As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in the middle of planning a tour for the Jason Parker Quartet. We’re going out in May and I’m busy contacting venues up and down the West Coast, from Vancouver BC to San Diego. I realized early on in the process that I needed an EPK, or Eletronic Press Kit.What Is An EPK?
And EPK is just as it sounds - and electronic version of the old press kit. Bands used to send out physical press kits that included demo CD’s/DVD’s, information about the band, photos, reviews and other marketing materials. Nowadays, however, most bookers prefer an electronic version so they can just click a few links, listen to a few mp3’s and make a decision. This is easier for them, and also easier for us.
It used to be that we’d have to pay for design, printing, CD’s, photos, etc. And some people still pay others to make their EPK’s for them. Both SonicBids and ReverbNation will make up a snazzy EPK for you, for a fee. But try as I might I just couldn’t see why I should pay someone a monthly fee to design and host my EPK when I could do it myself.
DIY EPK
I have never designed one before, so it took a little research. I checked out what those companies had to offer, looked at the EPK’s of a bunch of successful bands, and made notes on what information I needed how I could effectively get it all together. Luckily, with just a little knowledge of widgets and html I was able to design a pretty spiffy one! I actually used ReverbNation widgets for both the press quotes and videos. These are both free if you have an account with them (and you should). I also used the free Bandcamp album widgets to embed all my CD’s on the site (NOTE: If you don’t know about Bandcamp go there now and sign up! It’s the best site I’ve found to sell my music and I highly recommend them). After that it was just a matter of writing the text and formatting it to look pretty. All told I probably spent 4 hours putting it all together, and now I have an EPK that I can use for years to come. Total cost: $0.00!
My Results
You can check out the results here. Please let me know what you think! I welcome any and all comments and suggestions about the look, the functionality, anything I may have forgotten, etc.
If you need any help designing your own EPK please send me and email. I’d be happy to lend any guidance or assistance I can.