Gig posters 2025

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PAY23083408 Essay

Introduction

This essay explores the relevance of Electronic Press Kits (EPKs) for modern artists, their essential components, and how I have tailored mine for maximum advertising effectiveness. EPKs play a crucial role for industry professionals, including managers, booking agents, promoters, and journalists, as they provide a comprehensive overview of an artist’s work and brand identity (Apple Music, n.d.). While researching EPKs, I found that a well-structured kit could significantly enhance my promotional efforts and help secure future opportunities within the music industry.

When researching EPKs, I analysed various jazz musicians based in Leeds, such as Matt Anderson (Anderson, M. 2025), Nicki Allen (Nicki, A. 2025), Becca Wilkins (Wilkins, B. 2022), and Jamil Sheriff (Sheriff, J. 2025). These artists incorporated professional photographs and names prominently in their EPKs, so to have a similar level of professionalism, I created a banner featuring one of my professional photos alongside my name. This design element is intended to let promoters know who I am, ensure immediate recognition of my style, and highlight that I am a singer, as the photo features a microphone.

Brief Introduction to Amelie Payne-Heneghan as an Artist

My EPK starts with a video of a performance with the LCSU Big Band. I chose this specific video was because it showcases my vocal range, dynamic control, and technical skills very quickly. Whilst it isn’t a professional recording, it does have decent audio quality, and for this reason, I felt it was the best video to start my EPK with. I then have a written section of quotes from professional musicians describing my performances with words like “outstanding” and “truly stunning,” which stand out and are instantly identifiable as good factors within a musician which will make me desirable to agents and promoters. Following the quotes, I briefly overview my background and musical influences, specifically mentioning icons like Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone. This context clarifies my artistic identity and helps attract promoters looking for artists with aligned musical styles.

Experience

In the second section, I feature a video of my headlining performance at the B-side, supported by renowned Canadian jazz vocalist and guitarist Jocelyn Gould. This performance demonstrates my ability to deliver high-quality shows and collaborate with talented musicians. In the following written section, I take the opportunity to delve deeper into my background, talking about the significant performances I have done, my educational background, and what I am currently doing. This information lets promoters know my experience performing for larger audiences, so I won’t be a risk to put on stage as well as my professionalism as it is evident that I take my career seriously by pursuing my degree, recognising that many professional EPKs include information on upcoming tour dates or previous engagements.

Testamonials and Notable Works

In my last sections, I talk about my notable work and testimonials. I added this section to show promoters that I’m recommende as an artist through the reviews of my work and what I have done in recent years. It was important to reference notable work as promoters will recognise my skill simply by looking at the gigs and events I have done, especially as a first-year jazz singer. In the jazz scene, mentioning people like Jocelyn Gould and Sultan Stevenson is essential, as Jocelyn is currently an international jazz star, and Sultan is well-known in the UK jazz scene. However, as a small artist, I struggled to find testimonials as I have not done so many high-end gigs with real reviewers, so I decided the best way to collect reviews and testimonials was to use past marks from practical exams I have done at the Conservatoire. By using these notes from the marking paper, I know they are recent and reflect me in a better light as the reviews come from professional musicians known within their field and are well respected.  Additionally, I included a testimonial from Sophie Speed, a promoter for the Leeds Jazz Festival, as this is the only real public testimonial I have. This specific write-up done on me and my band is very good and is done by Sophie Speed, who is known well in both the Leeds jazz scene and the London scene too, so this testimonial carries weight for me as a small artist and helps to boost my career.

Group work

whilst in a group session, we spoke about each of our ideas for our EPKs. I wrote a draft version of my biography section and read it (extract 1). The first piece of feedback I received was that the achievements felt “lost” within the paragraph and so it was suggested in the meeting that maybe I do a bullet point list of work for promoters to find easier if they don’t have time to read through the paragraphs (Extract 2). So, I added more photos from this session I had only added videos so promoters could see what I sounded like. Still, it is also equally important for promoters to that I am an active artist who takes their career seriously. Similarly, in our sessions, we also discussed as emerging artists that our EPKs will be limited by the work and experience we currently have, which will be much less than that of other musicians. So, to be a successful musician, it could benefit us to have professional photos and videos done to help with branding and promotion. As I am based in Leeds, Currently, I have found a reliable media company, Pincushion Media, that specialises in photography and videography and has been used by some of the artists I have been looking at for this essay. Their price ranges are £100 for an hour of photography and £150 for an hour of Videography (Pincushion Media, 2021). These are the cheapest prices I’ve found in Leeds and would be worth paying for as it would bring more revenue in as it would allow me to be booked for more high-end places. Furthermore, we thought that having websites as well as a Press Kit could further our desirability and revenue in turn as it would be another way promoters and booking agents could access information about the work we do and our styles. Individually, I researched the costs involved in creating a website to showcase my brand and image. I looked at GoDaddy (GoDaddy, 2024) and WordPress (WordPress, 2025). For GoDaddy to create a domain and page, it would cost me £15.41 for the first year, then jumping up to £109.99, which may not be financially feasible as an artist, my job is not regular; therefore, I cannot guarantee that I could afford the fee every year. I researched WordPress and its policies, and the price for a month worked out to be £3 or £36 annually with the same features as GoDaddy and stays at a fixed rate, which is financially more viable for artists. For this reason, I use WordPress and have created a website for my business, which I linked within the EPK, which I will work on to further my image as a musician.

As an emerging artist, it is important for me to work on my image, and my EPK needs to reflect this, as well. As social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook which will help broaden my reach to potential booking agents, audiences and promoters. In a study done by Oberlo it is shown that a significant portion of Instagram users (62.4%) and Facebook users (73.3%) fall within the 18-44 age range (Oberlo, 2024). Thus, investing in targeted advertising to these age ranges on these platforms could help build my name and attract attention to my work (DITTO, 2025). While some may argue that EPKs have been overshadowed by social media, I believe they are still highly relevant, particularly for older promoters who may not engage with social media platforms. An EPK serves as a streamlined tool showcasing my strengths, artistic identity, and performance capabilities, making it easier for promoters to assess my suitability for their events.

conclusion

In conclusion, my EPK is an invaluable asset that helps promoters quickly find the information they need. I tried to keep mine simple with testimonials, reviews and recent works being bullet-pointed, which helps let promoters choose if I am the artist for the job. As an added bonus, it helps keep attention spans. For further progress on my EPK, I would like to add more colour and font to make it more accessible and more enticing to the eye, as I found the white background didn’t reflect my personality and the style of music I would create. So, I would probably make my EPK on Adobe Express or on a website builder instead of Show, as it limited my creativity options.

Bibliography:

• Anderson, M. (2025). Matt Anderson | Music, info and upcoming performances from the London-based saxophonist & composer. [online] Matt-anderson.org.uk. Available at: https://www.matt-anderson.org.uk/ [Accessed 14 May 2025].
• Apple Music (n.d.). Why an Electronic Press Kit Matters – Apple Music for Artists. [online] artists.apple.com. Available at: https://artists.apple.com/support/1121-why-an-electronic-press-kit-matters [Accessed 9 May 2025].
• DITTO (2025). How to Promote Music on Instagram in 2025. [online] Dittomusic.com. Available at: https://dittomusic.com/en/blog/how-to-promote-music-on-instagram#sponsored [Accessed 5 May 2025].
• GoDaddy (2024). Make Your Own Way | GoDaddy UK. [online] GoDaddy. Available at: https://www.godaddy.com/en-uk [Accessed 10 May 2025].
• JAZZ LEEDS (2025). Sultan Stevenson Trio – support Amelie Payne Heneghan Quintet – Jazz Leeds. [online] Jazz Leeds. Available at: https://www.jazzleeds.org.uk/whats-on/sultan-stevenson-trio/ [Accessed 14 May 2025].
• Morley, M. (2019). Behance. [online] www.behance.net. Available at: https://www.behance.net/blog/design-debate-in-the-age-of-social-media-self-promotion-do-creatives-still-need-personal-websites [Accessed 11 May 2025].
• Nicki Allan. (2025). Nicki Allan. [online] Available at: https://nickiallan.com/ [Accessed 14 May 2025].
• Oberlo (2024a). Facebook Age Demographics. [online] www.oberlo.com. Available at: https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/facebook-age-demographics [Accessed 11 May 2025].
• Oberlo (2024b). Instagram Age Demographics. [online] Oberlo. Available at: https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/instagram-age-demographics [Accessed 11 May 2025].
• Pincushion Media (2021). Pricing | Pincushion Media. [online] Pincushion Media. Available at: https://www.pincushionmedia.co.uk/pricing [Accessed 9 May 2025].
• Sheriff, J. (2025). JamilSheriff.co.uk. [online] JamilSheriff.co.uk. Available at: https://jamilsheriffmusic.wordpress.com/ [Accessed 14 May 2025].
• Wilkins, B. (2022). Becca Wilkins Music. [online] Becca Wilkins Music. Available at: https://www.beccawilkinsmusic.com/ [Accessed 14 May 2025].
• WordPress (2025). WordPress.com Pricing – Compare WordPress Plans. [online] WordPress.com. Available at: https://wordpress.com/pricing/ [Accessed 10 May 2025].

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