How to create an EPK using a template
Updated by Melanie Kealey on Feb 08, 2024 in: Website Tips, Music Marketing & Promotion, EPKs for musicians
Posted on Feb 21, 2017
Making a music website is key in building your artist brand. Creating an electronic press kit (EPK) to showcase your music and your online presence is more relevant than ever. Adding that artist EPK to your website means that you can coordinate content across all of your pages.
This keeps your style and substance consistent through both your website and your EPK.
Creating an EPK using a template is an easy way to be sure that you’re including all of the content you need. You might be releasing a new album or single, pitching to radio, or building an EPK to book shows.
To get started quickly, choose a premade EPK template, then populate it to create a press kit for your music that will help fans and industry professionals alike understand who you are as an artist.
Can you use your website as an EPK?
If you’re just getting your career off the ground, or need to put together a Onesheet that reflects a specific goal, using an EPK as a standalone option works well.
Once you’ve grown your career and want to engage more with your fans online—such as collecting fan email dresses, selling music, selling merch, or even offering fan subscriptions—you’ll want to move into making a music website.
If you already have a music website, you can certainly use that to advance your shows or connect with industry professionals. In this case, we recommend making an EPK as a single page with a distinct URL on your full website. The idea is that your EPK is more concise and contains everything you need in one easy-to-access place.
Your website should expand on all aspects of your career, with the goal of building your fanbase over the long term.
How do you create an EPK?
To create an effective EPK, you’ll want to first figure out your goal. An EPK can be used to actively generate buzz for an upcoming release, as a general resume for your music career, or to help a promoter, blogger, or radio station to promote your music
Then, select a template that matches your goal—this will ensure you’re not forgetting to include anything important (and just makes it easy to get started!)
1. Choose a template for your EPK
The EPK templates included with Bandzoogle are: EPK to advance shows, EPK for media, EPK to book shows, EPK for labels, EPK for radio and curators, and a general EPK. You can make your own from scratch too, but these are good starting points to create an EPK using a template and modify the features to suit your needs.
2. Gather your EPK content
You’ll want to add the following to an electronic press kit:
- A quote: Something that describes your sound, or your draw. Use a memorable quote from the media, or a previous booker.
- Bio: Write a musician bio that includes a few sentences about yourself, a description of your music, and your current achievements.
- Music: Select your newest tracks, most popular tracks, or tracks from the album you’re promoting.
- Photos: Add high-resolution images. Be sure to offer a variety of options, from live shots to posed band pictures. Include a few different sizes as well (landscape, portrait, and square).
- Video: Choose your best video, keeping in mind it may be re-posted online to show what your band looks and sounds like.
- Contact: Make it easy for a media person or booker to reach you directly.
- Networking links: Add social media and streaming icons for the platforms on which you’re most active.
Depending on the goal of your EPK, you can also include things like a stage plot, posters, and more.
3. Add your bio, music, and more to your EPK template
Once you have all of your EPK content at hand, it’s easy to create a digital press kit in just a few clicks.
As a starting point, use one of our preset EPK page templates to get everything onto the page in an aesthetically pleasing and organized way.
To do this, click ‘Add Page’ in your ‘Edit Content’ tab. Choose from one of the preset EPK page options (EPK to advance shows, EPK for media, EPK to book shows, EPK for labels, EPK for radio and curators, or a general EPK), update the title if you’d like, and then create your page.
You’ll see features relevant to your EPK template nicely laid out in columns for you. For example, with the most popular EPK type—the General EPK—you’ll see a place to put a quote at the top, followed by an ‘Image and Text’ feature for your bio. Next is a spot for downloadable high-resolution photos, then a place for a sample track and video. Last of all is a contact form for inquiries.
These EPK templates vary to suit different goals, with the ‘EPK to book shows’ including a spot for a stage plot and tech rider, and the ‘EPK for media’ showcasing a dedicated place for album reviews. You can adjust and arrange any of these features to suit your project or release at any time.
4. Check and adjust your EPK’s design
To make EPK page layout as easy as possible, our designers created these EPK example templates for you to choose from based on your goal for your music. Once you’ve got your bio, photos, music, and more set in place on the page, you’ll be able to adjust the features on the page to create a customized layout if you’d like.
All of these preset EPKs are laid out to help you effectively promote your music, but feel free to tailor the look and feel of your page with styled sections. Add different background colors or imagery behind your features to make your music and text pop. Selecting crisp, blocky fonts for your section titles is another way to make a custom EPK design that stands out.
5. Put your EPK to work
Now that your electronic press kit is ready, you have a few options to get it out to the media and industry. If you’re promoting a new single from your website, you can add a call-to-action on your homepage to direct traffic to learn more about you and listen to the track posted on your EPK page.
One of the most useful things about an EPK is the direct URL. Having a direct URL to share with people saves you time and gives you peace of mind knowing that your music is promoted in a way that you’ve set up and curated. So any time someone requests a photo, a song sample, or a video, you can send them the direct link to your EPK for them to find what they need. This makes it easy for them to grab your bio, or download an image to use, or send your EPK along to other people.
If you want to create a downloadable press kit to proactively send out to bookers, reviewers, or to use networking at conferences, simply export a PDF of your press kit and attach that in an email or print it out.
If you’re looking to target just a few people with your EPK, you can password-protect the page and send out the URL link selectively. You can also remove your EPK page from your website’s main menu; in this scenario someone would need to know the direct URL to be able to view the page.
6. Update your EPK regularly
Every time you meet a new milestone in streaming or sales, win an award, release new music, or complete a tour, you should update your press kit to reflect the accomplishment.
An EPK should act as a full picture of your music, whether it’s an EPK to capture your career to date or an EPK to book new shows. Your EPK acts like a living resume that can be accessed at any time. It’s important to keep it updated with fresh, relevant content to be sure that industry, media, and talent buyers are seeing you at your best.
An up-to-date electronic press kit is a good indicator that you’re an active musician who takes their music career seriously.
Designing your EPK with a template is a surefire way to create a page that is both relevant and professional. Make sure you tailor your press kit to suit your current goals, add relevant content, and keep it up-to-date as your career progresses.
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