Referred to by music industry professionals as an "EPK," the electronic press kit is the promotional tool bands use to tell a venue booker, festival manager or reporter about the band. It is the band's equivalent to a job hunter's resume.
The basic components include biographies of the band members, band photos, samples of the band's music and band contact information as well as your style of music. Do not say, "Our music speaks for itself" or "Reinventing Rock and Roll" or "Unlike any other band." You may think that separates you from everyone else. At this point, though, you need to help the recipient place your style of music within their pre-defined categories. If you don't fit in one of their categories, they have no use for you. It will be more effective for you to say something like, "We're a metal rock band that blends the beat of x band with the rhythm of y band."
Other elements of the kit may include press clippings, lyrics, performance experience, performance videos and quotes about the band from well-known music industry people.
There is much debate among music industry "experts" about the EPK. Some say that the most important element is the quality of your music recording. Others say if the EPK looks professional, the recipient will forgive the band for a lesser quality recording of their music.
I would argue that every element of your EPK should be as professional as you can afford. Remember that old adage, "You only get one chance to make a first impression." Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient. They are receiving EPK's from bands just starting out to new bands in town to management companies representing bands. Why take a chance on a band that sounds kind of good on a poor-quality recording when you have other bands to select from where there is no question because everything about their EPK is professional?
How do you get the best EPK you can for the least amount of investment? If none of your band members are particularly strong writers, or don't have particularly good grammar, or you don't have a girlfriend or sister or mom who writes well, hire a writer. A great resource for finding a writer is your local college. Contact the journalism teacher at the college and ask them to put you in touch with some of their better students for you to interview. Offer to pay the student $50 or $100 to write your entire press kit.
Record your band at the best recording studio you can afford. Do NOT use a recording of a live show. No matter how good you think it sounds it does not sound as good as a studio recording. To keep your costs down, practice, practice, practice before you go into the studio so that you don't have too many takes before you get a good one. Most recording studios charge on an hourly basis so know how you're going to spend your time before you walk in the door. Don't wait until you're at the studio to decide what order you're going to record the instruments in. Make sure the producer knows what you want BEFORE you go into the studio so you aren't coordinating that during your recording time. Even though it's fun to record, don't waste time joking around.
Select your best three songs and lay down the tracks as efficiently as you can and include those three songs in your EPK.
Colleges and technical schools are also a great place to tap for recording services. Students are usually required to produce recordings as part of their studies and they need bands to record. This is terrific because it's usually free or very inexpensive and it's produced on high quality equipment. You have to proactively approach the school to meet the students and the timing has to coincide with when the students need the bands for their class work.
Your photos should also be professionally shot. And since the photos will also be used on your website, in your marketing, your posters, your CD cover art and in press releases, don't skimp on your photography. Find a photographer who has experience shooting bands. It's a special skill that not all photographers have; especially if you want to include a live show shot. If you don't want to use a live show shot, then a photographer who specializes in family photos will also be a good choice since he/she is used to photographing small groups.
If you're fortunate enough to have press clippings to include in your EPK, don't make the mistake most amateurs make. Do not make a copy of the entire story and put it in your kit. Instead, select what you consider to be the best quotes out of each story and create one page with those quotes listed. Following each quote, include the author's name, the publication name and the date the publication carried the story.
Be sure your contact information is on every element of your EPK. This includes the EPK itself, all photos, the CD, the CD sleeve and a business card. You never know when the elements of the EPK will get separated from each other so it's imperative that your band name and contact information are on each piece.
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