Electronic Press Kits - Worth the Effort?

A few days ago, I posted an interview with music publicist Jim Della Croce.  In it, he made a few comments about electronic press kits, which I felt would make a good discussion here.

Listen to Jim's comments here...

My question...

Do you use electronic press kits?  If so, what have your experiences with them been?

If you're not using them, I'd like to know why also.

Post thoughts below...

Comments

[David van Dorsten]

Also I guess, journalists prefer press-releases/kits electronic
Safes them lots of typing, they can simply copy-paste.
And keeping your potential media exposure person happy is a good thing

[Kelly]

I belong to reverbnation and sonicbids and have used them for some things. Mostly, I have used sonicbids to get placements in compilation CD's, reviews, mags, indie films etc. It has worked but I wonder to myself how effective having my own EPK would suffice?

[David Hooper]

Good points...

The pro with Sonicbids or a service like it is that people familiar
with the service know how to use it. They know how to play songs,
etc.

The downside is that all the pages look the same and it's more
difficult to standout.

[Steven Wylie]

I'm curious what one would consider an electronic press kit? Am I sending an MP3 single out with pic and Bio? Or is it merely a link to my online press kit hosted somewhere?

[David Hooper]

Technically, it could be either one.

[Goodbye Pork Pie Hat]

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat:

A good idea that has worked for me is to make a mywebsite/epk section with username and password (you send it along with a presentation email). This way, you can check your hosting service statistics which will tell you if the section is being visited and what are these targeted visitor checking out and what not.

As to what has worked better for me in regards to physical or electronic. They both have. I send packages out when I know some one will take a look at the stuff and wishes to receive it that way..if not..epk.

I worked with a reknown publicist last year and he asked me for 400 cds (luckily provided by record company) which he personally sent out to magazines. We got like 40 reviews including a small one on Rolling Stone mag.

Naturally i believe that in the future there will only be EPKs, but as for the time being we still need both and need to know when to make use of each.

[Ethan]

Thanks for this article. I'm interested in determining the ROI on a service like SonicBids. If you're at all internet savvy, you can set up something quite similar (which probably looks a lot nicer) than sonic bids.

The argument is that sonicbids gives you access to exclusive gigs that you could otherwise never get- I'm waiting to hear from an artist who says that sonicbids got her a gig that she never would have landed otherwise.

Best,
Ethan
www.ethanwaldman.com

[Phil Johnson]

I don't think there's any reason to NOT have an EPK. It doesn't have to be Sonicbids necessarily. It can be just a dedicated section of your website.

I have two on my website at the moment. One for college and military bookings with a demo video that will appeal to them. The other for club bookings. Both include videos, my resume (more important in comedy than music), my headshot, bio, and contact info.

For smaller shows especially, the EPK is handier. Many of the larger clubs still want the real thing because they believe it denotes a professional over an amateur (erroneously or not).

I've had little success with Sonicbids, but that's more of a function of the art I create.

EPKs will be the standard in the future, but a good old fashioned hard copy one still comes in useful.

[David Hooper]

A music conference I owned used Sonicbids to take showcase
submissions. One year, we used it exclusively. We could have taken
music via web pages or something like MySpace, but you can imagine the
big mess it would have been to take thousands of submissions which
weren't uniform. Where it the music? Where is the bio? Where is the
contact info?

For this reason, I think Sonicbids is great.

The problem is that not everybody likes the Sonicbids interface...
You're going to get that with anything though. Anything you do, some
people will love it, while others will hate it.

If I were to do it again, I'd use Sonicbids. I like the idea of not
having to store thousands of press kits, the environmental issues, the
fact they have the largest user base and can reach out to so many
people with a single email, etc.

The problem is, for something like Music Business Radio, the format
Sonicbids provides doesn't work. We need something on CD, since
that's what we're equipped to play. Plus, we're on the air and want
something to hold and you can't do that with a webpage.

The problem on the user end is that Sonicbids makes it too easy to
submit to opportunities. Click and your music is sent. The filter of
having to mail a physical press kit is gone and that's not good for
when you want to keep the noise level down. I'm sure there are bands
and musicians on there who think it's a lotto and send off as much
submissions as they can.

[Steven wylie]

What about college radio? I just sent off 25 press packs to colleges in my area. Anyone have thoughts about the best way to approach that angle? Or is it a waste? Hoping they'll play my stuff.

[David Hooper]

If somebody is looking for it, an EPK is great. If not, it's easy to
"throw away" and might never be seen at all.

[Steven Wylie]

bummer.

[Steven Kippel]

I've used Sonicbids as a promoter and have booked several artists from the service. Most notable The Airborne Toxic Event used the service and I managed to book them and The Deadly Syndrome for one event. They're gaining in popularity now, so obviously something they did worked (besides both being incredible bands).

[Donnie Christianson]

I think it's good to have a balance of both EPK and hard copy. I'm currently preparing to start this year's promos, redoing press kits, etc and I'm finding out I need both depending on the submission (note to self: send David a CD...).

I just started using SonicBids, and while I haven't submitted to anything yet, I do like the concept of what they're doing. And yeah, it helps the environment which is cool.

Have considered a logo-imprinted USB drive - David, thoughts on that as opposed to CD? Obviously the trust issue comes up what with the potential for spyware/viruses, but any input on that?

[drew Roberts]

Can someone point to what you consider good and bad examples of Electronic Press Kits?

al the best,

drew