Introduction

The artist that I have chosen for this assignment is Izzy Withers. She is a 19 year old artist originally from Sussex who moved to London to pursue a career in music. Izzy Withers’ sound is unique, her music is a blend of bedroom pop and neo-soul. Her songwriting is a standout element of her music, focusing on themes close to her identity such as race, gender, and growing up in London. Music publication ‘TotalNtertainment’ describe her as having “diary-like lyricism”[1] .The purpose of my EPK was to attract more industry attention and streamline the way that industry professionals can find out about her. This includes making bookings easier, providing press photos, and presenting a clear overview of her artistry. She has been releasing music since 2023, she has clear branding and conveys this well through social media, amassing a following of 20,000 across TikTok and Instagram. The Genre she is in has high demand at the moment, with large British bedroom pop artists such as ‘Beabadoobee’ and ‘Griff’ amassing millions of monthly listens. The combination of these factors give her great potential to become commercially successful. In this show post I will discuss the creation process of my EPK and what it achieves, Izzy WIthers’ target demographic, strategies to reach them, and how she can maximise industry exposure.

Izzy Withers’ Artistic Identity and Branding

Izzy Withers has a complex and unique artistic identity as well as strong personal branding. Her identity is very authentic, she focuses on her personal life as a black girl in London. An example of her identity is her 2025 single “lemons and limes”. This is a reference to the rental ‘Lime’ bikes that are popular in London. References like this paint her identity as a girl who is deeply involved in the culture of London. Lyrically, her songwriting emphasises this identity. Lyrics such as “On the 149 to London town”, where she is talking about the 149 London bus route perfectly encapsulates her down to earth London lifestyle. Similarly to this lyrics like “Only succeed if I show skin”, from the song ‘Freckleface’ tackle gender issues that Izzy faces, and reinforce her authentic artistic identity with personal experiences that her target demographic might share. Musically, she takes inspiration from a plethora of genres; bedroom pop, neo-soul, and traditional balladic singer-songwriting. This unique mix of sounds give her a one of a kind sonic identity that makes her stand out in today’s market and furthers her overall authentic image. She utilises elements of bedroom pop like dreamy vocal lines, and soft slow drums that bring space to her tracks. This stripped back and relaxed sound creates an honest feel to her music that helps her to come across as relatable and down to earth. The smooth neo-soul feel paired with the use of relaxed mid-tempo rhythms help to concrete her identity as it is a largely black British and American genre with pioneers like Erykah Badu and D’Angelo. Her visual branding is very cohesive. She utilises a colour palette of red, white, and earthy colours like green and browns. She dresses in pieces that feel authentic to her and reflect London culture; Flowy dresses, loose fitting jeans, oversized jumpers and coats, and her iconic red dress shoes. This visual style paints her a London young adult. It’s a careful balance of outfits that stand out with unique statement pieces that are memorable and make her instantly recognisable, and everyday wear that keeps her relatable and acts as a signpost for her London youth culture identity that she shares with her fans. Her typography is always a simple and clean font, it is nearly always red in order to stay cohesive to her colour palette and create consistent branding. Her personality comes across as fun, bubbly, and down to earth, which makes her seem welcoming and friendly to new fans. This creates a relationship that almost feels like she is your friend, which makes her target demographic more likely to support her. 

Izzy Withers’ target demographic

Izzy Withers has a large target demographic, this makes her commercially viable as she is more likely to build a following as a larger amount of people enjoy the type of music she makes and her artistic identity. Her target demographic is 15 – 25 year old people in London, more nichely women and people of colour as they relate to her. People listen to artists that are similar to them for a variety of reasons; they want to feel less isolated in their experiences, it helps them relate to the artist, as well as provides an understanding and third person view of emotions that they feel. Izzy Withers is appealing to 15 – 25 year olds as she is a young adult herself. This makes the experiences she writes about relatable, which listeners look for in music. An example of this is the song ‘Lemons and limes’, where she talks about falling out with a childhood friend with lyrics such as “Mum welcomed you as her own”. Her music and identity is very closely linked with London youth culture, this makes her an attractive artist for listeners that are a part of it. Her lyrics, branding, and personality all revolve around London and things that are trendy and common at the moment in London. She mentions a variety of London locations in her music, and she dresses in a mix of street wear and smart casual that is popular in London. In a similar vein to this, Izzy often sings about her experiences as a young black woman. She talks honestly about struggles she has had with her image and being on the back foot for her race and gender for example in the song ‘Freckleface’, “I’m fighting for a seat at the table even though I’m driven and able”. Being this upfront and honest about her struggles is a breath of fresh air within music, and is attractive to people that are in similar positions as they feel they are being seen and represented. On top of all of this, another element that makes her attractive to 15 – 25 year olds from London is her sound. Bedroom pop is a new genre that has only been about since the 2000’s. The recent emergence of this genre means that most of the listeners are young people actively looking for new artists to listen to. Massive bedroom pop artists like ‘Rex orange county’ have a fan base of mostly teenagers and young adults that grew up alongside the sound. The DIY approach to music that makes bedroom pop what it is, is similar to the social media self promoting attitude that popular artists and Izzy Withers utilise. Izzy Withers runs all of her own social media platforms and posts regular and relaxed content that her target demographic engage with very well. This has led to an impressive following of over 20,000 people across Instagram and Tiktok, her two main platforms. An Ofcom publication [2] shows that these are the platforms that young people spend the most time on, with young adults spending “over 49 hours per month” on TikTok and Instagram (according to ‘Sprout’ [3]), this helps her content to reach her target demographic. 

The making of Izzy Withers EPK

The first step I took in the process of making Izzy Withers EPK was creating her artist biography. I looked through her social media pages and listened to an array of her music in order to fully understand who she was as an artist. I started with explaining who she was, her age, where she comes from, and the style of music she makes. I felt it vital to start with this as it is the first thing that industry professionals look at, so it is important they can paint an image of who she is. I highlight one of her USP’s quickly, her mix of sounds. This makes her interesting to readers and hooks them in to continue looking at the EPK as well as listen to her music. I use simple and powerful sentences that clearly explain why she is a strong artist like “A unique blend of neo-soul and bedroom pop, backed with sharp story telling and songwriting”. I made sure to include information like her large following and notable achievements she has made like performing at ‘The Roundhouse’ and appearing on the BBC who said she was “One of Londons most exciting new voices”[4]. These help to show that she has commercial potential, is already getting attention in the industry, and building a fanbase. The next component of her EPK was professional photos. I included a variety of photos like headshots, full body shots, and a fun picture that conveys her personality. I did this in order to provide options for use in press and promotion that are consistent with her image and branding, as well as show off her unique artistic branding and show that she stands out in the market. After this I collated quotes from different sources that offer a positive and reliable third party review of her, and further emphasise her strengths, for example the quote “A natural born storyteller with her lyrics”. I made sure to offer links to her social media platforms, streaming platforms, and a direct link to her music. I made these visually clear using images of the apps that people recognise instantly. The link to her music takes you directly to a google drive with an MP3 in it. This is so you can listen to it without logging into anything, streamlining the process. It also means that you can download her music for use in promotion. I also added a clean table with her upcoming gigs. This can be updated as she gets new gigs. It allows for industry professionals like A&R’s to easily find where they can see her live, as well as proves that she is actively performing. Finally, the design of her EPK is based on her artistic image and branding. It utilises her colour palette of reds and whites and has a relaxed design that goes alongside her playful personality.

Industry Strategies

Izzy WIthers is an artist with high commercial potential. One method I would use in order to increase this is looking for radio spots and playlisting. Her music is unique and likely to catch people’s attention if they hear it. This works well with radio and playlisting as it gets a large amount of new people to listen to your music. She has a strong sonic identity that makes it easy to place in sound specific playlists and radio stations. Her relaxed sound makes her perfect for playlists such as ‘Chill Evening Mix’ and ‘Discover Weekly’ on Spotify and stations such as ‘Smooth Radio’. Spotify discovery analytics show than listeners find 2 billion songs per day on discover weekly [5] which shows that it could be lucrative for discovery. Another strategy I would utilise is attempting to get her music in sync placements. Her music often discusses themes such as growing up, as well as identity. Similar themes often come up in series and films, which would make her music a good fit. This would provide a platform for her songs that are likely to reach her target audience and provide her with further performing opportunities. For industry structures like record labels and publishers I would create an industry focused mailing list. I would set up an Email list with a variety of labels, publishers, blogs, venues, and promoters. When something of note is approaching in Izzy Withers’ career, for example a new release or gig, I would send out a newsletter in order to gain industry attention that could convert into things such as signing for a label or an A&R listening coming to a gig. One method she already uses very well is social media. For her target demographic of young people, social media is a vital way to get discovered, so I would ensure she sticks to a consistent posting schedule in order to perform better in the Tiktok and Instagram algorithms and get more attention. Utilising all of these strategies would help her to build an active fanbase, secure more live performances, as well as pursue industry exposure.

Conclusion

Overall in this project, one of the main concepts I learnt was the importance of consistent branding and artistic positioning. ‘ICMP’ states this is what “sets you apart from the crowd”[6]. Izzy Withers has a very unique and consistent identity both sonically and visually. This helps her to gain attention online and stay memorable. I played into this in my EPK, aligning it with her image and personality. She utilises social media in order to reach her target demographic very well, but could utilise a mailing list as well as playlisting in order to gain a better industry reach. A challenge I faced in this project was finding information about Izzy Withers for her artist biography, however I overcame this by using her social media platforms as well as reading articles on her in order to get information I needed.  

[1] Forrest, J. (2025). Izzy Withers releases new single ‘Tender Love’ – TotalNtertainment. [online] TotalNtertainment. Available at: https://www.totalntertainment.com/music/izzy-withers-releases-new-single-tender-love/?utm_source= [Accessed 13 May 2026].

[2]Ofcom (2025). Media Nations. [online] Available at: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/multi-sector/media-nations/2025/media-nations-2025-uk-report.pdf?v=401287.

[3] Zote, J. (2026). UK social media marketing demographics 2026. [online] Sprout Social. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-demographics-uk/?utm_source= [Accessed 13 May 2026].

[4] LBC. (2025). Summer by the River: BBC Introducing in London. [online] Available at: https://www.londonbridgecity.co.uk/events/2025/august/summer-by-the-river-bbc-introducing-in-london-2-2?utm_source= [Accessed 13 May 2026].

[5] Wallace, A. (2023). Nearly 2 Billion Music Discoveries Happen on Spotify Every Day—Here’s What Listeners Are Finding — Spotify. [online] Spotify. Available at: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-07-20/nearly-2-billion-music-discoveries-happen-on-spotify-every-day-heres-what-listeners-are-finding/?utm_source= [Accessed 13 May 2026].

[6] 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.