a decent amount of music videos that you could upload to your account and have them be featured on your website or social media pages.
There are many places where band members can be interviewed, such as blogs, websites, Facebook, etc. Getting interviews can give you an advantage and let people know more about you and your band. So, it is advisable that you keep tabs on the latest happenings in the industry and get yourself interviewed.
If there is websites or blogs that you can list on your website to get interviews, then you need to create an online press kit with this in mind.
There are many other times in the day where you can be interviewed and get your hands on some press coverage. If you are playing a venue regularly, get a setlist of the websites that you can get mentions from.
If you are in a band that is starting out, get yourself on iTunes. The more press mentions you get, the better of a press kit you will have.
Some people don’t realize that promotional materials come into play when you are seeking press mentions. There are promotional posters, flyers, CD covers, studio sessions, and more that you can put in your press kit.
Finding promo materials like these can be tricky as sometimes the people that distribute these aren’t the people that you actually need to meet or get your hands on. However, it is better to get them from them than be lost in the hunt.
Promotional items like covers, CD covers, pins, flyers, videos, etc. are great to have in your press kit as they can help you get to the media outlets you want to get to. They can also be added to your website that you have created if they are critical photos.
A good way to create a press kit that will grow with you as an artist is by creating your own music brand.
Create a music website and online presence. Look for press publicity opportunities and apply for them. If you have an existing website, be sure to link to that!
Hopefully, this article was helpful, any questions don’t be afraid to hit us up!
