Stunning electronic press kits & why every musician needs one

Introduction

Creating stunning electronic press kits just became a lot easier & in this article lies the formula. As you read on, I’ll show you how to craft the perfect press kit for your music career.

Just so you don’t get confused, EPK stands for Electronic Press Kit. It’s a digital form of a press kit as opposed to its hard copy counterpart!

It’s no secret that the music industry is a cutthroat business. It is demanded upon the artist to strive towards making a good first impression always! A press kit is your best weapon as a musician if you desire to get noticed by someone capable of advancing your career.

Designing an effective EPK that will get you noticed by those who matter most is a breeze as you will come to realize after reading this article.

A Great Press Kit is Crucial to a Musician’s Career

You might be wondering why a press kit is so important to your career and the answer is simple: Artists who have great PR and promotional materials are more likely to get favourable coverage in magazines and online blogs, which means they can build their fanbase more quickly and effectively.

Having a stellar press kit will also help you get more gigs. When venue managers, event bookers or bloggers see that you already have extensive marketing materials, it shows them that you’re serious about your music career and therefore, more likely to draw an audience.

If this sounds like something that might interest you, keep reading!

What Exactly Is An Electronic Press Kit (EPK)?

According to Wikipedia  A press kit often referred to as a media kit in business environments, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials that provide information about a person, company, organization or cause and which is distributed to members of the media for promotional use. 

An electronic press kit is a collection of promotional materials that you can send to anyone who might be interested in learning more about you or your projects.

It is essentially a fancy way to get the word out about your music.

The Elements inside an Electronic Press Kits (EPK)

Every electronic press Kit must have:

1. Artist biography
2. Discography
3. Promotional photos
4. Logos, brand assets and official artworks
5. Highlight Reel and Performance Videos
6. Press and testimonials
7. Tour Dates and Show Information
8. Contact Information and Social Media Links
   
   

Artist Biography

Your Artist Biography should be short, sweet and straightforward.
It’s important to keep in mind that the information you include here will be used by journalists and bloggers who might not know so much about your work. This is where you can give them a quick overview of your musical background, including things like:

• Who you are
• What you do
• Where you are from (and when your journey into music began)
• How to pronounce your name (seriously, people make mistakes!)

You also want to include some other details that may prove useful for bloggers and jurnalist who want to learn more about your work.
Include in this section:

• Any relevant awards or accolades received by the artist/band over time;
• A timeline of major releases for both solo projects and collabos;
• Most recent release date(s);
• Album artwork image(s) or video link(s), if available;
  
  

Discography

Discography is an important part of your electronic press kit (EPK), and it’s probably the section people will look at first. This is where you list all of your releases, including singles, EPs, albums and music videos. You can also include remixes and collaborations if they’re relevant to what you do now.

This section should include:

• The title of each release
• Links to digital downloads
• A link or name of the label/distributor (if applicable) where it was released
• Release Dates
• Number of copies pressed (if applicable)
  
  

Promotional Photos 

It’s essential to include your Promotional Photos and official cover art in your press kit. The promotional photos should be professional, eye-catching and of high quality.
If you are looking for a photographer to take professional photos of yourself or your band, look for someone who has experience working with musicians. You will want to make sure that the photographer has all the necessary copyright permissions for using the photos.

You may also want to consider hiring a makeup artist if you feel it is necessary for the shoot.

In addition to getting good quality promotional photos, make sure that they are relevant to your music and branding style as well as having permission from any people featured in them (if there are any).

Logos, brand assets and official artworks

Include the logos and brand assets for any of your official releases. If you have a record label or other company sponsoring your music, they may have created an official logo or photo template that they would like you to use in all press materials.

You can also include stock images of yourself and your team members as well as posters or album covers from previous releases(if any). If there is the official artwork for each release, it is best to include those as well.

Press kits often consist of electronic folders with PDFs or JPEGS of CD packaging, cassette tapes and vinyl records ( it might shock you to know that vinyl and cassettes are still a thing) so that journalists can easily access them without having to download them individually on to their computers.

Highlight Reel and Performance Videos

A highlight reel is a collection of your best work, usually edited together to show off your style and sound.

A performance video is a live recording of you performing your music. This can be shorter than a highlight reel, but just as effective in showing off your skills.

A highlight reel is excellent for getting a sense of what you do best, while performance videos are great for seeing how you perform live. If you’re doing both, consider having one video that showcases each skill set!

Press and testimonials

Press and testimonials are great ways to show that you have credibility. Press can come from newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs or other media outlets.

Testimonials should be written by people who have interacted with you as a musician. You can include fans (who will be more likely to talk about how much they love your music), friends and family members (they will most likely confirm their admiration for your music), and industry professionals (producers or journalists) who have worked with you in some way.

Tour Dates and Show Information

Do you have upcoming events or tour dates? Listing forthcoming gigs, tours, or shows enables booking agents to work around your current schedule. Also, anyone who mentions you on the radio, in a blog post, or podcast can help promote those gig dates.
Moreover, ensure you’re providing an updated calendar with relevant show information. You never know who may come to your next show and change your music career!

Contact Information and Social Media Links

You should make it as easy as possible for bloggers and journalists to contact you. When crafting your press kit, include all of the following contact information:

• Your contact email addresses
• Website URL
• Social media links (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)

If you have a phone number available, add that too! It’s important that this information stays current so journalists, bloggers and media outlets can easily reach out to you if they need further clarification on any details in your press kit

How to host and share your stunning electronic press kit (EPK)

Once you’ve completed your EPK, make it readily available. Hosting and distributing your electronic press kit is essential. It’s critical to get your artist information in the hands of the right people in the music industry. You don’t want to miss a career-changing opportunity!

Here are six ways to share your press kit:

Your Artist website

This is the most common option, and it’s also the easiest. The EPK will be available from any computer or device with access to the Internet that you own and control, so if someone wants to view your music, they won’t have to go anywhere special for it—they’ll just go to your site!

Use cloud storage and file sharing platforms

• Upload to a free service like Dropbox or Google Drive. Dropbox and Google Drive are both great options because they’re easy-to-use cloud storage systems that allow you full control over who has access to each file in addition to providing versions of those files in different formats (like PDFs). Such services are best for non-techies who know nothing about how websites work.
  
  
• Host on a paid service like WeTransfer or MediaFire (not recommended). WeTransfer is an online file transfer service that lets users upload huge files without getting charged per megabyte as some other services do; MediaFire is similar but offers more features for those committed to uploading and downloading of large files! 
  
  

Use Social media platforms to share those stunning electronic press kits

Include a shareable link to your EPK on all your social media platforms. Make it easy for fans and industry professionals to discover your press kit. You never know who may visit your social pages!

Print a copy to share in public venues

Hate it or love it, Cameroon is still catching up to the innovations brought by the internet era to the music business. There are still a lot of folks who enjoy the old fashion hard copy media format. It’s tangible and can be a good souvenir

Consider having a printed version of your stunning electronic press kit on hand where you may run into industry professionals. If that’s inconvenient, include a link to your electronic press kit on your business card.

Examples of Stunning Electronic press kits

• Electronic Press Kits Sample 1: Erin Coburn
• Electronic Press Kits Sample 2: SCHREINER
• Electronic Press Kits Sample 3: Luke James

These samples will give you an idea of what an electronic press kit looks like in practice. There are endless possibilities as far as presentation goes.

Music platforms like ReverbNation offer EPK templates, file hosting, marketing tools, and more.

Bandzoogle is another platform that has everything you need to craft a stunning electronic press kit with an extra benefit of a personal website.

Conclusion

A stunning electronic press kit (EPK) gives journalists and bloggers the information they need about you in a fancy fashion. if all the necessary information included doesn’t go overboard with unnecessary details, you shall definitely make that first impression when your next prospects arrive. 
Make sure that when you design your EPK, you consider the audience that will be viewing it so they can easily understand what they are reading without confusion.

Hopefully, the tips and tricks I’ve shared here will help you advance your music to some degree. Keep in mind that these are just some starting points, so don’t be afraid to experiment and find what works best for your music!