Reason and Purpose:

The purpose for this EPK is to promote myself as an artist to labels, producers, and potential collaborators. Throughout this semester I have assessed who I would like to be as a musician and have landed on the decision of being a singer and songwriter. According to PRS for music, “loads of press officers, pluggers, labels and publishers still use the Electronic Press Kit (EPK) format to get new acts on people’s radars,” so assembling one naturally felt like the next step to establish my artistry.(PRS (2019).

Structure:

My EPK website starts with a title page, where I state my artistic name and present it as a logo. The design was carefully thought out as “A logo helps create an identity for a music artist by serving as a visual representation of the artist’s brand. It is the face of the artist and their music and creates a touchpoint” (Straw, J. (2023). Most artists use their name as their logo, and whether they keep it the same throughout their career, or change it throughout eras, it never fails to help fans recognise the artist. An Example of an artist who has mastered this branding method is Ariana Grande, whose logos are always distinctive to her album cycles, making it clear to fan’s when a new era has started. I also state my professions: musician, performer, and songwriter in the title page, to immediately express what it is I do and give the reader a general idea of my skills. Then in the background, there is a picture of myself, so that the person reading would be immediately aware of what I look like and who this EPK is about.

The next page is where my biography is found, which summarises my background, where I am in my career and the genre of music I make. Before writing my own, I had a look at other artists EPK’s and picked out what I did and did not like about each one, so that I had a guide. The first artist I looked at was Nia’s (Fearlesslynia.com. (2026). What stood out to me the most was the structure of her biography as she split it into three parts: introduction to her, her background and describing her upcoming project. I used the same structure in my biography because it is a concise, yet descriptive way of presenting everything I could about my artistry. A biography I did not take any inspiration from was Jorja Smiths’s, not only did it give me limited information about who she is, the final sentence stated, “Many songs mark Smith out as her hero Amy Winehoue’s truest successor.” (Stereofox Music Blog. (2021) The aim of an EPK is to attract collaborators or labels, and comparing yourself with others takes away from your individuality.

Following this, I added a testimonials page, where you find comments from musicians I have worked with. These felt vital to show people what I am like to work with in professional settings. A hard to work with artist will easily make record labels turn the other way as one could create operational, reputational, and financial risks. A difficult artist can cause disruption and delays in studio recording, radio promotions, or music video productions, which results in wasted money. Producers are also known to not work with artists who create an uncomfortable environment and unpleasant session. A producer who has been vocal about this is Leon Thomas, as he stated he has a “no diva” policy and that he “don’t wanna be around the artist who’s treating me like a private chef. You know like yeah, you may want steak today but what if I wanna make pasta?” (Zach Sang Show (2023).

I then decided to add a page designated to displaying demos. As I do not have music released, I was slightly unsure of what I could show in my EPK. It came down to either showing demos or videos of me performing. Ultimately it was decided that videos of me performing would be irrelevant to the purpose of my EPK, as they are function bands, covers or me featuring on other people’s projects, which are inconsistent to my music and branding. On the right side of the page, I included a photo of the marketing used for my upcoming single “Handle With Care” as this further establishes my visual branding.

To conclude I had a connect page which would lead professionals to my social media and contacts.

Branding:

“A brand is more than just a logo or a tagline; it’s an identity.” (ICMP (2023). Branding was the most challenging aspect of constructing my EPK, as initially I did not have much idea to who I wanted to be, or how I wanted to present myself as an artist. Fortunately, my Performance in Context lessons, helped in guiding me towards the persona I have now developed. My branding was created from my lyricism and the themes I explore in my songs. The majority of my music follows the themes of passion and heartbreak, so I have heavily leaned in to a “dark lover” persona. This is visually presented in my EPK through many elements, like:

• The colour red: Red is visual symbolism for not only love, but also for other themes I explore, such as anger and lust.

• Black and white imagery: Photos in black and white are often seen as classic, elegant and have romantic connotations. It also provides a nice visual contrast with the red elements.

• Font: I was very intentional when designing my name as a brand. My goal was to feel both luxurious and modern, which is how I landed on contrasting fonts. New icon script, on the letter’s “K” and “Y,’ offered a cursive and timeless feel, while the font ‘Dream Avenue,’ kept it modern.

Evaluation:

Overall, I feel my EPK accurately describes my background, goals, and experience. It also presents my visual aesthetic and musical style, through description and demo’s. Additionally, I have provided clear contact information for people who would want to contact me. Although my EPK gave a well-rounded view of who I am, there are a couple of features which are not exactly where I want them to be. Ideally, I would be able to provide audio from professionally recorded, mixed and mastered songs, however my project is not at that stage yet, so I had to settle for demo’s. If I had released music, I would also include links that take you directly to streaming services, where you would be directed to my discography. The second thing I would change are the photos. These photos were taken with my EPK in mind, however my branding was slightly altered after having taken them, so I do not think they do the visual brand justice. Moreover, the promotional picture on the “What’s coming…” slide, is also one of the draft promotional images, and not a final poster.

Group discussion:

In the WITCI seminars I was able to get feedback of my EPK and talk through things I was struggling to work through with other students. During the process of discovering my brand and aesthetic, Oliver suggested I create a few mood boards and see which one resonated with me. This was helpful and sped up my process significantly, as after creating three different mood boards, it was evident which one best represented the world my songs live in. It also made designing the EPK a smooth process as I already had a colour scheme and vision.

As previously mentioned, I was indecisive on how to showcase my work. It was through a group discussion that demo’s were chosen over performance videos, because whether they were finished songs or not, it is still shows more of my artistry than a video of me singing covers unrelated to my chosen genre of music. In this discussion, we also arrived at the decision not to include a ‘skills’ section in my EPK. I had been unsure of what to include in this section, as it felt it would lack substance or add any value due to my skills being stated or implied in other areas of my EPK.

At a later date, when I had presented a developed EPK, I received positive feedback on the branding, visuals, and content. The group that read over it said that the colours matched with my branding and helped my EPK stand out. The demos were also appropriate, and they make it clear what my sound is and felt cohesive to the visual aesthetic. My use of testimonials was also praised as it showed my ability to work with other collaborators and highlight my variety of skill sets.

A piece of constructive criticism that I received was about my biography. I had initially explained my style by comparing my music to other artists, but was told not to compare myself to others and instead state the influences that have led me to my sound. I was also told to have more variety in my pictures chosen, or have a photos page, which although I agreed with, I could not execute. Additionally, someone in my group mentioned how my description on experience was vague, he suggested I either write about it in more detail in the biography or dedicate a page to experience. Although understanding his point, I chose not to, in order to keep the focus on where I currently am in my career, and my goals moving forward.

Bibliography:

Fearlesslynia.com. (2026). Nia. [online] Available at: https://fearlesslynia.com/epk [Accessed 14 May 2026].

ICMP (2023). Building a Brand as a Music Artist or Band. [online] ICMP. Available at: https://www.icmp.ac.uk/blog/building-a-brand-a-music-artist-or-band.

PRS (2019). How to promote yourself as a new artist: the EPK. [online] Prsformusic.com. Available at: https://www.prsformusic.com/m-magazine/features/how-to-promote-yourself-as-a-new-artist-the-epk.

Stereofox Music Blog. (2021). Jorja Smith Artist Profile – Stereofox Music Blog – discover new music. [online] Available at: https://www.stereofox.com/artists/jorja-smith/ [Accessed 14 May 2026].

Straw, J. (2023). Jeff Straw Branding. [online] Jeff Straw Branding. Available at: https://www.jeffstrawbranding.com/vlog/2023/3/1/3-reasons-you-need-a-killer-logo-as-a-music-artist.

Zach Sang Show (2023). Leon Thomas | Electric Dusk, Drake, Ariana Grande. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhHedoJshes [Accessed 14 May 2026].