4 Ways Musicians Can Use An EPK

This post by Dave Cool originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog. 

An electronic press kit (EPK) — sometimes also called a digital press kit — is essential for making a strong first impression on promoters, bookers, media, and other music industry professionals.

You can think of it as your interactive artist resume, where anyone interested in your music can find all the information they need in one place. You can use your EPK to help you get more press, more gigs, and come across as a serious artist.

Since your website is the first place people will go to learn more about you and your music, you should host your EPK there. Then as you progress in your music career, you should keep your EPK up to date with new music, press, photos, and videos.

So, how exactly can you use an EPK to help your career?

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How To Stay In Love With The Craft Of Songwriting

This post by Caleb J. Murphy originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog. 

I hate songwriting when things aren’t flowing.

Okay, that’s not totally true. I always love the craft of songwriting, but I get super frustrated when nothing is showing up even though I am. When I’ve been working on a song for months or even years and it’s not finished, I feel like giving up.

So to help you (and me) stay in love with the craft of songwriting, here are some things you can do.

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Creating A Band Website: A Complete Checklist

This post by Melanie Kealey originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog. 

Is your band or solo career getting to the point that you want to book more shows? You might need an EPK that’s easy for press to grab information from. Or maybe you just want a space on the web to call your own?

Let’s be honest, your specialty is writing music and performing it, not building a website. You sit down, ready to begin, then feel completely lost about where to start.

Does the idea of creating a band website make your eyes glaze over? We’ve made a handy checklist to help you through it. So let’s get started!

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8 Essential Pages For Your Music Website

This guest post from Dave Cool is an excerpt from Bandzoogle’s free online guide How to make a website for your music

When you’re designing a website for your music, one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make is what menu options to have, and how to organize them. Here are some key points to keep in mind when mapping out the navigation for your site:

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7 Top Marketing Strategies For Musicians

This guest post by Patrick McGuire originally apeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

For many artists, marketing is somewhat at odds with who they are and what they do. Since music and the act writing songs is often deeply personal and emotional, getting into a music marketing strategy mindset might seem foreign, fake or forced for some musicians.

Sadly, this doesn’t change the fact that it’s never been more difficult for new artists to put their music in front of listeners. Between music streaming platforms and the cheap cost of DIY home recording technology, there’s more music being released now than at any other point in history.

Tens of thousands of new songs are being released each day, and, in many cases, what determines whether each of these songs will go on to find an audience or not depends on how they’re marketed. Not sure how to market your music? Here’s 7 music marketing strategies to get you started:

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Streaming For Musicians: The Data That Matters Most

This post by Lisa Occhino originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

As we’re sure you’ve heard countless times over the last several years, the chances of making a living solely off of streaming income are slim to none. But does that mean that making your music available on streaming services is pointless? Far from it.

Major platforms like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music have begun rolling out robust dashboards for artists to not only track and analyze how your songs are performing, but also to provide you with invaluable streaming data that can help you understand who your audience is, where to tour, how to most effectively spend your marketing dollars, and much more.

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Marketing For Musicians: 6 Essential Tools

This guest post by Patrick McGuire originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

If you’re a serious musician, I don’t need to tell you how tough it is to cut through the literal and symbolic noise to find and reach audiences. Yes, creating great music should always be at the top of your list of priorities, but figuring out how to get that music in front of listeners is a difficult task you’ll have to think about if you want to sustain a career over the long-term.

Don’t have a clue how to market your music? Today, we’re highlighting 6 tools to help you get started:

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How To Get Your Music Featured On Spotify Playlists

This guest post by Lisa Occhino originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog 

Stream counts are a big indicator of success on Spotify, but there’s another factor that plays an enormous role: the number of times your tracks have been added to playlists.

According to BuzzFeed, one out of five plays across all streaming services happens within a playlist, and that number continues to grow. Half of Spotify’s global users listen to human-curated playlists (as opposed to algorithmic playlists), which generate more than a billion plays per week.

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8 Ways To Promote Your Band

This guest post by Patrick McGuire originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

Promoting a band is tricky business these days. Tools and tricks that worked wonders even five years ago don’t work nearly as well today. In case you haven’t noticed, the music industry has undergone a complete transformation in the span of just a couple of years.

Where listeners used to rely on full-length albums for their music, they’re now flocking to playlists. This means that to get the most out of promoting your band, you’ll have to approach things a little differently. Here are eight ideas to help you get started:

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How To Get An Endorsement As A Musician

This guest post by Monique Hernandez-Fuentes of GuitarTricks.com originally apeared on the Bandzoogle Blog.

Recently one of our partners asked for the best way to get endorsed as a musician. We have come a long way in the last nearly forty years from when endorsements were easy to come by for musicians everywhere who simply had an awesome look and a cool sound.

Nowadays, the industry has changed dramatically, so I thought I would offer some pointers for the best way to get an endorsement from the company you love.

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What To Do After Your Band Breaks Up

Being in a band is just like being in any other relationship: the beginning is exciting and full of possibility, but at some point, you might realize that you and your bandmates just aren’t on the same page anymore.

Whether it’s a build-up of small annoyances or big creative differences, it can be extremely difficult to come to the decision that it’s best for your band to break up. This is especially true if you’ve been playing together for a long time and have deep personal connections with your bandmates.

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10 Types Of Songwriter Jobs

This guest post by Evan Zwisler originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

Songwriters have a special place in our culture. If you’re a songwriter, you’re not simply playing music, you’re imbuing our lives with a soundtrack that is evocative, thought provoking, and deeply meaningful.  

Most bands have a songwriter, or several, and most songwriters have been in a band before. But being a songwriter can be a more feasible career choice in the long run.

Here’s a look at some of the different types of job opportunities that are available to songwriters.

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Marketing Your Band: 13 Essential Strategies

This post was written by Lisa Occhino and originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

Once you’ve decided that you’re getting pretty serious about this whole music career thing, you know that you have to start putting in the effort to come up with effective band marketing ideas.

But if you haven’t gotten much farther than “make a Facebook fan page and post a bunch of stuff,” don’t worry — we’ve got you covered with 13 essential marketing strategies to add to your list!

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15 Best Part-Time Jobs For Musicians

This post was written by Lisa Occhino and originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

You were probably well aware when you decided to pursue music as a career that money wasn’t exactly going to start pouring in on day one. It’s no secret that until you’re able to earn a full-time living as a musician, you’ll need to supplement your income in some way.

The key is finding jobs that provide some financial stability, but also flexibility so you can still play gigs, rehearse, write, and go out on tour.

While having a side job that’s related to music is awesome for obvious reasons, many of the best jobs for musicians are actually in completely different fields, allowing you to dedicate all of your creative energy to your craft. The 15 jobs for musicians below are far from an exhaustive list, but use this as a starting place to see what jumps out at you or sparks an idea.

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