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Do you need to send out an electronic press kit (EPK), but don’t know what to include? Before you end up sending out an incomplete EPK, make sure that you understand the basics of what should be included. It’s not overly difficult to put together your own press kit, you just need to go through a checklist and ensure you’ve included all the necessary details.

Keep in mind, if you want to create the best EPK, you may want to enlist the help of professionals. Hiring a music promotion company or working with a music manager can help ensure that your press kit reaches the right people and contains the right information.

However, not everyone has access to a music manager or the funds to hire a company. If you fall into this category, then check out the following tips for creating your own electronic press kit.

First, review the basic elements of an electronic press kit:

• Artist biography
• Professional photographs
• Social media links and details
• Your discography
• Music reviews and press clippings
• Logo

This includes the fundamental items needed for an amazing press kit. Review each of these items to find out why they’re needed and how to obtain them.

Artist Biography

First is the artist biography. There is often a debate about the importance of the artist biography. No matter how you look at it, the artist bio is often the first thing that a person sees after opening a press kit. So, you definitely need to include an artist bio and you should not take any chances by including a poorly written biography.

The artist bio will often include a few short paragraphs. This will introduce the artist and discuss the past, current, and future projects.

Professional Photographs

A press kit should also include a few professional photographs. When you send a press kit, you want news sites, papers, magazines, and other press to have photos available for publication. These should be professionally shot photos.

You don’t need to include a large variety of photos. Select a few current photographs that you feel represent you as an artist.

Social Media Links and Details

Include links to all of your band or artist social media accounts. This includes any Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, or Google Plus accounts that you have. You should also include details and statistics related to your social media presence, such as the number of followers you currently have.

Your Discography

A discography is an essential part of an EPK. This shows what you have done so far with your career. Your discography should include all of your releases. If any of these releases are available through online streaming sites, make sure that you include a link.

It may also be a good idea to include a few tracks. This is especially true if you do not have any recent music available for streaming online. Choose two or three of your most recent songs and include them in multiple audio formats in your EPK.

Music Reviews and Press Clippings

Gather a selection of the best music reviews and press clippings discussing your music. This could include both online reviews and print reviews. Scan print reviews and compile them into a folder with any other online reviews that you find. Having a good selection of reviews and praise will help show that you have already established a solid reputation.

If you don’t currently have any press articles to use, then you should think about hiring someone to write a music review. You can find affordable music review services, including from this site.

Logo

If you have a logo it should be included in your EPK. Logos are useful, as they help people remember your music. When you see an interesting logo, you’ll recognize it when you see it again.

If you don’t have a logo yet, as with any of these items, you can hire a professional. You can use online services to get a logo made at low rates. Once your logo is created it can be used in press releases, on album art, and for merchandising purposes.

Additional Items to Add to Your Electronic Press Kit

The items listed above cover the items that you definitely need to include in your EPK. Though, there are other items that could be included, such as testimonials and a list of sponsors. If you want additional suggestions, take a moment to watch this electronic press kit tutorial:

At the top of the list, we discussed artist biographies. In many cases, this will be the first thing that a person looks at after opening an EPK. They want to immediately know who you are and whether or not they should bother looking at the rest of the information in your EPK. For this reason, you should make sure that your bio catches their attention.

An artist biography is an essential part of your electronic press kit. It can also be used for your biography on music streaming sites. So, it’s important to make sure that your artist biography accurately reflects the image that you want to present.

The following 7 suggestions will help improve the quality of your artist biography.

#1 – Use Short Sentences and Paragraphs
First, your artist bio needs to be easy to read. To do this, you should use short sentences and paragraphs.

Try to limit your average sentences to less than 12 or 14 words. Your paragraphs should average less than 3 sentences.

This improves the readability of your artist biography. Imagine that you’re writing it for a grade school child to read. The simpler the better.

Sometimes, it’s easier to edit the sentences and paragraphs after you finish writing. Go ahead and write your first draft, without worrying about the length of sentences or paragraphs.

Then, once you finish the draft, go through and cut some of your paragraphs in half or find ways to rewrite sentences to make them shorter.

#2 – Include the Right Details
You also need to ensure that your artist biography includes all the right details. This includes any training or your background in the music industry. Highlight important achievements, such as a degree in sound engineering or a supporting tour for a major act.

Also, discuss the style of sound that you focus on and what you hope listeners will get from listening to your music. Keep this section of your artist biography short.

Overall, your artist biography paints a picture of your musical career – not your entire life story. You don’t need to discuss your childhood or any other details that are not related to your musical career.

#3 – Don’t Write in the First Person
You should write in the third-person, instead of the first person. Don’t think of your artist bio as an autobiography, even if you are writing your own biography.

Don’t use the first-person language, such as “I” or “me”. Instead, you’ll refer to yourself as “he” or “she”.

Basically, imagine that you’re writing the biography for someone else. It’s really not that difficult. Just make sure that you go through your biography after you write it and rewrite any sections that use first-person pronouns.

#4 – Write Several Different Biographies
Before you decide on the initial draft for your artist bio, you should write several different versions. Write three completely separate artist biographies. Each time you write a new biography, you may find new ways of saying the same things.

You can then take a look at the three different versions that you wrote and choose the parts that you like the best. Combine these into one consistent biography.

#5 – Thoroughly Proofread Your Artist Bio
Once you choose a draft to move forward with, you should thoroughly proofread it to make sure there are no grammatical errors. First, use the spellchecking program built into your word processor. Then, read the entire artist biography out loud.

When you read aloud, you force yourself to read every single word. This should help you catch any mistakes that the spellchecker did not catch.

#6 – Have Someone Else Read Your Bio
Before you finalize your artist biography, you should have someone else read it. Even if you thoroughly proofread the bio, there’s a chance that you’ll miss a few grammatical issues.

Allow someone else to read the bio and catch any mistakes that you missed. They may also be able to provide some insight that will help improve your biography.

Do you need to send out an electronic press kit (EPK), but don’t know what to include? Before you end up sending out an incomplete EPK, make sure that you understand the basics of what should be included. It’s not overly difficult to put together your own press kit, you just need to go through a checklist and ensure you’ve included all the necessary details.

Keep in mind, if you want to create the best EPK, you may want to enlist the help of professionals. Hiring a music promotion company or working with a music manager can help ensure that your press kit reaches the right people and contains the right information.

However, not everyone has access to a music manager or the funds to hire a company. If you fall into this category, then check out the following tips for creating your own electronic press kit.

First, review the basic elements of an electronic press kit:

Artist biography
Professional photographs
Social media links and details
Your discography
Music reviews and press clippings
Logo
This includes the fundamental items needed for an amazing press kit. Review each of these items to find out why they’re needed and how to obtain them.

Artist Biography
First is the artist biography. There is often a debate about the importance of the artist biography. No matter how you look at it, the artist bio is often the first thing that a person sees after opening a press kit. So, you definitely need to include an artist bio and you should not take any chances by including a poorly written biography.

The artist bio will often include a few short paragraphs. This will introduce the artist and discuss the past, current, and future projects.

Professional Photographs
A press kit should also include a few professional photographs. When you send a press kit, you want news sites, papers, magazines, and other press to have photos available for publication. These should be professionally shot photos.

You don’t need to include a large variety of photos. Select a few current photographs that you feel represent you as an artist.

Social Media Links and Details
Include links to all of your band or artist social media accounts. This includes any Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, or Google Plus accounts that you have. You should also include details and statistics related to your social media presence, such as the number of followers you currently have.

Your Discography
A discography is an essential part of an EPK. This shows what you have done so far with your career. Your discography should include all of your releases. If any of these releases are available through online streaming sites, make sure that you include a link.

It may also be a good idea to include a few tracks. This is especially true if you do not have any recent music available for streaming online. Choose two or three of your most recent songs and include them in multiple audio formats in your EPK.

Music Reviews and Press Clippings
Gather a selection of the best music reviews and press clippings discussing your music. This could include both online reviews and print reviews. Scan print reviews and compile them into a folder with any other online reviews that you find. Having a good selection of reviews and praise will help show that you have already established a solid reputation.

If you don’t currently have any press articles to use, then you should think about hiring someone to write a music review. You can find affordable music review services, including from this site.

Logo
If you have a logo it should be included in your EPK. Logos are useful, as they help people remember your music. When you see an interesting logo, you’ll recognize it when you see it again.

If you don’t have a logo yet, as with any of these items, you can hire a professional. You can use online services to get a logo made at low rates. Once your logo is created it can be used in press releases, on album art, and for merchandising purposes.

Additional Items to Add to Your Electronic Press Kit
The items listed above cover the items that you definitely need to include in your EPK. Though, there are other items that could be included, such as testimonials and a list of sponsors. If you want additional suggestions, take a moment to watch this electronic press kit tutorial:

No matter the time of year, we frequently find ourselves gathering with family and friends to celebrate various holidays. Some holidays you may celebrate while others may just pass you by, but regardless of your own celebration, there are always people celebrating any given holiday. And, what often goes hand in hand with celebrating? Music.
When you have your own station, you have the ultimate control of the programming, meaning you can play just about anything you want at any moment. Some choose to play a variety of music while others choose to stick pretty closely to one genre.
However, something that can be helpful in growing listenership is playing holiday music, and we don't just mean playing music that correlates with Christmas, New Year's, or Hanukkah. There is music out there that coordinates with just about every holiday. That means that there is an opportunity for you to provide specialized music that many other stations and music providers in general might not provide since there are so many holidays.
Aside from Christmas, New Year's, Hanukkah, and any other celebration that goes on at the end of the year, there is Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day, St. Patrick's Day, Cinco de Mayo, Ramadan, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day, Halloween, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Kwanzaa, Veterans Day, and that is barely scratching the surface!
There are national holidays, state holidays, cultural holidays, months dedicated to certain subjects, and just about every single day is a unique holiday (ie. International Coffee Day, International Picnic Day, National Doughnut Day, etc.). All you have to do is look up a list of holidays and you will find pages and pages of holidays that you could potentially offer programming for on your station.
Now, you may be thinking, "there isn't music for all of those holidays." While it is true that all holidays don't have a plethora of music dedicated to them, there is always music that has a theme or topic that ties into the holiday. That is where the opportunity lies for these holidays and months that maybe don't have a ton of dedicated music. You can compile an awesome playlist of music that ties into any given holiday and play that on your station, and there you have it, a special holiday event that can potentially draw listeners to your station.
It's important to note that if you are deviating from your usual programming, you will need to let listeners know in advance what to expect. The last thing that you want to do is shock your listeners with unusual programming and turn them away. This can be avoided by letting them know about the special programming many days in advance. Tell them on your station, on social media, in your newsletter, on your website, and anywhere else you communicate with listeners.
You may also be thinking, "how is anyone outside of my regular listeners going to find my station if I'm just doing a special event for a holiday?" Obviously, if your station is not branded for a specific holiday or as a holiday station in general, your station will likely not show up in any Google searches for programming related to your chosen holiday.
But, one important way to potentially let new people know about your special holiday programming is to advertise your programming on social media many days in advance. You also might consider finding groups on Facebook and/or other online communities that would be interested in your special holiday programming to directly let them know about it. Aside from posting about it ahead of time, you need to post about it frequently. Ensure that your posts include the holiday name and any keywords related to the holiday. Furthermore, ensure that your posts include hashtags of the holiday name and keywords. It's important not to include too many hashtags as that can appear messy, but hashtags and keywords can allow those that are looking for content related to a certain holiday to find it easily and quickly. If you have posted several times in a few days on Twitter that you are having special programming for Cinco de Mayo, for example, there's a good chance that at some point you will appear in the search results for some people looking up tweets that contain "Cinco de Mayo" or "#CincodeMayo."
Note that the more celebrated the holiday is, the more likely it is that others will have programming, meaning you will be competing for listeners. Also, a highly celebrated holiday will mean it'll be harder to appear in search results on social media because of the high volume of posts related to that holiday.
So, a great place to start with incorporating holidays into your programming might be one of those more obscure holidays where you could more easily appear in search results. If you gain some listeners from unique holiday programming over time, you may become their trusted station and/or their trusted station for various holiday music. Then, as you grow, you may be better able to compete in programming for the more celebrated holidays.
Using holiday music to your advantage may not be for everybody, but it is definitely a strategy to grow your listenership, especially if you are particularly passionate about a specific holiday or holidays in general. Whatever you do, remember that the key, no matter your strategy, is always communication with current listeners as well as potential listeners.

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As a radio broadcaster, it's important to interact with your listeners to give them the best experience possible and to build loyalty. It can also be extremely rewarding to talk with listeners as well as valuable for improving your station. You can interact with listeners on social media, via email or chat, at events, in person, on calls, etc. Regardless of the medium, there are some dos and don'ts to interacting with radio listeners that you should be aware of to ensure that you have the best interactions with them possible. So, keep on reading to learn about some of these dos and don'ts!
Dos:
 Respond to listeners' questions, comments, critiques, etc. briefly and kindly. In some instances, note that a like or retweet may be the best course of action to acknowledge a listener.
 Always think before you speak.
 Engage in conversations when applicable. If you are tagged in something, look for opportunities to create a conversation with your listeners.
 Be transparent in letting listeners know the best ways to support you and your station.
 Post to social media regularly. Listeners want to hear from you.
 Share interesting things with your audience, whether that be music, news, articles, or anything else that you believe they will be interested in.
 Remember that it is better to ignore some comments than to react to them and post something without truly thinking.
 Note that some conversations should be held in private, not on social media for the world to see.
 When interacting in person, be mindful of your body language. Nonverbal communication is just as powerful as verbal communication.
 Always proofread.
 Thank your listeners for listening, following you on social media, engaging with you, and so forth.
 Ensure that your interactions are personal and genuine.
 Be careful with your use of all capital letters.
 Use your research about your audience and known commonalities to your advantage in your interactions.
 Be open to and ask for feedback.
 Remember your tone. Sometimes tone can be difficult to read, especially for those that don't know you personally, so be mindful of not only what you say, but how you say it.
Don'ts:
 Don't spam your listeners, even in private messaging.
 Don't dwell on listeners' comments, critiques, etc. Some people will be rude with the intent to just be mean, so remember that when interacting with listeners. There will also be a larger amount of people that will be kind and want to give you genuine feedback, so let the love overwhelm any hate.
 Refrain from oversharing your life. Some things may be relevant to share with your listeners, while other things cross the line and are inappropriate. Remember that while they may seem like friends in some ways, they are listeners.
 Don't lose track of correct spelling and grammar on social media as well as in emails and chats.
 Avoid being too pushy, sarcastic, arrogant, or needy. Your listeners will notice these things when interacting with you and it will turn them away.
 Don't be rude. You know the saying, “If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.”
 Refrain from complaining to your listeners.
 Don't become too bold behind the computer. It is easy to say things online since you aren't face to face with anyone. However, you are still always accountable for the things you say online.
Although these dos and don'ts may seem simple, it is easy to get caught up in your interactions with listeners, especially in the beginning. That's why it is best to have these in the back of your mind to direct your interactions to ensure both you and your listener walk away with a positive experience. Whatever you do, be sure to give your listeners some love back. They tune in and support you, so you want to show them that the love doesn't go unnoticed and that you truly appreciate them.

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Here are step-by-step setup instructions to set up Mixxx:

Step 1) Download and install a copy of Mixxx from https://www.mixxx.org/

Step 2) email zach@metaldevastationradio.com for encoder details

Step 3) copy the encoder details into the live broadcasting area of your mixxx software

Step 4) Open Mixxx. Then, i n Mixxx, locate the “ Preferences " tab, under the Options menu.

Step 5) Locate the “ Live Broadcasting ” option in the Mixxx Preferences window.

Step 6)  After all the settings are done you will need to download an MP3 encoder for Mixxx. You will need to go to this website: http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-libraries.php as Mixxx does not own rights to redistribute MP3-Lame.

Step 7) Next, from the RAREWARES page, you will need to add the correct files from the version of Mixxx you had downloaded (either 32 or 64 bit).

Step 8) When you have downloaded the .zip file, open the file and move the files into your Mixxx folder:

Step 9) Close and re-open Mixxx. You will now be able to broadcast live by clicking " Enable Live Broadcasting " option under the Mixxx " Options" menu.

When you enable the live broadcasting, you will immediately start to broadcast live. You will override any scheduled Events and AutoDJ currently playing on MDR. MDR will be be used as a fallback, in the event your Mixxx application crashes or goes offline.

Please remember that even when you are broadcasting live, your files must transmit the correct metadata for copyrighted content (Artist - Title).

Additional steps below for Mac and Linux users:

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A running computer and a good collection of properly tagged mp3s

(if you need help tagging mp3s click here https://www.mp3tag.de/en/) 

You will need a microphone if you plan on talking in between songs.

You will need some DJ software like MIXXX https://www.mixxx.org/ which is free or Sam Broadcaster if you are pro. https://spacial.com/sam-broadcaster-pro/

We help you set up your encoder on your software of choice.

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