Electronic Press Kit link: spademusic.co.uk

Introduction

For this Electronic Press Kit (EPK) report/project, I have essentially developed an effective plan to create an EPK for my collaborative artist. For this assignment, I have chosen to work with an artist who goes by the name ‘Spade’. He is currently based in Leeds and makes Reggae/Spanish style music. I selected this artist due his unique style of music which is not often seen within artists of his age group (19-20s). “I’ve had so many phases with music; first I liked pop, then that transitioned into rap, then all of a sudden, I liked rock from the 80s, then country— then reggae. I even liked K-pop at one point, but that only lasted a few days. I’d say all of these genres and artists that I’ve listened to have influenced my music in their own ways over the years, even if it’s not always noticeable in my songs. I would say that reggae is my primary genre right now, but I’m still exploring. I’m always open to change and trying new things, as long as it feels like I’m still being myself. Even if it goes wrong, at least I’ll learn from it. I also don’t want to stick to ‘just reggae’, I love reggae and its rhythms but I’d also like to add my own twist to my tracks or mix things up and experiment with different genres” (Spade, 2025).  

One of the key aims of this EPK would be to act as a professional introduction to Spade for industry contacts, such as independent record labels, booking agents, and promoters. Given that Spade is still in the early stages of his career and has limited online exposure, this EPK will essentially serve as a foundation for future outreach and networking opportunities within the music industry.

Who is my Artist?

All of our planning was done in person. However, snapchat was used as a form to stay in touch. Amidst our discussions, I was informed that aside from making songs, he has performed at open mics in places such as The Grove Inn or Northen Guitars in Leeds where he has claimed to have received a great and positive amount of feedback. However, these places are known for typically having people aged in their early 30s-60s (occasionally younger than that). He mentioned that he once played at an open mic hosted by Leeds Conservatoire where everyone was unquestionably younger (late 10s and early 20s). However, with this open mic, he admitted that the feedback did not feel as strong as in places like Northen Guitars, hinting towards a potential target market and age demographic.

The cons of picking this artist are that despite his ability to produce, sing, and write songs, he has only just started engaging with social media except for YouTube where he has already published some of his work in the past. Despite this, I find this to be the perfect opportunity to help and put him on the right track starting with making him an EPK for his image. The reason for him starting social media so late is that he has never really been very enthusiastic with sharing his face to the world. I suggested that to embrace this obstacle, he could wear a mask and make that a part of his image like artists such as Marshmello who have at some point been successful on a mainstream level predominantly for the mystery of the person behind the mask. I considered this could be a good marketing strategy to not only bring a more modern feel to the table, but also to add that mystery that could potentially attract more attention from a wider range of audiences (potentially younger). Proceeding, we selected a mask and had a photoshoot to include in the EPK.

“Even though I don’t really do rock— If I could; I would probably want to be seen kind of like a rockstar or at least give off that feel you know? Remember how Bob Marley was originally not exactly a rockstar? But Chris Blackwell marketed him in that way to make him seem more appealing. Kind of like that.” Is what Spade said when discussing how he wishes to be seen as an artist.

Musical Potential and suggestions for improvement

I believe Spade’s music demonstrates strong potential. However, I feel the tempo in some of his tracks are a bit slow, which hold them back from delivering the liveliness that they could potentially bring. I think that slightly increasing the tempo in some of these tracks could conceivably enhance the overall energy of his music and better align with the dynamic persona he aims to project. I additionally believe sound quality could certainly be better with him mentioning that he uses GarageBand on his phone to make songs. I suggested that to enhance the quality/dynamic of his songs, he could start listening and taking inspiration from bands such as UB40 and their songs such as ‘Red Red Wine’ or ‘The Way You Do The Things You Do’ which keep that ‘reggae’ feel but also bring more energy and liveliness to the table. In some Spade’s songs, especially this one that is called ‘Rain Pourin down on me’, he tends to somewhat shift the genre into something a little bit different for the bridges which I find quite appealing. They somewhat blend out of the reggae style into something more ‘rap’ or ‘reggaeton’ based which younger audiences tend find more appealing— it’s like the song was trying to join both younger and older audiences together in a way. Melody/rhythm wise, I additionally suggested Spade might be able to take a little bit of inspiration from a band known as Chase Atlantic when shifting genres in a song— Especially from their song ‘SWIM’, where it goes “pop a couple pills in the daytime” at 1:19 minutes into the song. Although Chase Atlantic is very different to what Spade produces, I believe they have this ‘spark’ in their rhythm and melody; if that spark could somewhat be added into Spade’s songs, it could drastically improve the atmosphere of his image/music. I am not asking for him to entirely change his music style, I admire his Reggae/Spanish style as it is what makes his persona unique. However, if he could just take some of that ‘Chase Atlantic’ style with his own twist to it, it might help broaden his appeal without compromising his originality.

After listening to his songs on a device, I believe the reason Spade may have primarily attracted older audiences at open mics was because when playing live, he would only have his voice and a guitar, taking that spark and boundless creativity from music production programs and limiting him to do much more stripped-back and traditional performances. Moreover, being a solo artist- he lacked a backup band, making it even harder for him to replicate his digital work in person.

EPK Development

After discussing with my artist how he wants to be perceived and discovering his image as well as his style of music, I got him to write a biography about himself that we could both agree on to use for his EPK. We initially considered that since ‘Spade’ would be wearing a mask, we could perhaps write a fictional origin story and turn ‘Spade’ into a supernatural character, e.g. like Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy. We both liked this idea, and I considered that this could be an effective strategy to enhance the mask’s mystery even further as well as to undoubtedly promote Spade’s image as other artists have done it in the past e.g. Daft Punk who claimed to that they turned into robots after an explosion when they were producing music at a studio in 1999. Or MF Doom, another musician who is inspired by the infamous character, Doctor Doom, from MARVEL comics. I additionally hoped that this marketing strategy could potentially help to attract more attention from fans and labels or even turn Spade into a local mascot/persona for Leeds, especially considering how fans are with the football team. Unfortunately, we could not agree on a suitable origin story for ‘Spade’. Additionally, we concluded the idea of ‘Spade’ being a mascot/persona for Leeds seemed moderately far fetched and unrealistic. Ultimately, similarly to the DJ, Marshmello, we agreed to simply keep the mask there for privacy reasons and leave it at that.

This EPK was created in the form of a website using Wix. This format was chosen because it is widely used by other artists and serves as an effective hub that interlinks all social media platforms and additional information that viewers may seek. During seminar discussions and lectures regarding this assignment, I came to understand that when it comes to an EPK, it is better to show rather than tell, as people are not always interested in reading long texts when they would simply rather listen to an artist’s music during their first stages of getting to know them. For this reason, like many other EPKs, it was primarily decided to display Spade’s best song, ‘Rain Pourin’ Down on Me,’ on the front page of our EPK, ensuring that it would be the first thing people could see and listen to upon viewing the portfolio. This strategic placement would not only highlight Spade’s most impactful track but also serve to ideally capture the attention of potential listeners and industry professionals, offering them an engaging introduction to Spade’s music. In terms of graphic design, to give off that reggae/Spanish feel, I used a colour font of green and yellow to embody/emit an island-like atmosphere. I additionally used some black and red to simultaneously learn toward that rockstar aesthetic that was mentioned earlier. He also did not have a logo, so I was required to develop one via the use of photoshop.

One of the major challenges for this assignment was my lack of experience with making websites. Additionally, since Spade was quite a small artist and somewhat new to publishing his work on the internet, there were no recognisable achievements and stats to display/implement into the EPK. Unfortunately, there was no straightforward solution to this obstacle, so we simply made use of what we had.

To make productive use of this EPK- after completion, I attempted to contact events as well as labels such as Tru Thoughts and Brownswood Recordings to see if they could provide Spade with any opportunities. I selected Tru Thoughts and Brownwood recordings as suitable labels to approach as they are known for their openness to a wide range of genres which I believed would be applicable regarding Spade’s somewhat mixed style of music. Unfortunately, we have not yet received a response from them.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it is fair to say that this assignment has given me great experience and knowledge in terms of awareness for demographics and identifying the right audiences. Most importantly, the various ways of reaching out and expanding your network. Despite the challenges during the making of this EPK, I have undoubtedly gotten along extremely well with my artist throughout the completion of this assignment which made things a lot smoother than I initially anticipated. This assignment has not only supported my growth regarding technical skills for building an EPK, It has provided valuable insight into how marketing and branding can play a critical role in an artist’s success. Moving forward, I feel confident that this experience will positively impact/influence future projects to come.