Student no. 24103916

1818 words.

EPK Evaluation

For this project, I was originally helping market for a band called “Midnight Calling”, which was a rock/metalcore band. This unfortunately didn’t end up going to plan, and last minute I decided to use my own music career as an example for this project in order to get the best grade possible, and know that I have access to all of the materials that I need.

When I first started working with “Midnight Calling”, I started by trying to get to know the basics about them and how they would describe themselves as a band. I also asked for some of their live videos of them performing to put on the EPK, and any artwork or photos that they have ready. Jack (bands lead guitarist) sent me some live videos of them performing but they are unfortunately of very low quality, and he said they have no artwork, but sent me some photos they had from a photoshoot, which was unfortunately just different versions of the same photo. It was clear to me that the band didn’t have much content, and didn’t intend on creating any. This is why I chose to switch who my EPK was based on.

EPK can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/littlemiss-epk/home

Below is my evidence of contact with “Midnight Calling”’s lead guitarist, Jack Derbyshire.

When I started working on myself for the EPK, I started by pinpointing who my target audience is. I would say that my target audience is people of a similar age to me so probably the 16-30 age range. I have decided to cater my content to that audience by posting covers that are trending on TikTok (such as ‘Anxiety’ by Doechii) or by popular artists such as Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. However, when I have posted these covers of songs from pop artists, I have made sure to put my own spin on them to make them authentic to me, and to show off my originality. To check my current analytics and statistics of who currently enjoys my content, I headed to look at my professional dashboard which will show me all of the details of the interactions my Instagram page has recently had.

My statistics show that most people who view my profile are between the ages of 18 and 24, closely followed by 25-34 year olds, and even some people who are 35-44 years old.

By finding this out, it makes it easier for me to plan my content, and create my EPK, as I can cater the layout and content to this age group and how they use social media, or what they enjoy watching. I can make everything accessible enough to everyone who may be interested so that they don’t end up being deterred from any of my pages due to difficulty of accessibility.

I also found it interesting that my Instagram analytics showed that almost 60% of my followers are male, and just over 40% are female. This is helpful as it can help me either cater to my current audience, or try to create some more content to entice women to my page as well as men, and hopefully have an even split.

I have also had contact with external sources such as Big Condo Records (the label I am currently signed to) about upcoming shows, to push my publicity further. As can be seen on my EPK, I will be performing at 3 Big Condo Records events over the summer so far, which are on the 8th June, 22nd June and the 13th July. I had contact with Big Condo Records about releasing music also, and looking for some mentoring, evidence of this is below.

I have also had contact with people from other venues, such as a friend who works at ‘One Under’ who is organising for me to start doing some regular acoustic sessions at their venue for their outside seating area to entice people inside for their new drinks deals. Evidence of discussion below.

I feel that the performance with ‘One Under’ will be beneficial as it will show people that I am also able to attract attention from people outside of the record label that I work with, and can gain my own opportunities through that. ‘One Under’ is a neon crazy golf bar, located on the famous Bold Street in Liverpool City Centre, just outside of Liverpool Central Train Station.

I think that I could maximize attraction from other promoters and fans by performing at more open mic nights across the country, sharing more snippets and teasing videos of new songs that I may have upcoming, and more professional photos. The professional photos that I have taken of me are from quite a while back, so new photoshoots are long overdue. I feel that if you have a professional looking page, attitude and photos, people are more likely to be interested in you as you do not look like an amateur. I also think by releasing music or even just some demos on soundcloud to gain interest, this could attract more people as  if they enjoy the music, they will keep listening and following, and maybe even buying tickets or merchandise from you. 

Through the record label that I work with, I have been able to do on-screen interviews and gain magazine features (as seen in the EPK) and I feel that I achieved these opportunities by being confident and always having a good fan base who are loyal and buy tickets to events, and support me publicly. This gives me and my name publicity and gets more people to notice me. I feel that I have also achieved this by posting regularly on social media, collaborating and posting with other artists, whether they are local or not, at events and in general. This includes their fan bases into mine and merges them, which benefits both parties. Using hashtags has also been a helpful tactic as it attracts people who follow or look up that hashtag, and they can find you from there, even though they may have never found you otherwise. I always make sure to hashtag artists/bands names that I feel like my sound is similar to, so that I come up on their fans feed. Their fans are quite likely to enjoy my music and content if they like the bands I take inspiration from, so this is an easy way of free advertising and gaining more exposure on social media. To show myself to other peoples fans, I also add people as collaborators on my posts so that my post shows on their profile. For example, if i am promoting a performance in collaboration with Big Condo Records, i will add them as a collaborator on my post so that all of their followers get my post shown on their feed too, as it is then classed as one of Big Condo Records posts too. I will also do the same if I am supporting an artist at one of their performances, for example, this summer I will be supporting ‘Taken By Wednesday’ in Liverpool and ‘Emilie Culshaw’ in Liverpool too. I have added them both as collaborators on related posts so that their fan bases see this and hopefully check me out also. I have gained plenty of followers from this in a short space of time, and think that it is a very good idea for anyone looking to grow their following. I sometimes even add venues as collaborators on my videos of me performing in their venue in case they would like to showcase on their page what kind of shows they take part in, and also to advertise myself if somebody likes what they hear from that specific venues page. Or if I am advertising, hopefully some of their regulars see the advertisement and are encouraged to buy a ticket to come and see me perform if they like what they hear.

When I finally release music, I plan to do some physical advertising in public, like sticking the QR code for the song in places such as parks, bus stops, and on benches/tables in public so that people can scan it out of curiosity and listen to my songs. This would be a good idea to do in record/music shops too as people will be more open to listening if they have a passion for music. I will hand out flyers and possibly busk to advertise my tracks and sell CD’s. 

I am going to start physically advertising in public for my regular page and to maximise ticket sales too, as a lot of local gig goers will appreciate this and may come along. I will do this by creating posters and singing in public with an advertisement in front of me explaining who I am, what I do, and what my social media is, as well as advertising my upcoming shows to try and push ticket sales as much as possible.

Overall, I feel that it is a shame that “Midnight Calling” could not provide me with the content that I needed to make their EPK, despite a lot of talks in person about how they could develop their band and gain a bigger following, unfortunately the band didn’t seem to be on the same page and haven’t made any progress, meaning I had to base this project on myself. I have found this quite challenging as it is hard to talk about yourself in the third person and not be biased, but I feel that I have done a good job at getting the job done and providing all of the content needed for my EPK. It definitely needs working on and I need more content, but unfortunately there is only so much I can provide and release due to my labels wishes. 

Things that I would like to improve on for my EPK is gaining more testimonials, having merchandise on sale, having music released and having the proper links to stream them on music platforms so that I look more active and professional and can gain more fans. I also would like to have more professional photos taken of myself performing and also just a regular photoshoot so that my advertisements look more professional, I can look at contenders for some album/song covers and so that I can share them to my social media accounts to attract more professional promoters and artists to my page, as professional photos will make me look like i have more contacts, i am more professional and i take my career and image very seriously.

I would love to have merchandise for sale as this also looks more professional and will give me an extra source of income to help with the expenses of being a musician in today’s society.