Above is a screen recording of the website that I made on Squarespace.

The purpose and reasoning of my EPK:

The purpose of this EPK is to promote myself as a new, upcoming artist. It was also a great tool to see gaps in my promotional material. For example, I am missing out on promotional photos with stylistic continuity. The page promoting my debut single shows a placeholder for the album cover as I haven’t made one yet.

How structure makes this EPK suitable for its intended audience?

The EPK opens with a photo of me taken from my film camera, which captures the authentic nostalgic aesthetic that I’m aiming for. The next page contains some promotional pictures. While they are good quality, they were taken last year and do not fully align with the vibe that I’m looking for now. I would achieve this by having some photoshoots that follow a specific style that I like at a specific time. This would be reflected in both my music artwork and personal style. The next page is the promotion for my first single ‘Impulse’. I will update the placeholder with the correct artwork once it is completed. This page will update with every new release. The next page is a short bio followed by a summary of key points for those who want to read through the EPK quickly. Putting this early in the webpage will help people who have limited time to quickly have a look and instantly know who I am and what I do. The longer bio is underneath for people who are interested in knowing more after reading the short bio and summary. There are then some more placeholder pages for both tour dates and testimonies, which I plan to complete in the future when it is relevant. The website ends with some space for some more pictures and some contact details at the very bottom. I am in the process of making new social media accounts for myself as an artist, but the links are not yet active. Another element I need to add is some promotional videos of me performing. While I do have some videos, the quality isn’t high enough to include on this website, so I have left them out for now. I will put in some YouTube links of more professional videos once they are made.  The aesthetic that I am aiming for is one with an authentic feel, simply showing colours and themes that I’m interested in. This links to my love of film photography as it captures a real, unedited moment.

Instagram vs EPK:

While Instagram is a great marketing tool for artists, I believe that having an EPK is still valuable, as it can be used to send to record labels and potential collaborators. However, the importance of Instagram is constantly growing, and in my opinion, it has already overtaken the EPK in terms of overall relevance.

My audience:

My audience would typically be fans of Soul, Jazz and RnB. These genres have lots of history and often evoke a nostalgic feeling through older music. I wanted to encapsulate this feeling of older soul but put it into something new. This is why I chose to use my film camera for the first image, as it shows something new while still incorporating the essence of what came before it. Other artists in this genre such as Children of Zues, have a written bio on a page written by Earth Agency. This bio started with a small summary that could be expanded into a bigger more detailed bio if pressed on. This helped guide me on how to structure my bios. However, the bios of the individual artists Tyler Daley and Konny Kon were quite brief. This was not the case for my bio as I chose to include a bit more information and context for those who were interested in reading it. I have also made sure that the website is easy to navigate, to cater to everyone, ranging from casual listeners to industry professionals.

Financial and Legal Elements:

The cost of assets is currently quite low, as nothing on my EPK has cost any money so far, as the professional photos were given to me for free. For a more theme driven photoshoot, I will either work with someone I know with photography experience or hire a professional. This would obviously cost some money, but it would be a good investment as it would make my EPK look way more professional, therefore possibly creating more opportunities and revenue. In terms of a domain name, I can buy tomcoghlanmusic.com from ionos.co.uk for £1 a year, which a very affordable option. To manage copyright, I will have all of my music licensed by PRS. When it comes to advertising, I will most likely pay for some promotion after releasing my first few singles, as I want to have a decent body of work out before I start promoting myself. I will also use other methods of promotion, such as posting short covers on Tik Tok and Instagram. These covers will consist of songs that are in a similar style to the music that I make. One benefit of this approach is that I know lots of smaller artists that would be likely to see and connect with the covers I post. This would not only help with promotion (especially if shared by the original artist) but also help me build relationships in the area of the music industry that I want to be involved in. This method is not only effective but also free, as I would either record the covers at home or in the free studios at Leeds Conservatoire.

Group Work and Evaluation:

At the beginning of this process, I was unsure where to start and found it difficult to decide between the two assignments, the business plan or the EPK. For the business plan, I was thinking of planning a tour and looking into the costs that would make that possible. During a group seminar where everyone was sharing their ideas, I realised that the EPK was a better choice for me at this point as I would ideally need to have some kind of online presence before I planned a tour for myself. A business plan wouldn’t have been the best choice for my own development especially since I haven’t even released my first single yet. After finally deciding on the EPK, I was still struggling to know where to start. This changed when I went to the second group seminar. It was suggested to me that I should have a rough plan of what I would want to showcase about myself. This advice led to the first draft of my short bio as I began to write down everything I had achieved so far. This list gave me something to work with and helped to get over the feeling of the blank page. Another thing that was suggested to me was to look at how similar artists to me approached their EPKs. This was extremely helpful for me as while I was already looking at other artists’ EPK’s, the examples I found ranged from a small bio to a fully-fledged website all about the artist. The suggestion to look specifically at the people that I aim to be like was extremely helpful as I began to find a more consistent theme. This EPK has helped me grow both personally and commercially. Personally, I now have lots of small goals, such as getting some new promotional pictures that have a unified theme, and some high-quality videos to accompany them. These goals have helped me to stay motivated, as it can sometimes become overwhelming when you feel the need to improve but have no idea where to start. Here I have identified my strengths and weaknesses, which have helped me keep a balanced view on myself as an artist. Professionally this has certainly helped as I have compiled all of my promotional material and achievements together in one place. This is helpful, as now I have done this, I will always have something to build on as my career progresses. The next thing for me to work on is to release my first single, followed by several more. I will then find an aesthetic that reignites with me, and use that to help promote my first EP, making sure it feels complete and has a consistent thematic and stylistic vibe throughout. In the long term, my goal is to make this EPK a hub of my progress as an artist. This will not only show people where I came from and where I am now, it will also show me how far I have come, to keep myself driven and motivated. This process will include lots of trial and error in terms of promotion, as I experiment to find the best way of connecting to a wider audience. This will also involve lots of editing of my current EPK which will continue to be added to as I release more music and promotional content.

Bibliography:

Earth Agency (2023) Children of Zues. Available Online: https://earth-agency.com/artist/children-of-zeus/[Accessed 14/05/2025]

Ionos.co.uk Available online: https://www.ionos.co.uk/domainshop/search?skipContractSelection=true&transaction_id=1028cb69ff7ac0848183ef657775c9&itc=4K05IXQ5-XIDLQ6-0Q1429E&ac=OM.UK.UKt02K418214T7073a&affiliate_id=4299&utm_source=Cappsool+Technologies+LTD&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=AFF-GB-DOM-CTLD-4299—–&utm_content=#/ [Accessed 14/05/2025]