What should be on an artist EPK in 2026

A 2026 artist EPK should carry nine things a booker can use without emailing you twice: bio, photos, music, video, tech rider, press, dates, contact, and a one-sheet. Host them on one industry URL with dated filenames. Skip the unsorted Drive folder, the merch countdown, and any number you cannot show. How that page scans in thirty seconds lives in Build the EPK Bookers Can Scan in Thirty Seconds. This post is the packing list. It sits under Websites That Feel Like Films.

The short answer

• Pack nine assets: bio, photos, music, video, tech rider, press, dates, contact, one-sheet.
• Put them on /epk or /press on the artist domain. Export a 2–4 page PDF from the same facts.
• Date every file. If two riders disagree, the house will trust neither.
• Short bio first (~100–150 words). Long bio below. Live video if you want rooms.
• Do not invent quotes, monthly listeners, or “sold out.” Empty proof beats fake proof.

Must ship this week	Nice if you have it	Skip until the nine are live
Short bio, visible booking email, 2–3 listen links	Long bio, B/W crop, second video	Motion system, merch module, schema debates
3 current photos + logos	Print hi-res zip	Five-year archive
Dated rider + plot (even one page)	Hospitality rider	Three conflicting Drive PDFs
Dates or a routing note	Full tour widget	Ghost calendar from last year
One-sheet PDF from those facts	Designed lookbook	40 MB attach

The nine things that belong

ASCAP’s digital press kit list still names bio, photos, music, video, press, notable achievements, contact, and social. CD Baby’s EPK guide frames the same packet as a concise introduction for venues, agents, and talent buyers, hosted on the artist site so one URL travels. The 2026 kit I ship adds two production facts those lists treat as optional: a dated tech rider and a one-sheet. Social links belong in the footer. They are not a ninth “vibe” section.

Asset	Job in 2026	Ready test
Bio	Paste into offers, forms, announcements	One-liner + short + long, current lineup
Photos	Posters, web, print	3–6 current shots, named, credited, hi-res zip
Music	Hear the act without an account	2–3 current tracks or one clean playlist
Video	Does the room hold?	One recent live clip on a channel you control
Tech rider	Advance load-in	Dated PDF + stage plot matching this lineup
Press	Soft proof	3–5 live quotes or honest empty state
Dates	Can we offer a night?	Next holds or a routing note with season + region
Contact	Send the hold	Visible email a human answers
One-sheet	Email leave-behind / form attach	2–4 page PDF generated from the page facts

Ask the designer these before layout, not after:

1. Where does /epk live in the IA, and does it stay off the fan homepage?
2. Can a manager replace a rider, photo zip, and one-sheet without opening Designer?
3. Are download link names unique — file, size, date — not six buttons labeled “Download”?
4. Does the listen module work logged-out on a phone?
5. Is the booking email visible in the first viewport, not buried in a form?

On artist sites (Arkayla, Dog Park, Foxtide, Oliver Malcolm, Roe Kapara, and peers), the industry path is part of the information architecture. It is not a PDF emailed from a phone after launch.

Must vs optional, named so nobody “finishes” the page with the wrong nine:

Treat as blocking	Treat as optional	Not an EPK asset
Bio (short), contact, music, photos	Long bio, extra crops, second video	Merch, newsletter, fan lore
Rider + plot if you play rooms	Hospitality, lighting looks	Influences list, lyric sheets
Dates or routing note	Full calendar embed	Fake cities
One-sheet	Printed leave-behind at the merch table	A second Drive “master kit”

A kit with eight of nine still fails if the missing piece is contact or the rider. Pretty photos do not advance a show.

Bio that can be pasted

Write three lengths once. Paste forever. Festival forms and venue announcements will not wait while you rewrite the novel.

Version	Length	Where it gets used
One-liner	≤160 characters	Meta, posters, social subhead, schema-adjacent text
Short	~100–150 words	Default EPK, most bookers, most forms
Long	~300–500 words	Features, grants, “about” for humans who asked

ASCAP’s Bandzoogle brief is why that table has more than two rows: bookers and festivals run different word limits, so you keep an elevator pitch, a short, and a long. CD Baby’s writing test is still the right one: imagine the short bio read aloud as a showcase intro. SXSW’s own programmers have said a clear, succinct biography does two jobs — context for programming, and reuse in marketing if you get in. Write the version you want repeated. Do not write a joke bio and hope they “get it.”

• One-liner names genre + city or territory + current release or tour cycle
• Short bio leads with facts: who, what it sounds like, where, what is out
• Long bio adds credits, history, and the story — not adjectives
• Lineup matches the photos and the rider
• No monthly-listener flex you cannot date and show

Facts over mood. Cities played, releases, notable supports, and what the project is beat “sonic journey.” If the name, members, or project changed, rewrite all three bios in the same sitting. A short bio that still lists a departed member is a lie the booker will notice.

Bad bio move	Why it fails	Better
“Genre-bending sonic alchemists”	Zero facts a booker can paste	City or territory, lineup size, current release, genre in plain words
Joke bio you would not read from a stage	SXSW-style reuse will repeat it	Write the intro you want announced
Short bio still lists a departed member	Photos and rider disagree	Rewrite all three lengths the day the lineup changes
Listener counts with no date or source	Unshowable proof is anti-proof	Cut the number
Long bio only	Forms and scanners bounce	Short on the page, long below

Rewrite procedure when the project moves:

1. Change the one-liner first — genre, territory, current cycle.
2. Rewrite the short bio in one sitting. Read it out loud.
3. Patch the long bio for credits and history. Do not lead with it.
4. Diff against photos, rider, and listen links. If a name disagrees, fix the file, not the sentence.
5. Re-export the one-sheet the same day. Old PDFs outlive old web copy.

Lead with the short on the page. Link the long below. Writing the long first and dumping it on /epk is how scanners bounce.

Photos and logos that survive a poster

Offer a small, current set. Not five years of camera roll. ASCAP still wants a few official photos with vertical and horizontal options, plus black-and-white, and hi-res for print. CD Baby adds the crop rule: horizontal, vertical, and a square that survives social and poster templates.

• 3–6 live or press photos of the current lineup
• Web-ready (~2000px on the long edge) and a hi-res zip
• Color + mono logos (SVG or transparent PNG)
• One preferred horizontal and one vertical crop
• Photographer credit and a usage line (“promotional use OK”)
• Filename like ArtistName_Press_01_Photographer_2026-05.jpg

Crop	Typical use	Do not ship
Horizontal	Posters, headers, festival grids	A group shot with unreadable faces
Vertical	Stories, one-sheets, print ads	A crop that cuts the brand off the frame
Square	Avatars, some posters	A logo smashed into a selfie
B/W	Programs, newspapers	A phone filter on a color original

AI-generated “press shots” of a band that does not look like the band will get you dropped mid-advance. Real photos only on the EPK.

Link text is part of the kit. WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 2.4.4 requires that the purpose of a link be determinable from the link text or its immediate context. “Download” six times fails. “Download press photos (ZIP, 18 MB, updated 2026-05-27)” passes for a booker and a screen reader.

If the zip is last year’s faces, take it down. Stale photos cost more than an empty card that says the new shoot lands next month.

Delivery	Target	Hosting note
On-page preview	Web-sized JPEG/WebP, long edge ~2000px	CMS image field; stay under vendor image caps
Print / press zip	TIFF or large JPEG, photographer-named	Pull link; disclose MB in the button
Logos	SVG + PNG on transparent	Separate from the photo zip
Preferred poster crop	One horizontal + one vertical, labeled	Do not make the booker guess

CMS fields that keep the shoot current:

1. Title (Press set — May 2026)
2. File or URL
3. Size label
4. Updated date
5. Credit / usage
6. Toggle: show on EPK

If a manager cannot retire last year’s zip without a designer, the kit will rot. Pair the download row with those fields.

Music they can hear without an account

Two or three current tracks. Not six embeds fighting. Not a login wall. Industry visitors will not create a DSP account in a venue hallway to hear whether you fit the bill.

Listen pattern	Use when	Skip when
2–3 priority tracks, named	Default	You cannot decide, so you dump the catalog
One playlist / EP link	The campaign is a body of work	The playlist is 40 deep cuts and a remix
Private unlisted stream	Unreleased hold music, time-boxed	It is the only listen and it expires mid-pitch
Full discography embed	Below the fold, optional	It is the first module and it autoplays

Ready checklist:

1. Pick the two or three tracks that represent this lineup and this cycle.
2. Confirm they play on a phone with no account, no app install, no geo-block surprise.
3. Match the same URLs you will paste into festival forms.
4. Retire the 2019 single if the project moved.
5. Keep pre-save heat on the release URL, not in the booker’s first viewport.

If the only way to hear the music is a private Discord or a Linktree that died last week, you do not have a listen module. You have a rumor.

Do not put Spotify monthly listeners on the EPK unless you can screenshot a dated public number you are willing to stand behind. I will not invent those numbers here. If you cannot show it, cut it.

Listen failure	What the booker hits	Fix
Embed wants an account	Bounce	Public track URLs that play in-browser
Geo-blocked master	Silence on their phone	A fallback that works where you are pitching
Autoplay stack	They mute the tab	One player, user-started
Wrong-era single	They book the old project	Current-cycle tracks only
Private Discord / expired unlisted	404 mid-hold	Stable URLs you control

The listen module is part of conversion for rooms: they have to hear the act before they offer a date. If it fails on a phone, the rest of the kit is decoration.

Video that proves the room holds

Audio tells them the songs. Video tells them whether the night works. SXSW Senior Manager Stacey Wilhelm’s note on the 2019 showcase application tips still holds: do not skip the YouTube link. Programmers use it for videos and live footage — “what to expect from your live performance.” CD Baby’s booking cut is the same: a live video if you want rooms; a current single video if the kit is a release cycle.

Video	Put on the EPK	Leave off
Live, 1–2 songs, recent	Default for bookers	Unintelligible mix, empty room you cannot explain
Official video	Press + release kits	Three eras old, lineup changed
Full set	Link below the fold	It is the only embed and it autoplays
Vertical phone clip	Proof of a real night	It is the only “live” asset and you play theaters

• One primary live clip of the current lineup
• Hosted on a channel you control (YouTube or equivalent)
• Title includes artist name + “live” + city or venue
• No stacked players fighting the listen module
• If you have no live video, say so and point to the best audio — do not fake a crowd

A well-shot phone video from a real gig beats a cinematic trailer of a band that cannot be heard. Bookers are not buying your color grade.

Embed one. Link a second. That is the kit. Four muted players is a stall.

Pick the night like this:

1. Current lineup on stage — not a member who left.
2. Mix you would play for a stranger. If the vocal is gone, pick another night.
3. Room size in the neighborhood of the rooms you want, or label the clip (“club, 200 cap”) so nobody infers an arena.
4. Title: Artist Name — Live at Venue, City (Year).
5. Confirm the URL is public, embeddable, and not scheduled to go private.

If the only footage is a rehearsal with no crowd, say it is a rehearsal. Honesty travels. A fake crowd does not.

Tech rider dated to this lineup

Yes — include it if you play amplified rooms. Bookers and production need it before load-in, not in a panicked email the day before.

TecRider’s definition is the production one I use in briefs: the document attached to a performance contract that specifies stage plot, input list, monitor and PA needs, backline, and power. Their practical rule matches what I see on advances: start with the plot, then a numbered input list, then monitors, backline, lighting, power, and a technical contact. Keep it to one or two pages. Engineers often open this minutes before load-in.

File	Format	Notes
Tech rider	PDF	Inputs, backline, FOH/monitor, technical contact
Stage plot	PDF or PNG	Current, labeled audience vs stage, matches the rider
Input list	Often inside the rider	Version the date in the filename
Hospitality	Separate PDF if you have one	Do not bury beer prefs in channel 1

Acoustic, DJ, and electronic acts still ship a one-page technical-needs doc so nobody invents requirements for you.

Advance order that does not embarrass you:

1. Booking confirm → send the current rider + plot the same day.
2. ~30 days out → resend if member, backline, or IEM changed.
3. Final production advance → house specs vs your ask.
4. Day-of → the file on /epk matches the PDF in the last email.

Host the downloads on the EPK. Label versions with dates. When the package changes, replace the file and bump the date. Do not leave three conflicting riders in a Drive folder linked from an old thread.

If the web file and the emailed file disagree, the house will believe neither.

One-to-two-page skeleton that production can actually use:

1. Header: artist name, date of this version, technical contact email.
2. Stage plot: downstage / audience labeled, member positions, wedges or IEM, power drops.
3. Input list: channel, source, mic/DI preference, stand notes.
4. Backline: what you carry vs what you need provided.
5. FOH / monitors: mix notes in one short paragraph, not a manifesto.
6. Lighting: minimum vs ideal, in two lines.
7. Hospitality: separate PDF if it exists.

Versioning rule	Do	Do not
Filename	ArtistName_TechRider_2026-05.pdf	rider_FINAL_use_this_2.pdf
Page file	Replace in place, bump the date	Add _v7 next to _v4 on the same card
Email	Send the /epk link + current PDF if they asked	Attach three historical riders “for context”

A missing rider is a missing kit item. “Email us for production” is how load-in starts late.

Press that is still true

Three current lines beat a graveyard of ten. CD Baby’s press section is a swap rule, not a museum: one sentence, link the full piece, replace as you get better lines. ASCAP’s version adds pull-quotes under the link so nobody has to open five tabs. SXSW’s 2027 music-application note asks for tastemaker press if you have it — and asks you to name a publicist, agent, or DSP pitching team when those people exist. Empty flex is worse than a short, honest proof strip.

Press item	Keep	Cut
Quote	Outlet + author, live link, this era	Paraphrase, dead link, 2018 recap
Support / bill	Named, dated, checkable	“Toured with everyone”
Achievement	Specific and current	Award you cannot link
Proof strip	Three facts max in the first scroll	A wall of logos

• 3–5 quotes or an honest “press forthcoming”
• Each quote links to a live URL
• Attribution is real — outlet, and author when the byline exists
• Lineup-era match: do not lead with a review of a project that no longer exists
• No invented “as featured in” rows

Dead links are anti-proof. Remove them the week they 404. Fake or paraphrased “press” gets you remembered the wrong way. No quotes beat invented ones.

Do not invent ticket counts or “sold out” language you cannot show. If the number is real, date it. If it is not, cut it.

When the fact changes	What you do the same day
Stronger quote lands	Add it; demote or remove the weakest line
Link 404s	Remove or replace — do not leave the tombstone
Lineup / name / rebrand	Full press pass, not a new logo on old quotes
Tour or release announce	Refresh the proof strip if the old facts no longer represent the cycle
Nothing new this quarter	Still click the three links. Dead proof is worse than a short strip

A proof strip of three true lines converts better than a mural of ten. Conversion here means “this act belongs in this room,” not a fan click.

Dates and routing, not a ghost calendar

Bookers are trying to place a night. A blank tour module reads as “not working.” A stale date reads as abandoned. A routing note is a complete answer when you have no holds yet.

State	What to publish	What not to publish
Holds on the books	Next dates + link to full Tour	A widget that 404s
Routing, no holds	“Routing [region] [season] — holds open”	Fake cities to look busy
Off-cycle	“Not touring this quarter — press and support still open”	Last year’s calendar left live
Territory split	Which desk owns which region	One inbox for three agencies

Ready checklist:

1. Pull the next 3–8 dates from the same source the public Tour page uses.
2. If there are no dates, write a one-line routing note with region and season.
3. Date the note. “Updated 2026-05-27.”
4. Link “All dates” to the real Tour page — do not duplicate a second calendar that will rot.
5. If an agency owns a territory, say so next to the dates.

A ghost calendar costs holds. A one-line routing note does not. Pick the honest one.

Keep private holds private. The EPK is not the place to leak a room that has not confirmed.

Date source	EPK should	EPK should not
Public Tour CMS	Pull the next few rows from the same collection	Hand-maintain a second list
Routing only	One dated sentence	A designed calendar of hypotheticals
Agency routing	Label the desk next to the window	Make the booker guess who owns the region
Cancelled night	Remove it the day it dies	Leave a strikethrough as “proof of demand”

If Tour and EPK disagree, the booker will trust neither. One collection. Two views.

Contact a human will answer

Put the booking email on the EPK and in the footer. ASCAP’s list includes email and a phone for tight deadlines. I still lead with email. Phone is a second line for acts that actually answer it.

Pattern	Use
Visible email on /epk	Default — fastest for bookers
mailto: plus copyable text	Accessibility + mobile
Form as secondary	Fine after the email is visible
Agency desk with territory	Required once representation is split
Manager link-in-bio only	Fragile; the bio will change

If booking goes through an agency, spell it: “North America: Agency / Agent — email.” Ambiguity loses holds.

Do not hide contacts behind a logged-in portal. Bookers will not create an account to email you.

Schema can help machines, not tired humans. Schema.org MusicGroup is the type for a band or solo musician. If you emit JSON-LD, use MusicGroup (or Person for a solo act), genre, album / track, and a contactPoint with contactType of booking or press. That does not replace a visible email. It keeps the same facts consistent for search.

If a human will not answer that inbox this week, it is not a booking contact. It is a black hole with a nice font.

Desk	On the EPK	Keep off the EPK
Booking	Email, territory, agent name if split	Personal cell you will not answer on a load-in
Press	press@ if a human reads it	A shared inbox nobody checks
Production	Technical contact on the rider	Hospitality prefs in the booking line
Management	Optional, labeled	A Linktree that changes weekly

• Booking email is copyable without a modal
• The same address is in the footer and on the one-sheet
• Auto-reply, if any, names a human and a response window you can keep
• Press and booking are not the same alias unless one person actually does both
• No “contact us” that only opens a CRM form

The one-sheet as the leave-behind

The web EPK is the system of record. The one-sheet is the attachable leaf. CD Baby is explicit: make a music website and host the EPK there so you have a simple URL when someone asks. A Drive folder is a supplement, not the kit. Gmail’s attachment help caps personal-account sends at 25 MB. Cross that line and Gmail strips the files and inserts a Drive link — which is how a “complete kit” arrives as a permission prompt the booker will not open.

One-sheet contents	Keep	Cut
Name, one-liner, short bio	Always	Long bio that spills to page six
One photo + logo	Always	A contact sheet of twelve looks
2–3 track titles + listen URL	Always	A discography since high school
Booking email	Always	A QR to a Linktree
Next dates or routing note	If current	Last year’s tour poster
2–3 press lines	If live	Logo salad

Build it from the page, not as a second career:

1. Lock the nine facts on /epk.
2. Export 2–4 pages. One sheet is a sheet, not a lookbook.
3. Filename: ArtistName_OneSheet_2026-05.pdf.
4. Offer “Download one-sheet (PDF)” on the EPK with size and date in the link.
5. Re-export when a fact changes. Do not attach last quarter’s file because it is already in Downloads.

This is also a CMS constraint. Webflow’s File field caps images at 4 MB and documents at 10 MB. The Assets panel allows ZIPs up to 25 MB. A 40 MB photo dump will not live in the CMS. Host overflow on a storage URL you control, and put the card on the EPK.

A custom site is worth it for this when managers must replace the one-sheet, rider, and photo zip without opening Designer — a CMS collection with title, file, size label, and updated date. A one-off PDF emailed from a phone is not a system. If the weekly editor will not log in, you have a launch-day sculpture.

Page	Put here	Leave for the web EPK
1	Name, one-liner, hero photo, booking email, listen URL	Long bio, full quote stack
2	Short bio, 2–3 tracks, one press line, routing or next dates	Live video embed (link the URL instead)
3–4	Extra photo + rider note (“current rider at /epk”) only if a form demanded more pages	The entire photo archive

A 2-page one-sheet is the default. Four pages is the ceiling. Six pages is a lookbook you should not attach.

When a custom site is not the first purchase: you still have no recordings, no current photos, and no answering inbox. Pack facts first. Buy layout second.

What 2026 kits should leave off

The packing list is also a refuse list. Fan conversion lives on the rest of the site. Campaign heat lives on the release URL. The EPK is a packet.

Leave off	Why it fails in 2026	Put it instead
Merch drop countdown	Trains the wrong visitor	Merch chapter / Shopify
Newsletter modal on first paint	Blocks the scan	Footer signup, later
Unsorted 40-file Drive	Permission walls, stale files	Dated cards on /epk
AI press shots of a fake lineup	Gets you dropped mid-advance	Real photos or a “shoot pending” card
Unprovable DSP stats	Bookers ignore or ding you	Dated, showable facts only
Influences list as the bio	Reads as 2009 MySpace	Genre in the one-liner
Lyric sheets as the kit	Nobody advances a show from lyrics	Music + video
Passworded “full kit”	They will not request access	Public packet + private overflow only if needed
Pre-save module in the hero	Wrong job, wrong visitor	Release campaign URL
SoundCloud-only listen (when the music lives elsewhere)	Extra account wall	The DSP URLs you will paste into forms
“Coming soon” on every card	Reads as not ready	Honest empty state on the one card you lack
Watermarked unusable previews only	Poster teams cannot use them	Web preview + hi-res pull
Six social icons as the contact row	Not a booking desk	Visible email

• No popup on first paint
• No “hi-res on request” with no owner
• No six identical “Download” buttons
• No catalog dump in the listen module
• No second calendar that will rot
• No campaign countdown in the industry hero
• No password on the public packet

If a section would still make sense on a restaurant site, it does not belong on the EPK. The kit is specific: who you are, what it sounds like, whether the room holds, how to advance it, how to reach a human.

A Linktree is not an EPK. It is a list of exits.

Failure mode: the kit that still makes them email you

Common failure: the page looks finished and the booker still has to ask for the rider, the photo zip, the booking email, or a listen link that works. The cost is lost holds, slower advances, and looking less professional than a smaller act with a tighter packet. I have shipped hundreds of production sites. The music ones that book cleaner share one boring trait: a dedicated industry URL whose downloads match the last email.

Symptom	What actually broke	Repair
“They never replied”	Contact behind a form or a dead Linktree	Visible email on /epk
“They used last year’s photo”	Undated Drive folder	Dated cards; retire the old zip
“FOH had the wrong plot”	Three riders in old threads	One current file on the page
“They thought we were a DJ”	No live video, vague one-liner	Live clip + genre in the first line
“The PDF was empty in Outlook”	30 MB attach over the Gmail 25 MB cap	Link + slim one-sheet
“Can you send the bio?”	Long bio only, or a PDF embed with no text	Paste-ready short bio on the page
“The listen link needed an app”	Account-walled embed	Public tracks that play in-browser
“We advanced the wrong input list”	Rider date in the email ≠ rider date on /epk	Replace in place; resend the same URL

I will not invent a hold-rate or open-rate for kits. The operational metric is simpler: count “can you send…” emails in the last month. Each one is a missing card or a stale file.

Conversion here is not a fan add-to-cart. It is whether a booker can qualify you, pull assets, and send a hold without a scavenger hunt. If they bounce to a competitor who sent a clean /epk link, the cinematic homepage did not save you.

Fix: pack the nine, date the files, show the email. Keep the film-grade homepage for fans — do not make bookers suffer it.

A pretty homepage is not a rider. Ship the file.

A one-week pack if that is all you have

A week is enough to ship a packable kit. It is not enough to invent a career. Skip the museum. Ship the nine in current, honest form.

Day	Ship	Skip
1	One-liner, short bio, booking email on a live /epk	Long-bio poetry
2	3 current photos + logos, named and credited	A new lookbook shoot
3	2–3 listen links that work logged-out	Catalog embed
4	One live clip or an honest “no live video yet”	Four players
5	Rider + plot dated to this lineup, even if one page	Hospitality novel
6	3 press lines or empty-state; dates or routing note	Logo salad
7	One-sheet PDF from those facts; send one test email	40 MB zip attach

Procedure:

1. Make /epk (or /press) on the artist domain. Do not hide it.
2. Paste the short bio and the visible booking email first. If those two are missing, nothing else matters.
3. Add listen + one video. Confirm both on a phone, logged out.
4. Upload dated photos, rider, plot, one-sheet. Put size and date in the link text.
5. Add press and dates only if they are true this week.
6. Export the one-sheet from the page. Attach only that PDF if a form demands a file.
7. Send yourself the pitch: two sentences + the URL. Open it on your phone. Fix what you had to pinch-zoom or hunt.

If you only have a week, skip: new photography, a custom motion system, schema debates, and rewriting the long bio three times. Do not skip: contact, listen, current photos, dated rider, one-sheet.

Role	Owns this week	Does not own this week
Artist / manager	Facts, files, inbox that answers	Motion, new brand system
Designer / sprint	/epk IA, download cards, CMS fields	Inventing a career the facts do not support
Publicist / agent	Quote list and territory line	Replacing the rider after a lineup change — that is still the act

Phone pass before you send it:

• Booking email visible without a tap into a form
• Listen plays logged out
• Video plays or the empty state is honest
• Each download names the file, the size, and the date
• One-sheet opens and matches the page

When this is not worth doing yet: you have no current recordings, no photos of the people who will walk on stage, and no one who will answer booking mail. Build those three. Then pack the kit. A custom site is not the first purchase if the facts do not exist.

The week produces a packet. The career site can still feel like a film. Do not mix those jobs in one hero.

FAQ

What should be on an artist EPK in 2026?

Bio, photos, music, video, tech rider, press, dates, contact, and a one-sheet — hosted on one industry URL with dated downloads. Social links can live in the footer. They are not a substitute for a rider or a booking email. If a booker still has to email you for a file that should be on the page, the kit is not done.

How do I measure whether the EPK is working?

Watch whether bookers stop asking for assets that are already on the page, whether FOH gets the rider that matches load-in, and whether press uses the current photo instead of a three-year-old scrape. I do not have a public reply-rate benchmark to cite, and I will not invent one. The failure signal is the follow-up email that begins “can you send…”

What usually fails first when teams try this?

Contact and the rider. The page gets photos and a bio because those feel like a website, while the booking email hides in a form and the plot lives in last year’s thread. Advances break there. Put the email in the first viewport and date the production files before you argue about motion.

How long does this take to show results?

A packable kit can ship in a week if the recordings, current photos, and an answering inbox already exist. Booking results follow the next pitch cycle, not the publish click. Treat “a week” as a packing band, not a promise that a room confirms. Stale assets in old threads will still get used until you resend the same /epk URL.

What should I skip if I only have a week?

Skip the long-bio rewrite, the new lookbook, stacked video players, hospitality novels, and schema debates. Do not skip visible booking email, 2–3 listen links, current photos, a dated rider, and a 2–4 page one-sheet. Honest empty states beat fake press and fake dates.

When is this not worth doing yet?

Wait if you have no current recordings, no photos of the lineup that will actually play, and no human who will answer booking mail. A designed /epk cannot invent those. Build the three facts, then pack the nine. A custom CMS is worth it later, when someone other than the designer has to replace files every cycle.

CTA

Nine assets. Dated files. One URL the booker can trust.

Explore /websites or book a Website sprint at /contact?intent=websites-sprint.