When you’re thinking about applying for a job, a resume would be the first thing you want to prepare. Similar to the music industry, if you want to get booked or signed a record deal, creating an electronic press kit (EPK) is the first thing you want to do.In short, an EPK is a resume and a pitch about yourself as a musician. An EPK is one of the first few things you want to be ready to hand out throughout your whole musical career; especially in your networking journey to get your first record label deal. Learn more on how to network in the music industry.The UsageAn EPK is an inseparable part of your musician career. For a musician, you need to send out your EPK when you launch a music campaign, send a media to reach out, sign up for gigs, introduce yourself to an artist and repertoire(A&R) representative, etc. With that being said, an EPK helps you organize your past achievements and discography for a better first impression for the industry professionals.The BenefitsEnhance your musician profileThrough an EPK, a booking agent or an A&R representative would decide whether they want to work with you. Thus, having an EPK is the stepping stone to appear more professional as an artist. By professionalizing your approach, you increase your chances of getting booked for gigs and offering a record deal. No one wants to work with a musician without a proper profile about themselves - having an EPK is a great first step to building and organizing a profile.Assist your music campaignThroughout your music career, a music campaign is a process you have to go through with every music release. Thus, an EPK is one of the most important materials for you to prepare for a successful music campaign.If you want to know more about what makes a successful music campaign, we have an article that covers how to run a music campaign and how to prepare for one. Needless to say, having an EPK is a crucial part to run a campaign as it’s the main material you will use to reach out to media outlets.The MaterialsNow, come to the question, what do you put in your EPK? Since an EPK is your musician’s resume, you want to put relevant information that helps music professionals have a better understanding of you as an artist. Here are the main components to put in an EPK:1. DiscoveryThe very first thing you need to include in your EPK is your music. At the end of the day, it is your music that matters to the music professionals. The goal here is to show that you’re an active musician with proper discography.Besides listing all of your songs and albums, you need to emphasize the tracks that both perform the best and genuinely reflect yourself as an artist. You can also include any music video that you’ve done in this section.2. BiographyIn this section, you can have two different types of bio - a long one and a short one. For the short one, you can either put a testimonial or an elevator pitch about yourself. With the short bio, the readers can have a quick overview of who you are before finishing reading your whole EPK.For the long bio, you can give more context such as why you’re pursuing that music genre and your musical vision. The goal for the long bio is to be as concise as possible.3. BrandingThe branding section consists of your photos, album art, and logo. With an EPK, you want to show your brand as an artist in which visual images work the best to showcase your branding. With cohesive branding, music professionals will have a better idea of your identity and vision for your music.4. AchievementNot everyone would have an achievement, especially if you’re just starting. Thus, this section is completely optional. However, if you do have one, it will make a great element for your EPK to stand out from the crowd. By showcasing your past achievements, music professionals will see how you thrive in the industry and your desire to grow as an artist.5. Contact InformationFor this section, you want to make it as accessible as possible. Your EPK’s end goal is to have people slide into your DMs (or email address). Thus, you must list out all of the ways people can contact you such as email address, phone number, social media accounts, etc.6. Tour/ShowIn this section, you can include both your past shows and upcoming shows. This is a great way to show you’re an active artist and ways for the music professionals to check your music in real life.Moreover, it’s also a subtle way of telling the readers how popular you are if you’re all booked up. Almost everyone in the industry is more eager to work with artists with a solid fandom and certain popularity. Thus, to leverage your popularity and fanbase, check out our article on music promotion.To have a high-quality electronic press kit, you also need to have a high-quality profile with a decent amount of listeners/fans. Luckily, there is a way to achieve that high-quality profile - continuously doing music promotions to accelerate your popularity and fanbase.At Base for Music, we help you run ads for your music by generating sponsored campaigns across social networks such as Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, and Spotify. Through our services, your music will get heard which steadily increases your fanbase.To learn more about this topic, we recommend this article Groover : Press kit : tips and tricks for musicians
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