Why does epk mean?
In this post, we’ll help you get started on your own EPK journey by breaking down the fundamentals of electronic press kits and exploring their most essential questions, like what is an EPK, what to put in an EPK, and how to create an EPK for yourself.
Let’s kick things off by digging into a basic electronic press kit definition.
An extremely broad electronic press kit definition might read something like this:
An electronic press kit, more popularly known as an “EPK,” is a package of materials gathered together and distributed to media outlets for promotional purposes.
And that sounds pretty straightforward, right?
Right.
But I bet it also sounds pretty vague, huh?
…Uh-huh.
That’s because EPKs are not an achievement in and of themselves.
They’re a means to an end.
To best answer our question- “What is an electronic press kit?”- we actually need to take a step backwards and ask ourselves something more existential first.
We need to take a cue from all the actors out there.
We need to talk about motivation.
What is the purpose behind the electronic press kit? What is an EPK really for?
It’s all about one magic word: Promotion.
“Promotion” is what gives an EPK meaning. “Connection” is what gives an EPK meaning. “Communication” is what gives an EPK meaning.
An EPK is a precision tool for putting yourself out there.
In theory, electronic press kit examples can be drawn from virtually any industry.
If we were to dig deep enough, we could find music press kit examples…
Like this:
Or film EPK examples...
Like this:
And even restaurant EPK examples, software EPK examples and dozens more.
Heck, somewhere out there, a professional EPK maker probably has an EPK to promote their business of making EPKs.
However, regardless of the specific industry, the basic function of an electronic press kit remains the same.
Essentially, your EPK is a sales device. It’s an in-depth advertisement for whatever you, your project, or your brand brings to the table. Think of it like a resume or CV on audiovisual steroids, a packet of documents or files designed toward the explicit goal of selling yourself to a target audience.
Depending on the context, the identity of your target audience might be just about anyone.
Bands might need to market themselves to prospective venues or music labels. Filmmakers might need to secure film financing or increase the odds of getting their movie on Netflix. Even this year’s most popular podcasts might need to lure new advertisers from time to time.
In all of the above cases and hundreds (if not thousands) of others, an electronic press kit would be a valuable tool in achieving the desired goal. The details of each EPK would almost certainly change, with a dramatic volume of potential variation seen between each separate instance, but the role of the EPK remains the same.
With that in mind, let’s ask our first question once more: What is an electronic press kit?
In short, an electronic press kit is a package of materials that communicates value.
But that begs a new question:
How do you decide what value to communicate?
If you’re looking to make your own electronic press kit, the critical question to answer is what is an EPK to you?
In other words, when you’re figuring out what to put in an EPK or what it should look like, you have to carefully consider your personal situation.
There are two critical components of this process: your product and your target audience.
By “product,” I’m referring to whatever it is you’re trying to sell, even if it’s not literally a physical product.
In order to craft an effective EPK, you have to first understand the strengths and weaknesses of your product from top to bottom. You have to learn where your product’s value comes from and be willing to explore how that value might be best demonstrated to people who aren’t as familiar with the product as you are.
It’s important and often rewarding to keep an open mind during this process. You may find value in surprising places.
For instance, to create an artist EPK for a painter, you have to be open to more than just the painter’s work. Visual samples and gallery show listings would, of course, be found among what is included in an electronic press kit for the painter, but the EPK would also go beyond that to highlight the painter as an individual. To create an artist EPK, you have to recognize that the artist is the product. Therefore, you have to be open to mining value from the artist as a person, not just an artist.
And that principle applies to just about any type of EPK.
An EPK for Wrapbook, for example, would certainly mention the platform’s unique features and achievements, like Quickbooks integration, the ability to automatically calculate IATSE timecards, and the company’s recent Series A financing of $27M, just to name a few.
But such an EPK would also emphasize that Wrapbook is much more than just a powerful platform for payroll and production management. In fact, more than anything, Wrapbook is a platform created by passionate filmmakers for passionate filmmakers, and our team hustles every single day to make sure it stays that way.
Watch the demo and find out for yourself.
Before you jump to the question of what is included in an electronic press kit, you need to understand whom your electronic press kit is going to be for.
The key is to recognize that your target audience, just like you, has their own job and operates according to their own set of priorities or mandates. If your EPK is going to be effective, it has to communicate your product’s value in a way that appeals to your target audience’s sense of value.
For instance, if you were selling water to a fish, your pitch would sound a lot different than if you were trying to sell that same water to a bird. To a fish, water means breathing and living. To a bird, it probably means dinner.
In each case, the water stays the same, but the sales pitch changes by necessity.
The same goes for EPKs, though I would advise against passing yours out to any wild animals.
Once you have a firm grasp on both your product and your target audience, it’s time to consider exactly what to put in an EPK.
The precise list of what is included in an electronic press kit can vary dramatically according to industry, product, and target audience, but here’s a quick breakdown of some common items you might want to consider:
Relevant statistics are a great place to start in building your EPK. People tend to associate numbers with facts, and facts bring credibility. If you can back up your EPK with impressive stats, your audience will know to take you seriously right off the bat.
Depending on your context, relevant statistics might touch on total sales, followers, downloads, engagement, growth over time, or just about any other metric that you can reliably track.
The cornerstone of a solid EPK should always be the work.
If you’re a musician, you need to include examples of your music. If you’re designing an app, you need to include technical specs or a demo. If you’re on the path to making a documentary, you should include a trailer or a sizzle reel.
The work is what you want your audience to engage with. It’s what you’re selling them, so make sure to provide a compelling taste.
After checking out your EPK, the audience should always want more.
Telling a story and making a personal connection with your audience will bring your EPK to the next level. Generally, this means including biographies of the key players on your team, but it could also mean crafting a narrative presentation of your project or brand’s history.
But with any kind of description in an EPK, one piece of advice reigns supreme:
Keep it short.
High-quality photos are a must-have for nearly any EPK or press release. Publications will use them to promote you, and other audiences will use them to associate an image with your project, brand, or person.
Not everyone is a big fan of smiling for the camera (ahem- yours truly), but an EPK practically demands it.
So book the perfect photo studio, practice your least terrifying grin, and let your EPK develop into something beautiful.
Moving images are the language of the future.
Not all electronic press kit examples include videos, but they’re an increasingly popular component of PR packages in most industries.
In your own EPK, you could include a video introduction, a video promo, a sizzle reel, a trailer, a music video, or anything else that makes sense in your particular set of circumstances.
Why talk yourself up when you could let someone else do it for you?
Press clippings, professional endorsements, and positive reviews are impressive, particularly if their source has a high profile on their own.
There’s a reason Hanes still pays Michael Jordan to help them sell underwear.
Branding items include logos, graphics, or other assets.
Like high-quality photos, including branding items in your EPK will help communicate a brand identity to your target audience and provide additional promotional tools to any interested publications.
The inclusion of important upcoming dates in your EPK creates a sensation of both immediacy and involvement.
Dates can bring the audience out of their calendar and into yours, offering a chance at interactivity in the process. Dates can act as a kind of future resume that compels the audience to engage with your project in the present moment.
Important dates might include shows, screenings, product releases, or other appearances.
Links are a great way to draw the audience deeper into your world.
Consider providing links to your main website, social media feeds, or upcoming event pages. If you’re an artist of any kind, you could also link to a broader portfolio or content stream.
Oh, and don’t forget to include your contact info.
What good is an EPK, if your audience can’t reach you after reading it?
Adobe Spark and Wix both offer a variety of customizable EPK examples and templates that any user can reuse, remix, and riff on to their heart’s content. Of course, using a template EPK costs money, but so does building one from scratch.
If the latter is your goal, we recommend casting a wider net for inspiration.
Electronic press kit examples can be found all over the internet, and it’s generally best to go straight to the source.
We recently interviewed the filmmakers who made the SXSW documentary, We Are As Gods, and their EPK is a great example of balancing promotion with the relevance of their main character.
Or it might be helpful to watch videos of fellow musicians who break down the process:
The bottom line is to find what works for you. Seek out electronic press kit examples that intrigue your sensibilities and communicate the kind of value you wish to convey.
The initials EPK stand for “Electronic Press Kit,” the digital version of its physical counterpart, the Press Kit. It is important to note that EPKs have meaning in many (creative) industries, not only used in the music industry. However, for the purpose of this article, we will focus on the artistic/music industry EPKs & definition.
The press kit is a compilation of information about yourself as an artist, about a band or a product you are selling including your contact information.
The name Press Kit indicates that this collection of information will be sent to the press. However, you’re perhaps more likely to send it for gig applications for Bar shows, Festivals and Showcases.
While your website or any social media page might be focused on your fans and the general public, the EPK is more of a portfolio for industry people. Your EPK will include many chunks of information that are irrelevant to the public, which is why you want to keep it separate.
For example, you can use your press kit to include all the information the organizers of an event will need to decide whether or not they have the space or equipment to hire your project. The event organizers may also send your EPK to the press when advertising or writing articles about the event.
In this article, we’ll outline and explain the different elements of an EPK outline and explain so you can make informed decisions while revising or creating your Kit.
First, we discuss the main elements of an EPK. That is Audio, High-Quality Video, Photos, Biography, Important shows, Quotes/Previous Press Coverage, and the links to all your Social Media, Music Videos and Stage plots.
The second point this article addresses is the format of your EPK. This needs to be discussed as many companies offer paid or free services online, which have the potential to make your EPK shine. Platforms such as ReverbNation allow you to create and customise an EPK, also.
An electronic press kit can vary depending on the product or project being promoted.
For example, if you’re promoting a film, it should include an
I think an EPK can be useful for any level of bands. Whether you start sharing it now or later will depend on your need for booking as well as how often you are pitching your band for gigs outside of your usual performance venues. If you are just starting out, you may not have much in your Bio, Live Performances, Live Video or Audio sections.
That being said, it is good to start thinking about populating those sections at your next gigs. It will be hard for you to sit down and get all of the material necessary to create the EPK if you have never thought about any of this material. Having a Stage Plot, Social Media Links, a Logo and some general information about your project might be all you need for a while.
During that time, all you need to do is keep working on getting the best quality material to grow your EPK into the best possible version for that moment in your musical career.
It’s worth noting that the time you will invest in an EPK will help you save a lot of time in the future as well as increase your bookings or the quality of your bookings. Don’t forget that your EPK is ideal to showcase yourself to booking agents, talent buyers and other professionals in the music business.
During that time, all you need to do is keep working on getting the best quality material to grow your EPK into the best possible version for that moment in your career.
To assist you, you can Google search for an EPK template to download and get started.
Here are the elements you need to build your EPK and make it look great!
Your fan bio and industry bio should be different. In your EPK you should include your most important achievements, press mentions and quotes you might have in a very short bio text. You may want to use some fan quotes in your fan bio or website, but for your EPK it would be more effective to use quotes from professionals, such as radio hosts, reviewers or journalists.
Try to get quotes for the project you are currently selling. This version should include the big lines of your biography, but it is important to focus on making it as direct as possible. A way to bring attention to the most important words or parts of your text may be to use italics or bold on some of the adjectives or industry names mentioned in the bio.
Remember that this is the information you would like to see featured in a newspaper article and to be remembered by the person reading your EPK. You may want to use an “elevator pitch” and a small paragraph adding emphasis to your history. See more tips in our guide on how to write the best artist bio!
Your electronic press kit (EPK) should have links to all the social media you are using. Make sure that all of these accounts are up to date,, however! Any outdated platform linked to your EPK may lead your readers to think you are no longer active or have very little activity on social media. Make sure all your Social Media platforms are consistent with the information on the press releases.
Your audio and videos may be different as you may want more refined and produced materials on your EPK, or assets that you haven’t released yet. You want your logos, fonts and overall themes to be consistent.
The pictures available on your electronic press kit will be your best quality ones (300ppi or more) and should comprise the material you are willing to use for promotion. The pictures will be available for use by the Press or any event organizer. Any picture that is not usable for the reader should be discarded in order to keep your EPK as simple and efficient as possible.
A colour portrait and a colour landscape picture should be ready for digital releases and, for newspapers, black and white pictures should be provided, once again in portrait and landscape orientations.
I suggest not using a video if you feel your current videos do not match the rest of your material’s quality. A poor-quality video will often negatively influence the viewer. If you wish to include a video, choose a short one, preferably a medley-style presentation that shows the entire range of your performances.
The video you will use may only be for this purpose. It may not be your regular promotion videos meant for the public. It may include your elevator pitch and a quick presentation of the band or you can also keep it simple and have it be a simple performance video.
Make sure your video sounds and looks good but, mostly, that it captures the essence of your project or band as it combines the looks and sounds of your performances. Keep in mind that industry professionals see a lot of promo videos, so you have to make sure your video stands out. For more tips, have a look at our guide to some of the best video editing software.
Having an online Calendar with your upcoming shows as well as past shows can help you present the type of events where you are usually presenting your shows. You may not always be presenting shows in high-end bars or festivals, so it is important that you select the calendar dates displayed on your EPK.
Make sure you showcase the more high-end gigs as a reference. When starting a new project, you may not have any significant presentations, and that is not a problem, you are better off showing that you have played in different places than not.
You can ask industry professionals who you have worked with for some quotes and newspaper clippings about your performances, your album, your work ethic… etc. depending on your intent.
There are plenty of music blogs and websites that you can contact to review your album or performance; do not be shy to contact them to get some quotes when releasing a recording or even a video.
If your goal is to send your EPK to a festival or bars, a stage plot may be instrumental in their decision to hire your band over another. Knowing what your setup is ahead of time will save you some headaches when showing up for a show, but will also prepare the organizers for you.
You want to keep your stage plot as concise as possible and as accurate as possible. While I was looking at some examples online, I saw some stage plots that mentioned the PA sizes or specific microphone models that were requested.
From my experience, demanding very specific equipment will limit the event organizer’s ability to get better equipment. It is important to ask what equipment they will have available, but specific requests should be for private events where the equipment is rented upon your request.
I am not saying you should not request enough microphones to perform, but the difference between Shure and Sennheiser equivalents is minimal. Stage plots are very simple, but they can easily get too complex when they become super-specific.
The soundcheck process will be very smooth if your indications are clear and simple to follow. It can be nice to include the name of all your band members and a picture as it will guide your sound technicians when doing a soundcheck. These will be sent by e-mail or printed out for the technician, so try and make them in black and white.
While a paper copy with additional CDs or DVDs used to be the standard format, times have changed so here are the most effective ways to make an EPK.
While PDFs can be useful as they are printable, can include links and can’t be altered by the receiver. However, you cannot embed any audio or video in them which does limit the presentation of your project. The optimal format needs to include a video and audio player so you can add your media. If you do decide to use a PDF, you can then share it directly or host it on your website.
Probably the absolute best way to create and share your EPK is to have a page on your website that’s only accessible to those with a link to it. On this page, you can then create your EPK with the functionality to embed audio and video players. This also means that instead of sending people your EPK as an attachment, you can simply send a link.
This also comes across as a bit more professional as a lot of curators don’t appreciate receiving unsolicited attachments or having to download a file.
Make sure your EPK is free from typos or spelling mistakes. Also, take into consideration where you want to use your EPK since spellings can change depending on the country. If your market differs depending on each contract, make sure you are consistent.
Also, pay attention to naming conventions, for example, your pictures, audio and videos, when downloaded, should not be named randomly. Instead, they should follow a system similar to the one below this. one. By starting with your name, all the files will be organized in order, by media type, in the downloader’s computer.
Your electronic press kit will help you get your next big gig and should not be made of last-minute thoughts and media. As you invest some time in your band’s image, promotional material and Social Media, your EPK will be able to grow.
Don’t forget to keep it up to date! Also, the quality of each section is always better than the number of words or material you are using. It is now time to start working on each component separately and start assembling your EPK. Keep it simple and start using it only when you are ready.
A bad video doesn’t make your EPK more complete. Focus on the quality and you’ll get great results out of your EPK
What is an EPK?
EPK, short for electronic press kit, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials of a person, company, or organization distributed to members of the media for promotional use. They are often distributed to announce a release or for a news conference. EPKs help businesses both big and small, as well as individuals, get noticed by producing and providing electronic press kits to media outlets, trade magazines and news organizations. This cost-effective promotion tool can be put together in just a few hours and eliminates the cost and waste associated with printing traditional media kits.
Press kits are commonly used for product launches, new company launch, mergers and acquisitions, news conferences and large events and industry trade shows. EPKs are also used in movies and television, particularly for small indie films that can't rely on big marketing budgets.
An EPK can include anything that promotes your company, product, service, etc. Anything that is critical to meeting your goal is important to include, but make sure your EPK has (at least most of) the following elements:
Add professional pictures such as headshots or promo photos. If you've built a brand identity, put your logo in the EPK. Try to include two to three pictures in your EPK. If you have videos you can attach to your EPK, include those as well.
Keep the biography of yourself or your company/product/service short and concise. Include where you are based and a brief sketch about your professional work. Please do not make this long and do not bore your reader with details of your struggle or other irrelevant details.
If your story has been picked up by the press, show it off. Any positive media or publicity you can share with others will legitimize your business and exemplify your brand equity.
It should go without saying, but include contact information. This should clearly state where can you be reached, your phone numbers, emails, postal address and link to your website (if you have one). You can include social media links as well. The purpose of your EPK is to generate interest and move people to action, so make sure they know how.
Include a few quotes from other professionals in your field that have something positive to say about your work. Do not make the mistake of providing quotes from friends or family. If you are just starting out, try to get quotes from professors or mentors or colleagues with plenty of clout.
Provide links to your professional work, such as audio clips, photos of work, written snippets, etc. Include professional videos if possible. Make sure that all links are working and are of good quality. An EPK is your opportunity to put your best foot forward.
There are tons of example EPKs online. Our press kit is available for reference, too. You can contact Elevate My Brand if you need help creating your own EPK; we would love to help!
EPK, short for electronic press kit, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials of a person, company, or organization distributed to members of the media for promotional use.
