The main purpose of this EPK was to have a website for people to visit and check out Jazz Piano lessons. This website has brought to life a different and easier way of being able to give people, such as friends of family, and maybe even some outsiders seeking some lessons a chance to learn Jazz Piano. Creating this website gives me exposure and gets my name out there for people to observe, showcasing what I can do and what I have to offer. Getting this EPK on my profiles will boost my presence and hopefully encourage people to want to learn jazz piano.
The structure of my EPK is set out in an easily readable and intuitive way. There is extremely clear navigation, such as labeled tabs for lessons, reviews, facts about me and ways to contact me and leave feedback if people were to have any lessons from me. This helps users to find what they need quickly and efficiently. The layout of my website is clean and avoids clutter which keeps the users engaged on the website and therefore more likely to contact me. Lastly, the site’s design prioritizes user experience, making it easy for aspiring jazz artists to explore and sign up for lessons.
One of the big negatives I have taken from building my website has been that I haven’t been able to expand on the creativeness and level of the demonstration videos. Something I would like to try in the future and going forward would be to make sure all my videos are more recent and directed more towards the teaching side of jazz piano rather than just showing different exercises and pieces. I am going to negate this worry by recording more of the band sessions and performances and using those as examples instead of my older videos.
My website uses a consistent colour pallet, generally dimming the colours in the background a bit more to fit the style of my page. High quality images are displayed in the background of my various pages enhancing visual appeal and the type is clean and readable which contributes to the polished look. Some space is used in different parts of the website to avoid clutter and focus on the attention to detail and the key elements. These things all combine to create an inviting online presence for my jazz audience.
For Jazz piano lessons an EPK and Instagram serve different but vital roles. An EPK provides a comprehensive and professional overview for the industry, contacts, venues, and media showcasing credentials and offerings in detail however Instagram builds broader digital presence, and potentially bringing students closer together with regular content, performance snippets and behind the scenes snippets. So, while an EPK targets professional opportunities, Instagram targets more of just daily engagement on posts, and more community interactions.
My website’s audience primarily consists of aspiring and intermediate jazz pianists, music enthusiasts, and individuals who are wanting to find piano lessons. It fits with this audience perfectly by providing tailored and specific content, clear navigation around the website and an engaging aesthetic, with the lessons being structured so that it caters to different skill levels from beginners to more advanced players. The website’s design looks professional, which helps to build trust with the users. It has pictures related to jazz piano which makes it visually appealing. This website also accommodates being on both a laptop and mobile phone / tablet ensuring a simple read on different devices. All these details make my website look on the more reliable and professional side and is inviting for anyone who is interested in jazz piano.
My EPK serves as a central hub for attracting and converting potential students. It provides detailed information about my teaching approach, experience and the benefits of learning from me which helps to build trust and credibility. A clear way of contacting me through my website is available which gives clear help towards pricing and different options in terms of lesson lengths, while a streamlined booking process encourages immediate emails / sign-ups. Engaging content, such as performance videos and rehearsal videos keeps the user interested and encourages them to explore further. Ultimately, my website acts as a virtual storefront, turning curious visitors into paying students and generating revenue for my business.
Even though my EPK was made completely by me with no costs for any of the building process of the website itself, I will still go through the costs of the assets for the EPK. Creating an EPK has several asset costs. Professional photos can range from £100 to £1000+ depending on the photographer’s expertise. Audio recordings might cost £50- £500+ per track for mixing and mastering, again depending on the recording company. Video footage, including live performances, can range from £50-£500+ depending on the designer. Additional costs may include website hosting, if hosting the EPK online, and potentially domain registration. These costs vary, but budgeting for these assets ensures that you have a polished and well-rounded EPK.
Intellectual property considerations significantly impact my EPK because I would need to ensure that all content that I use, including sheet music, audio samples and written materials, doesn’t infringe on copyright laws. Getting a license for copyright work is cruitial to make sure you are avoiding legal issues. Original content such as lesson plans and unique arrangements should be safe and protected so that they aren’t used and pawned as someone else’s. To negate this, one should consider copyrighting an original composition and make sure that your ownership is clearly stated on this. Using trademarks for your brand name and logo such as mine (the pianist man) helps prevent others from using them. Privacy policy laws are also essential, detailing how you use and protect student data. Compliance with the data protection laws, like GDPR, is vital, and is mandatory to ensure a safeguarding regulation are in place with students.
My ideas were generated for this when I first looked at the course choices for the second year and saw that there was an option for teaching. I decided to combine these aspects to create an EPK that would not only help me with my assignment but further help me in choice in route I want to follow next year. Some aspects of my EPK came about by using old videos in and around playing in gigs and playing at home which I thought would be a suitable fit to add to the EPK.
I had a look online, researching some things about the current market for piano lessons, looking for the demand online vs in person piano lessons, popular age groups and trending genres. Typically showing that online piano lessons were rising significantly more than in person piano lessons due to technicality and travel pricing. I assessed the commercial potential by identifying my target audience and overall willingness to pay, which involved considering different price tiers, subscription models and bundled services with strangers to see the average. I then gathered all the feedback from people to refine my final choices. Going forward I am going to make sure that I stay up to date with the general industry trends by attending workshops, joining as many online communities as I possibly can and analyzing different tutor methods.
The things I would most like to improve on going forward would be making sure that my EPK is a little bit more straight forward in terms of being able to contact me, giving more ways of being able to contact me by making numerous accounts on different platforms branching out my ways of contact and connecting with others. My videos, that I touched on very briefly earlier, was another slight worry of mine going into this project considering my lack of videos to put on the website, which I am going to amend going forward by trying to get in more filming whilst im playing to capture the best moments to be able to portray a good image for myself. Finally I would like to try an improve on the feedback part of my EPK so instead of users and customers just being able to leave feedback, they are also able to access multiple feedback reviews from different customers to get a reassuring idea on how the lessons are going to be going forward, which will intern rise the chances of getting customers.
Link to EPK: https://jxerxymxnt216.wixsite.com/joe-rayment
