EPK Commentary
I created this Electronic Press Kit (EPK) to showcase my skills and attributes as a musician and highlight my career ambitions, experience and where I am based. I aimed to make the initial piece writing on my EPK short and concise, while still including all the key information describing my style of playing and setting out where I draw my inspiration giving the reader an insight of to how I sound. I did this to capture the readers’ attention and intrigue them to then go on and read the more in-depth writing further on.
I structured my EPK with a template from the website ‘Bandzoogle’ from which I chose a modern, simple lay out. Clear and simple fonts and text boxes around pictures allowed me to create an effective structure for my EPK. I used five phots to show myself playing to give some context to my style in not only my music but my style and aesthetic too, while not overloading the page with images to ensure it is easy to navigate and simple to look at. I believe that most of my audience will be younger, modern musicians who will want a quick and effective EPK to look through with the essential information and an easy way to get in contact with me. Hence, my contact information clearly laid out at the very bottom of the page, so it is easy to find.
To develop my EPK further, I would use higher quality photos to show my performances and work in a more professional style. I would also input high quality videos to showcase some actual playing a long with audio. This will come once I have released material on platforms such as Spotify and can show my physical work. This will give the audience of my EPK a much clearer idea of my skill level and what kind of music I specialise in. I hope that in the future I will have made significant accomplishments in my career. This could include awards, significant performances at iconic venues or other personal achievements. I would add these to my EPK again to reinforce what I am saying about myself and to showcase my skill and playing as much as possible.
I made sure to create the recurring theme that my playing is expressive and full of emotion so made sure to choose images that showed me feeling the music and really getting into my performance. I also wanted to display my style and the kind of groups I play in which is a lot of jazz-based music currently, so I selected pictures that included these groups I have been playing in and the typical instruments I play with the most to give more context to my playing. Furthermore, I made sure to include pictures of me playing both electric and acoustic guitar to show that I can play both instruments and their respective styles. I made sure to include multiple pictures of me playing my Gibson Les Paul Gold Top which is my most used guitar and want to make a part of my image and brand as much as possible as I believe it is very powerful to attach a certain instrument to myself as my brand contributing to my overall image.
Instagram and other social media apps are an increasingly popular platform for musicians to use while the use of an EPK is slowly becoming less prominent. I think an Instagram account is a very effective to advertise yourself as a musician as it can reach wide audiences very easily and is very accessible. It is very easy to set up and is also a convenient way for musicians to contact each other. However, I still believe there is great use in an EPK as well as an Instagram account for a musician as it can reach audiences that may not typically use social media and also appears more professional.
Younger musicians will mostly be my target audience I believe it is very important to be genuine and come across as an authentic person and musician when advertising myself as it is apparent that for Gen Z’s in particular “To connect, brands must be genuine in their messaging and actions” (Minton, 2023). I chose to focus on my style rather than talking a lot about my technical skills as I felt this seemed more honest and genuine. Along with this, the photos I chose were simple and show normal environments which act as evidence to what I am saying about myself. It is also important for my EPK to be accessed on mobile phones in a clear format, so I made sure that my EPK looked presentable in on the form of a mobile phone as “Younger audiences are heavy mobile users.” (Minton, 2023).
Most musicians in the field of jazz include professional images, reviews and audio of their work in their EPK’s. While my EPK is currently lacking these aspects, I aim to add them in the future once I have acquired sufficient materials to do so. Many EPKs have a more old-fashioned image which I believe correlates with the fact jazz is a very old, traditional style. However, I have made mine more modern and contemporary to reflect my more modern take on the traditional genre that is unique to myself.
I believe that creating this EPK will boost the size of the audience that my content and brand reaches as it provides another platform for people to access my contact information and to see my work as a musician. As a result, more opportunities will present themselves allowing me to get involved in projects I otherwise may have not found out about if I had not been contacted about them. As the target audience for my EPK is the young, new musicians on the scene, networking will be key for me to gain a reputation and having an EPK to show people will be very useful as it highlights to someone instantly what kind of musician I am.
The use of the template I used along with the photos I used all came at no cost to me allowing me to produce my EPK for free which is very useful as a young musician starting their career.
I took inspiration from fellow students in my WITCI seminars after being shown examples and gaining feedback on my own work. From this I got to see what other young musicians, like me, were doing with their EPKs and allowed me to form ideas of my own. This is what initially gave me the idea to make a simple, modern looking EPK. I practiced writing short, effective bios outlining what kind of musician I am with peers. This allowed me to come up with ideas key words and points to include in my bio after developing ideas amongst ourselves. This led me onto to writing a detailed, concise bio at the start of me EPK, highlighting exactly what I need to as the most important things about me as a musician.
I began research of examples of EPKs by looking at examples from prominent local artists. This gave me an insight as to what an effective EPK on the local scene looks like and how I can apply some of those ideas into my work. A common factor is a calendar of upcoming performances which is a key feature in most of these EPKs. Once I have more gigs booked, I will update my EPK to provide the information of these performances which will boost the amount of people who will find out about the gig and therefore increase the number of tickets sold.
Developing my style of both my playing and my aesthetic to become even more unique to myself is another aim of mine as I believe individuality is a key factor when trying to set yourself apart from the crowd as a musician. I will reflect this in my EPK by updating photos and information about myself. I will focus on this in the future and capturing this development will be my main target in developing my EPK.
Bibliography
Minton, S. (2023). 7 marketing strategies for engaging younger audiences – Smithfield. [online] Smithfieldagency.com. Available at: https://smithfieldagency.com/insights/7-marketing-strategies-for-engaging-younger-audiences/.
