Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash
MUSIC CAREER ADVICE
How to Make an EPK That Gets You Booked: A Step-by-Step Guide for Musicians
Ozan
May 26, 2026
A booker opens 40 emails before lunch. The one that gets a reply is almost never the one with a 12-page PDF attached. It's the one with a single link to a clean page that answers their questions in under 30 seconds.
That page is your EPK. This guide on how to make an EPK is for solo artists, bands, DJs, and producers who want to send promoters and press something better than a Google Drive folder, and have a real shot at a booking, a review, or a sync placement.
TL;DR
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Your EPK is a one-link summary of who you are: bio, a release to listen to, press quotes, photos, and a contact route.
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A web page beats a PDF, and a PDF beats a Drive folder. Bookers click, they don't download.
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Write your bio in three lengths (one-liner, one paragraph, full version). Most pitches need the short ones.
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Pick one featured release per EPK cycle. The featured spot is for your strongest hook, not your full catalog.
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Use 3-5 press photos in mixed aspect ratios, high resolution, and recent.
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One primary contact route. Multiple inboxes split the conversation and lose replies.
Table of contents
What an EPK is and who reads it
An EPK (Electronic Press Kit) is a press-ready page about you, designed to answer the questions a booker, promoter, journalist, or label A&R always asks: who is this artist, what do they sound like, what have other people said, and how do I reach them.
If you can answer all four in under a minute on a single URL, you're already ahead of most independent artists.
A useful EPK is not a 3,000-word origin story, not every photo you've ever liked, and not a download link with no preview. It's a focused, scannable page that's updated when something changes, and lives on the same domain as the rest of your music presence so it looks like part of a real operation.
What goes on a musician EPK
When you make an EPK, six sections do the heavy lifting. Most artists do not need more than this on day one:
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Page header. Your name, a tagline, a hero image. The cover of the kit.
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Bio. A short, focused biography in third person. Press-ready.
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Featured release. One album, EP, or single you want bookers to hear first.
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Press quotes. Short blurbs with credit, from outlets or shows that have already covered you.
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Press photos. Three to five high-resolution images in mixed aspect ratios.
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Contact. One primary route. Email or a contact form.
You can add more later (an upcoming-shows calendar, an embedded video reel, a "latest" feed that surfaces new releases), but if any of the six basics are missing, fix that before you add anything else.
Step 1: Write a bio that doesn't sound generic
Bookers and journalists read bios fast. The first sentence has to land.
Write three lengths and keep them all on the page:
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One-liner (under 25 words). For socials, press lists, and intro emails.
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One paragraph (50-90 words). For blog roundups, festival programs, ticket pages.
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Full bio (150-250 words). For the EPK itself and label pitches.
Write the full version in third person, present tense. Lead with a specific hook, your sound, your city, a result. End with what's currently happening: release, tour, project.
A few rules of thumb:
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Skip "passionate" and "emerging." They mean nothing.
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Name a real reference point. "Indie pop with the warmth of mid-period Phoebe Bridgers" reads better than "uncategorizable."
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Be exact about achievements. "10,000 streams on the lead single" beats "growing fanbase."
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Avoid AI-sounding throat-clearing. If a sentence could open any bio, cut it.
Photo by Tigran Kharatyan on Unsplash
If you want a deeper dive on the structure, we wrote a full breakdown in How to Write the Perfect Artist Bio, and a search-friendly version in How to write an SEO-friendly artist bio.
Step 2: Pick a featured release
A common EPK mistake is putting your whole discography front and centre. Bookers don't have time to choose. You choose for them.
How to pick:
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The release you most want to be known for right now.
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Something with a moment that hooks in the first 30 seconds.
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If you have a current campaign, that's the pick.
Embed the player using whichever service the booker is most likely to recognise (Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud). Bandcamp tends to be the friendliest embed for press because there's no preview-time limit and no ads.
Swap the featured release every campaign cycle. Treat it like the cover of a magazine: it should always be the current issue.
Step 3: Collect press quotes
Press quotes do one thing on an EPK: they show you've been read before. A booker won't read every word, but they'll glance at the credit lines and recognise an outlet they trust.
Where to pull from:
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Reviews of past releases.
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Show write-ups.
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Local paper or radio coverage.
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Podcast feature transcripts.
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Music blogs that ran your single.
Keep each quote short. One or two sentences, the punchiest part. Always credit the outlet and the writer when possible. Specific quotes beat generic ones. "The kind of songwriting that sticks with you on the drive home" reads better than "a great new artist."
If you have none yet, leave the section out for now. A blank press section reads worse than no press section. Replace it as quotes come in.
Photo by Alicia Steels on Unsplash
Step 4: Prep your press photos
Press uses photos at last-minute notice. Make their job easy:
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Three to five images is the sweet spot. More is clutter.
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Mixed aspect ratios. At least one vertical (for socials), one horizontal (for blog headers and posters), one square (for thumbnails).
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High resolution. Aim for 2,000 pixels on the long edge so they can crop without quality loss.
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Recent. If the photo is from a project you no longer match (different lineup, different era), replace it.
A photo credit line under each image is a nice touch. It also keeps you out of trouble if a photographer sees their shot used somewhere and wants attribution.
Step 5: Make contact friction-free
The biggest reason booking emails don't get sent is that the contact info is unclear.
Pick one route and put it where bookers look first. Options:
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Direct email. Use a dedicated address (booking@yourbandname.com) if you can. It signals that you're set up. If not, a clean Gmail is fine.
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Contact form. Routes to the same place but feels lower-friction for a stranger. Useful if you want to capture fields like venue size, date, and genre fit.
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Both, if you must. Show the email and offer the form as a fallback.
Photo by Mathyas Kurmann on Unsplash
Include:
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Your city, and whether you travel.
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Genre and typical set length.
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One line about technical needs (DJ rider, backline, etc.) if relevant.
Skip:
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Manager contact for a project that doesn't yet have a manager.
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Multiple email addresses with no clear primary.
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Phone numbers, unless you genuinely want strangers calling you.
Step 6: Pick where to host your EPK
This is the decision that quietly shapes how often your EPK actually gets opened. The options, ranked from worst to best:
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A PDF attached to emails. Bookers don't download, especially on phones. Files get caught by spam filters. The version goes stale the moment you send it.
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A Google Drive folder. Better, because the booker can preview, but the URL looks suspect to overworked inboxes and the layout depends on the file types inside.
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A page on your own musician website. A clean URL like yourname.com/epk (or a custom slug if you only want to share via direct link). It loads instantly, you control the layout, and you only have one version to update.
If you're already on a music-focused builder, the EPK page is usually a setup and fill task, not a design project. Noiseyard ships an EPK page on every plan with the six core sections wired up by default, so you mostly just paste your copy and choose a release. (If your current site builder doesn't include an EPK page out of the box, see How to Make a Music Website That Grows Your Audience for the broader setup, and Best Website Builders for Bands and Musicians in 2026 for a comparison of the music-focused options.)
Step 7: Keep it updated and shareable
Once you've published the EPK, two habits keep it useful:
Update it on release cycles. Every time you put out new music, swap the featured release, add any fresh press quotes, and replace the lead press photo if you've shot new ones. Treat it like a magazine cover, not an archive.
Watch what gets clicked. If your site has visitor stats (most do), check whether bookers open the link after you send it. If they don't, your subject line is the bottleneck, not the EPK. If they open it and bounce in five seconds, the bio's opening line probably isn't landing.
Hide it from your main menu if you want it press-only. Some artists keep the EPK reachable only by direct link, so casual visitors don't see it but press can. A page-visibility toggle in your site editor handles this in a click. The URL itself still works for anyone you share it with.
Common mistakes to avoid
Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash
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Too much. An EPK that takes 10 minutes to read won't get read.
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Outdated featured release. Nothing kills trust like a 2022 single still front and centre when you have a 2026 record out.
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Buried contact. If a booker has to scroll twice to find your email, they'll close the tab.
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Generic bio. "Inspired by everything from jazz to rock" tells a booker nothing.
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Stock-looking press photos. Photos that could be any band tell editors nothing distinct about you.
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Multiple contact routes with no clear primary. Pick one. Make the rest fallbacks.
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No proof. Even one credible press quote or one notable show beats a wall of vague claims.
Common questions
Do I need an EPK if I already have a Spotify and Instagram?
Yes. Spotify shows your music; Instagram shows your personality. Bookers need a third page that answers booking-specific questions on one URL: where you're based, who to contact, what you've already done, what you sound like in one sentence. An EPK page is that third page.
Should my EPK be a PDF or a webpage?
A webpage. Bookers don't download files on phones, PDFs go stale the moment you send them, and a URL is easier to track and update. Save the PDF version only if a specific outlet asks for one.
How long should an EPK be?
Short. A booker should be able to skim your whole EPK in under a minute and find your contact in three seconds. If yours takes longer than that, cut something.
Should I include a contact form or just my email?
Either works. Use a form if you want to filter inquiries (custom fields like genre, venue size, date) or if you don't want your email publicly scrapable. Use a direct email if you want bookers to be able to reply-all to existing threads.
Can I have more than one EPK?
You can keep two versions if your projects are genuinely different, like a band project and a solo DJ project. For a single artist identity, one is enough; refresh it each release cycle instead of duplicating it.
What if I'm a brand-new artist with no press quotes yet?
Leave the press-quotes section out for now and lean harder on the bio and the featured release. As coverage comes in, add it. A clean four-section EPK beats a six-section EPK padded with weak quotes.
Final thoughts
When you make an EPK, it doesn't get you booked on its own. What it does is remove the friction that costs you bookings you would have otherwise gotten. The booker who opened your email at 11pm, couldn't find your contact in 30 seconds, and moved on.
Spend an afternoon getting the six sections right. Update it every release. Send the link instead of the PDF. The reply rate on your next round of pitches will tell you what to refine.
If your next move after the EPK is filling the calendar it points to, How to Get Gigs as a Musician walks through the pitch side of the same workflow.
