One of the biggest challenges that constantly plagues DJs and music industry professionals is simply trying to make progress with their music careers. Oh sure, in the movies it almost looks easy. Have a dream, never give up, and some guy who just happens to own a mega record label will be gob-smacked by your performance and practically beg you to sign on with him.
The reality is hardly so wonderous.
For most of us, we have to go through things the old-fashioned way, and that’s with an Electronic Press Kit, also known as an EPK. But what is an EPK for DJs?
What Is An EPK (Press Kit)?
So, what is an EPK? Entitled EPK for short, an Electronic Press Kit is essentially a press kit resume within the music industry. It’s meant to show label companies, music supervisors, music talent agents, promoters, and every other deciding factor in the music industry everything that’s important about you as an artist.
An electronic press kit includes promotional material, artist bios, promotional photos, and a lot more! A press kit arms them with all the pertinent information they’d otherwise need so they can decide whether to bring you on or not in their particular sphere.
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Electronic Press Kits (Artist EPK)
Simply put, having a solid electronic press kit is the only real way you’ll step out of the standard gig locations and into something serious. It’s’ how you can professionally tell your story in as concise a way as possible.
Now, just because you put together electronic press kits doesn’t mean anything will happen. As with most high-end companies get hundreds of CV resumes a day, and so too do most musical talent when it comes to an electronic press kit.
This means that you’re going to need to do some things differently if you want to stand out from the rest of the pack.
What Should Be In Your EPK?
The point of having an electronic press kit, as alluded to earlier, is more or less to put as much of your musical information out there in one place so that musical professionals have a complete composite of your works to go off of.
This makes it easier for them to decide what you’re capable of and if you and them would make a good team. This is true for the talent agents that would represent you as well as the music labels that would bring you on under them.
When people don’t create complete electronic press kits, they leave professionals guessing and unsure.
There have been many instances where a label or a distribution passed on an “up-and-coming” because they incorrectly thought the performer’s electronic press kit wasn’t large enough. This was thanks to that performer simply not updating it with all of their information.
If you want to be famous, make sure your EPK is up to date.
So what should be on your electronic press kit?
Well, you’ll want to collect all aspects of your brand as a music performer. You’ll note that this isn’t just going to be your music, but just about every part of you and any bandmates you have.
This is to create a complete and comprehensive understanding of everything that is you within your electronic press kit.
A press kit will include the following areas:
- All Of Your Music
- A Complete Artist Bio
- Promotional materials
- Any Existing & Previous Branding Titles
- All Music Videos
- Social Media Links
- Any Press Releases Or Testimonials
- Recent Press coverage or Press Release statements from Media Outlets
- All Performance & DJ Tours
- Your Contact Information
This may seem like a ton of information to throw in, but the truth is that companies need to know as much about you as possible.
Not only will parts of your story potentially allow you to stand out from the countless other electronic press kits they may have at that time, but you’ll make it a lot easier to make a name for yourself once all the information is out there.
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How To Make An Electronic Press Kit
Below is a complete breakdown of the aforementioned electronic press kit points. This way you’ll know exactly what to put for each section without worrying about if you’re doing too much or too little. But make sure you get out there do your research and check out electronic press kit examples used by other DJs.
Music
First things first, you’re going to want to present your music in your electronic press kit. And while this is the most obvious inclusion, what also matters is the order in which you present it.
Instead of just putting them out haphazardly or in any type of nebulous order, you want to instead focus on the songs and tracks that have been the most highly reviewed.
This gives them a baseline of your max starting potential and what could be a realistic trajectory for you based on how many tracks you’ve put out and how long you’ve been performing.
You can find your music’s reviews by analyzing your stream history and purchase history, finding the tracks that are the most listened to or purchased. You’ll also want to make sure all of your tracks are exported in the highest quality possible, preferably MP3 320 kbps.
Artist Bio
As it comes to your bio, you’ll want to have two separate biographies set up in your electronic press kit. The first should be in a long format that goes over your entire background, painting as clear a picture of who you are and what you stand for as possible. You should avoid being long-winded or unclear, instead hitting on things in as concise a way as possible, with the end goal being an audience that wants to hear more from you rather than less.
The second smaller bio should be more of an elevator pitch, running through your music career’s highlights as well as the different noteworthy moments.
This should be as many of your juiciest story points as possible to get and keep your reader’s attention. Unlike the long bio, your short biography shouldn’t be more than a few sentences (three at most), using each word to sell yourself and make them interested in jumping to the long-form bio to get the full story.
If you have trouble getting started, you’ll want to begin with your name, your group’s name, and where you’re based. From there, try to define your sound as clearly as you can, having several people look it over to help file it down to its most interesting bits.
You can also bring in a music writer to give it that extra oomph to stand out even more.
Branding Your Electronic Press Kit
When going over your electronic press kit and running through the different parts of your brand, keep in mind that every aspect is important. This ranges from your different photos, your album art, as well as even your music logo.
All of these things play an important part in helping walk your audience through your journey as a performer or as a group, helping them know you from the countless other bands and performers also screaming for their attention.
Your photos aren’t just photos. The reality is that photos help tell a story while giving the viewer an understanding of the type of musical artist you are. For example, you’ll want to include live photos in your electronic press kit as well as any band or group stills, as they both reveal different things about you and your group.
The photos should be high resolution (300 dpi) as well as low resolution (72 dpi). There should also be a max 600 pixel-wide image to give them a large view of what you guys are all about.
It may be tempting, but you shouldn’t include photos taken from either your iPhone or Android device.
Even if you can’t afford top-quality professional photos, at least rent out a quality camera for your pictures.
Remember, this is your first impression of musical professionals. Taking images with your camera, while not the worst thing in the world, leaves a bad impression that you’re not taking this nearly as seriously as you should.
Album Art
You also want to ideally have a solid art cover on your electronic press kits. If you don’t have one already, consider using a graphic designer or commissioning an artist to handle it. Make sure that it lines up with whatever your overall brand is supposed to look and feel like so that everything remains congruent.
Logos
SUPER IMPORTANT. It’s also important to ideally offer up a logo if you have one. If you don’t already have a music logo, now is the time to make one. The good news is that they aren’t all that difficult to put together and there are many different tools out there that can help you put together something that is both memorable and highly impactful.
Pretty important, in fact, vital for electronic press kits. Plus, make sure you get a folder full of different file types including JPEG, PNG, PDF, etc. A decent designer will know that anyway.
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Music or Promotional Videos
For those that have had a chance to put together a music video, you’re off to a great start. Include these in your electronic press kits as it’s a great way to show your personality as well as your overall stage presence.
Not only that, but they’ll see in real-time what you look like if they decide to take you on. While I can’t say that a music video “seals the deal”, it is easily one of the most important factors a music business professional can have outside of booked tour dates (more on that later).
Social Media Links
Here, you’ll want to include any links of you on social media in your own EPK. Be sure to look them over before directly adding them, as it’s important that your social media presence aligns with how you’ve branded yourself throughout the previous parts of your EPK.
This means that, if you’ve branded yourself as a Techno DJ, you may not want to include any Dubstep or Disco links, as this makes the brand come across as incongruent.
Your works should run synergistically with one another to elevate your brand as a whole. Having a bunch of things that are incongruent with each other, only scares off or confuses a potential connection.
You should include links from social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) as well as any official websites you have, and even any places your music may currently exist (such as Spotify, Apple Music, or Soundcloud).
Press Coverage
This may or may not be applicable to you based on your situation. If you’ve previously been featured through media outlets or had any of your music reviewed or talked about, you’ll want to include that in your press kits.
This is great since it effectively puts you ahead of the curve and adds an extra sense of credibility and interest in what you have to offer. After all, if you’re already doing well, them getting behind you will only make your rocket a guaranteed hit instead of a gamble.
Tour Dates
Here, you’ll want to list out all of your previous and upcoming shows and tour dates in your press kit. While your previous information won’t be quite as relevant as anything you’re currently doing or slated to do, it’s still important to show your progression as well as an established track record.
Listing your current and upcoming shows is ideal, however, as it allows professionals a chance to you out personally as well as potentially promote any later gigs as well as even help book shows based on what should be happening.
If you’re already fully booked, that’s even better!
This is really great since it shows evidence that you’re a legitimate draw and are already a shining star even before they have a chance to do anything.
Contact Information
Last on the list is putting down your contact details and information. You want to make this as easy as possible for the person reading it, providing them with an effective method of getting in touch with you with as little friction as possible.
You want to include as many methods of contact for you as possible, including phone numbers, email addresses, and any social media account names.
For those that already have an acting manager, you’ll instead want to include all of their information, as they will be the one that interacts with any third-party individuals.
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What Is An EPK? Summary
What is an EPK? Have we answered your question?
Again, that may seem like a lot out of the gate, but the reality is that this is what it’s going to take if you’re serious about putting yourself out there in the music industry and getting recognized.
Your best bet would be to check out some electronic press kit examples.
You can choose to do an incomplete EPK and have it ignored or, even worse, not do any work with press kits at all and have no one know you even exist.
Or you could treat this with the importance and gravity it deserves, put together an awesome package, and send it out confidently, knowing they’ll have no choice but to take you seriously.
Trust me when I say that the latter option has a much better track record for making a successful performer than either of the former.
Good luck!
And, if you follow these steps, I expect to see you making moves in the music industry a lot sooner than you may have originally thought.
