You’re in a band. You need to book shows. You’ve been convinced you need an EPK; an Electronic Press Kit. So what do you do? Maybe you went and signed up at SonicBids. If you did, you effectively took $5.95 out of your pocket and flushed it. Or burned it.
Paying for an Electronic Press Kit SUBSCRIPTION is a freakin’ joke, in my opinion. Just don’t do it. Some nerd at SonicBids will probably rattle off some stats about how bands using an EPK get more shows because of their EPK, but they forget to tell youabout all the bands that DON’T get shows. Or bands getting FEWER shows than those using EPKs whether they just suck, or don’t have someone booking their band full-time.
I’ve used them and they don’t work. Correction: EPKs don’t do the work FOR you and the money you’d shell out every month is worth way more to you, a working musician, in the form of a sandwich or a couple gallons of gasoline. Do you know what another name for an electronic press kit is? They call it electronic mail and having a web presence you can point booking agents to. A band website, a MySpace Page, a Reverb Nation page, a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, a blog, etc. You know; the endless list of Web 2.0 mazes we musicians have blindly walked ourselves into.
Ask anyone that books a venue worth playing and they’ll give you a pretty short list of things they want to know about your band. Usually it’s something like: What’s your draw? Have you played here before? Who have you played with? What dates are you looking for? where can I hear your music? where can I QUICKLY find out more? That sort of thing. If they want you to impress them with a pie chart and something that more closely resembles the Business section in USA Today, you’re probably booking yourself at the wrong venue. Either that, or your in that band, Jet. In which case I am looking for you so I can kick your ass. I’m talking about 50-200 capacity places for the most part here because that’s probably where you’re playing, and because that’s where MOST of us are playing. If you aren’t, then stop reading this now and enjoy your wine!
I’ll be having a conversation with my partners about this issue soon and intend to come up with a solution that doesn’t take $5-10 out of your wallet every month, so this is a bit of an open rant/post/question to anyone reading this. Comments and suggestions welcome.
Over the years I’ve tried pretty much every method I could think of to book my band (The Sundresses). Everything from being a complete dick, to hiring someone else to do it, to EPKs, to bein’ cute, being funny, being clever and being really dumb. And you know what works best? Building a good relationship with venues and local bands and return often enough to build a following so you aren’t forgotten about. Simple as that. It doesn’t hurt to be a really good band either, but there’s nothing I can help you with there. Find those places and go back as frequently as you can.
One more thing: Reverb Nation has EPKs they call an RPK because they are pretty clever marketers. But here’s the thing about that; you can try it for free for one month and then after that they’ll charge you $5.95/mo. Laughable. Admittedly, I haven’t tried the free month… and I almost just wrote that I’m not going to, but I will and I’ll update you on the results. My guess, though, is that in the end you’d pay $72/year for a service that will land you probably, maybe, one show every month that you could just as easily have booked yourself by using something called Google, an electronic mail message, a map, and a little thing called the Internet.
Happy booking!
love,
~brad loans
