Who Actually Reads Your EPK (And What They Need From It)

Quick answer: Your EPK gets opened by event promoters, venues, bookers, reporters, and radio, and each one is scanning for something slightly different - but every single one of them needs your contact info to actually reach you, which is the one item that gets forgotten more than anything else on this list. Photos, music, press coverage, and a short bio round out what belongs in the package.

An EPK is a complete summary of who you are and what you’ve made, built for people who’ve probably never heard of you and have about a minute to decide if that’s about to change. Different recipients care about different parts of it - here’s what actually matters to each, and the one mistake that quietly costs replies.

Photos and Images

Include professional photos - a mix of color and black-and-white gives people flexibility for whatever they’re publishing, print or web. Your latest cover art is worth including too; reviewers often want it on hand.

The Music Itself

Link to your music on Spotify or SoundCloud, but also include a few actual downloadable files of your latest release - streaming links are what most people click, but radio and some press outlets specifically need a file they can pull from directly, not a stream they have to visit a platform for.

If you’ve got professionally shot video, include it. Skip anything shot on a phone in a rehearsal space unless the whole point is that it’s raw - polish matters more here than almost anywhere else in the kit.

Press Coverage and Reviews

Pull together links or short excerpts from real coverage - online counts as much as print does now. Most people won’t click through to read a full article, so give them the summary: a quote, a headline, the gist, with the link available for anyone who wants more.

Contact Information

This is the one that gets forgotten, and it’s the one that actually matters most. Include your email, plus a manager’s or booking agent’s contact if you have one, and links to whatever platforms you’re actually active on. An EPK with no way to reach you is a dead end no matter how good everything else in it is - nobody’s going to hunt down your contact info themselves.

Your Artist Biography

Short, third-person, and focused on your experience, current activity, accomplishments, and what’s next. See our full step-by-step guide to writing your artist biography if you’re building yours from scratch.

Try this prompt: If you’ve got a folder of press mentions but no clean summary, hand the raw links and excerpts to an AI assistant and ask: “Summarize each of these into one punchy sentence I can use in a press kit, keeping the publication name attached to each summary.” Skim the result for accuracy against the source before using it - don’t let a summary drift from what the article actually said.

Putting It All Together

Organize what you’ve gathered into clear folders - music, images, and documents kept separate rather than dumped together - and export your written materials as a clean PDF. For where to actually host and send the finished package (a folder link is far more common now than a burned CD), see our guide to storing and sharing your EPK.

Have someone else look it over before you send it anywhere - a second set of eyes catches the typo you’ve read past ten times.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who typically receives an artist’s EPK? Event promoters, venues, bookers, reporters, radio stations, and other music industry insiders - each one scanning it for something slightly different (a booker wants proof you can draw a crowd; a reporter wants an angle for a story).

What contact information should I include in my EPK? Your email, and your manager’s or booking agent’s contact info if you have one - plus links to whatever social platforms you’re actually active on. The one mistake that kills replies: forgetting contact info entirely, which happens more often than you’d think.

Should I include music files or just links in my EPK? Both if you can. Streaming links (Spotify, SoundCloud) are what most people will actually click, but a few downloadable high-quality files matter if you’re sending to radio or anyone who needs a file, not just a stream.

Kit assembled and ready to send? Submit Your Music and let’s get it in front of the people who make the calls.