Electronic Press Kit: What to Include

Web profile, PDF, or both?

Source scope: Electronic press kit checklist; Eight things every musician EPK should include. Platform-, provider-, and territory-specific statements below are scoped to these 2026-07-11 checks and the complete bibliography; the assigned reviewer must recheck them before publication.

An EPK is a maintained information system for a decision, not a file format. A public web profile is easy to keep current and gives recipients one stable link. A PDF or one-sheet can be useful when a recipient needs an attachment, printable summary, or fixed snapshot. Neither is universally required. Ask what the recipient can open, what they need to decide, and whether any material should remain private.

Use one maintained source for facts, links, credits, and assets, then prepare the smallest recipient-specific package from it. That avoids five biographies with different dates and broken URLs. It also makes corrections possible: update the source, identify the shared exports, and notify people only when the change matters to their decision.

Who uses an EPK, and what are they deciding?

A booker is deciding whether the act fits a bill, audience, room, date, and commercial arrangement. They need a fast sense of the music, current live presentation, location or routing, credible audience context, and a responsive contact.

A venue or promoter is deciding whether the show is operationally and commercially workable. Alongside the public story, they may request a stage plot, technical rider, ticket or settlement context, availability, and production contact. Those documents are recipient-specific; they do not need to be public.

A journalist, radio producer, playlist editor, or other media recipient is deciding whether there is a timely, accurate story for their audience. They need a clear angle, current music, concise facts, credited images they may use under stated terms, and someone who can answer questions. A long history before the current reason to care creates work for the recipient.

A collaborator, label, brand, or partner is deciding fit, credibility, and next steps. They may need private demos, rights context, audience or territory notes, or a tailored contact. Share confidential material only through an appropriate controlled route and after checking the agreement or purpose.

The same artist can therefore have one living public profile and several carefully scoped packages. Tailoring is not changing the facts. It is putting the recipient’s decision first.

Essential contents

Positioning and concise biography

Open with a sentence that locates the artist: name, place or scene where relevant, musical context, and the current reason for contact. Follow with a short biography that a recipient can understand quickly. Keep a longer version available, but do not make it the obstacle before the music.

Use specific, supportable language. “A Tokyo-based trio combining…” is more useful than an unsupported superlative. Verify every award, chart, support slot, collaboration, quote, and audience claim. Record the source and date privately so it can be reviewed later.

Current music and listening paths

Lead with the recording most relevant to the decision. Include working streams or embeds from providers the recipient can access, plus a fallback link. Name the release and version accurately. Do not autoplay media, force a login where an open alternative exists, or bury the current track below a complete catalogue.

If unreleased music must be private, state the access boundary and expiry or contact route. Test it signed out in a private browser. Never assume that a link available to the team is available to the recipient.

Press-quality images and credits

Provide a small current selection: landscape, portrait, and square crops are often practical, but the recipient’s specifications control. Include photographer or creator credit, usage notes, and a straightforward download path. Confirm that the artist has permission to distribute each image for the intended use. A photo appearing on social media does not itself prove press-use rights.

File names should identify the artist, orientation, and credit without exposing private data. Test downloads on mobile and desktop. Retire assets that no longer represent the lineup or visual identity.

Video and live evidence

Choose one or two videos that answer the recipient’s question: a strong live performance for a booker, the current official video for media, or a concise reel when context matters. State what the viewer is seeing. Verify that the link, territory access, rights, and embed still work.

Genres and context

Genre labels help routing when they are honest and specific enough to be useful. Add scene, influences, language, geography, or comparable programming context only when it helps the decision. Avoid a long cloud of tags intended to catch every search.

Verified highlights and quotes

Include a small number of relevant, traceable highlights. Attribute a quote accurately and link or record its original source. Do not edit words in a way that changes meaning. If a result cannot be checked or has become stale, remove it. A modest verified fact is stronger than an unsupported “must-see” claim.

Current events and live history

Show upcoming public events and a selective recent history relevant to the recipient. Keep dates, venues, locations, ticket links, and event state current. Do not leave cancelled or completed events presented as upcoming. A booker may need routing and availability separately; share that through the contact route rather than publishing private plans.

Contact and working links

Provide one obvious contact for the intended purpose, with the person or role and expected route. Separate booking, press, management, and general contacts only when someone actually monitors them. Add the canonical website/profile and a small set of current social or streaming links. Test every path and remove abandoned accounts.

Optional recipient-specific material

Optional does not mean unimportant; it means the recipient or situation decides. Common additions include:

• a one-sheet summarizing a particular release or tour;
• a private listening or download link with clear access terms;
• a technical rider and stage plot for confirmed production conversations;
• downloadable logos, artwork, or image bundles with credits and usage notes;
• a release schedule, routing window, or availability note;
• territory and language variants for recipients serving different audiences;
• approved lyrics, fact sheet, catalogue notes, or contact-specific background.

Do not put contracts, identity documents, private addresses, credentials, settlement data, unreleased files, or personal phone numbers into a public EPK by default. Share sensitive material through the minimum appropriate channel.

Assemble it in recipient-first order

Start with the decision. For a booker, lead with the live proposition, relevant music/video, location, current activity, and booking contact. For media, lead with the timely story, current release, concise facts, usable images, and press contact. For a partner, lead with fit and the approved evidence they need.

Use a clean hierarchy:

1. artist identity and current reason for contact;
2. the music or evidence that answers the decision;
3. concise context and verified highlights;
4. relevant current activity;
5. usable assets and credits;
6. an obvious next action and contact.

Keep the core public facts consistent across variants. Tailor order, emphasis, and private supplements, not reality.

Recipient walkthrough: a booker

Suppose a booker is filling a support slot. The first screen should establish the artist, location or practical routing context, musical fit, current live evidence, and booking contact. One strong live video is more useful here than a long sequence of highly edited clips. Follow with a concise bio, relevant recent or upcoming shows, technical shape of the act, and approved images. If the conversation advances, send the current rider and stage plot through the route the booker requests. Do not publish private production contacts or assume a public profile replaces the venue's production process.

The outreach message should name the date or bill, explain the fit in specific terms, and ask for one next step. “Here is our EPK” without context makes the recipient discover the purpose. The EPK supports the decision; the message frames it.

Recipient walkthrough: a venue or promoter

A venue or promoter may need to evaluate both audience fit and operating feasibility. Lead with the live proposition, current lineup, representative audio/video, location, and reliable management or booking contact. Keep attendance, ticket, or audience statements traceable and scoped. A past ticket result from one event is not a promise for another room.

Prepare supplemental production material only when current: input list, stage plot, backline needs, accessibility considerations, and a version date. The venue's own template, specifications, and deadline control. If the lineup or equipment changes, retire the old document rather than leaving two “final” versions in the same folder.

Recipient walkthrough: media

For a journalist, producer, or radio contact, put the timely story before the complete career history. Give them the current release, an accurate short description, specific participants and credits, usable images, and a responsive press contact. Include quotes only with exact attribution and a source. A recipient should be able to distinguish the artist's own description from an independent quotation.

Supply clean facts they can verify: names, places, release information, contributor roles, event dates, and links to primary material. Do not write finished praise in the voice of a journalist or offer a fabricated quotation for copying. If the recipient has submission rules, follow their format and attachment limits.

Recipient walkthrough: collaborator or partner

A collaborator or potential partner needs a focused explanation of fit and authority. Lead with the project, people, relevant work, and proposed next conversation. Share private demos, audience information, commercial detail, or rights context only when needed and through an approved controlled path. Mark draft or confidential material clearly without pretending a label alone creates legal protection.

Keep the public profile useful while treating the partnership pack as a separate view assembled from verified facts. Record who received a private asset, its current version, and when access should be reviewed. Remove access when the purpose ends.

A practical first build

If the artist has no EPK, do not begin with design. Gather the approved name, one positioning sentence, a short bio, one current recording, one representative video, three usable images with rights and credits, current public events, canonical links, and a monitored contact. Put them into a clean mobile-first page. Ask one person outside the team to perform the recipient tests. Only then add optional material demanded by a real conversation.

This sequence protects time and exposes missing facts. An elegant PDF cannot compensate for an inaccessible track, uncertain image rights, stale event, or unattended inbox. Conversely, a simple, accurate page with working assets can support a professional decision while a larger visual system is still being developed.

Tailor, share, and test

Use a clean, durable URL. Avoid a link that depends on the sender’s account session or an editable preview token. Check the page at narrow and wide widths, with keyboard navigation, on a slower connection, and signed out. Images need useful alternative text; headings need a logical order; audio and video need visible controls and should not block the essential text.

Test each embed, external link, file permission, download behavior, QR destination, share image, and contact form. Send the exact package to a teammate who did not build it and ask them to find the music, download a credited image, identify the current event, and contact the owner. Fix any hesitation.

Write the outreach message for the recipient rather than making the EPK carry the whole pitch. State why you are contacting them, why the material fits their decision, and what next action you are asking for. Respect submission rules and do not imply that an EPK produces coverage, booking, or ranking.

Maintain a living EPK

Name one owner and a backup. Review the profile on a regular monthly or quarterly cadence appropriate to current activity, and also trigger a check when there is a release, lineup change, new imagery, event update, contact change, notable verified result, link/provider change, or rights issue.

For every material item, keep the owner, source, last-updated date, and next trigger. Retire expired events, old “new release” language, inaccessible links, superseded riders, unsupported quotes, and images without usable permissions. Record a correction when a public factual error changes materially.

Maintenance is easier when the EPK is the source of truth instead of a final task before outreach. Update it during the release and event workflow, then share from the current page.

Asset governance and version control

Give every downloadable asset a stable owner and a useful filename. Store the approved master separately from working edits. For photographs, retain the creator, rights or license basis, required credit, permitted uses, restrictions, source file, approved crops, and review date. For music and video, retain the exact public title/version, provider destination, rights state, and fallback link. Do not put credentials or contract scans into the public asset directory.

When an artist name, lineup, contact, quote, event, release, or image changes, use an impact list. The same fact may appear on the profile, in a one-sheet, in a private partner pack, in platform metadata, and in previously sent outreach. Decide which copies must be corrected, which can remain as dated historical snapshots, and who should be notified. Label superseded material clearly and remove it from the normal download path.

A correction log can be small: date, affected fact, old state, corrected state, owner, impacted surfaces, and recipient notification decision. Do not preserve a known factual error merely to avoid changing a PDF. If a correction is material to a recipient's active decision, send the corrected link with a concise explanation.

Maintenance review questions

At each scheduled or trigger-based review, ask:

1. Does the first screen still answer the main recipient's decision?
2. Is the current music playable without the team's account?
3. Are the lineup, names, roles, credits, and contacts accurate?
4. Are images current, downloadable, and accompanied by usable permission and credit records?
5. Are quotes and highlights still traceable and represented fairly?
6. Are events current, and are finished or cancelled dates presented honestly?
7. Do mobile, keyboard, sharing, embeds, private links, and downloads work?
8. Have any provider, territory, product, rights, or privacy conditions changed?
9. Which optional files are stale, over-shared, or no longer needed?
10. Who owns the next review and which event will trigger it sooner?

Record the check even when nothing changes. That distinguishes a maintained EPK from a page whose accuracy is merely assumed.

EPK owner/source/date template

Common mistakes

• Stale dates and “new” language: connect review triggers to releases, events, lineup, assets, and contacts.
• Images without credits or permission: record the creator, rights basis, usage note, and correct credit beside the file.
• A long biography before the music: lead with the recipient’s decision and current evidence.
• Unsupported superlatives or quotes: use traceable facts and exact attribution.
• Broken, private, or logged-in links: test the exact recipient path signed out.
• No monitored contact: name the route and owner, then test a response.
• One package for every recipient: maintain one truth while changing order and appropriate supplements.
• Publishing sensitive material: give private assets the narrowest suitable access.

How Bandruption can help

Your Bandruption artist profile can serve as a living online EPK: one current public page for your story, music, visuals, events, merch, links, and fan activity. Current profile fields support identity and positioning; managed streaming embeds and links support music and video; public events and commerce show current activity; canonical metadata, structured data, and sharing metadata help the page travel; and intentionally public contact routes give recipients a next step.

The boundary matters. The profile does not imply that every private item is visible, and this guide does not claim a downloadable one-sheet generator, private press room, press-distribution service, stage-plot or rider builder, or tailored export. Search visibility and press results remain outside the product promise.

Build the source of truth first. Then review the current artist profile workflow, choose the fields and public assets that match your recipient, and test the exact shared URL.