PMApub / Artist guides

How to Build an Artist Bio and Press Kit (EPK) That Gets Replies

By PMApub Academy · Last reviewed 2026-10-13 · About 8 min read

Why most press kits get ignored

Think about the person on the other end. A blogger, playlist curator, or local radio host may get a pile of pitches in a day, and they are reading yours between other things on their phone. They are not being rude when they skip something. They are triaging.

Press kits get ignored for pretty boring reasons. The bio starts with where you were born instead of what you sound like. The links are buried or broken. The photos are attached as huge files that clog an inbox. Or the email never says why you are writing to this person in particular.

The good news is that every one of those problems is fixable, and none of them require a publicist or a budget. A press kit that gets replies is mostly clarity and good manners. Make it easy to listen, easy to understand, and easy to say yes to.

What actually goes in an EPK

EPK stands for electronic press kit. Strip away the buzzword and it is one page (or one folder) with everything someone might need to write about you or add your song to a list. Here is the short list of what belongs in it:

• A short bio in two lengths: roughly 50 words and roughly 150 words.
• The music itself: a streaming link to your newest release and one or two other tracks. Never make someone download an audio file just to listen.
• Press photos: two or three good ones, in both landscape and portrait, available to download.
• A one-sheet: a single page summary, covered in a moment.
• Your links: streaming profiles, social accounts, website, and a real contact email.
• Proof, if you have it: a couple of real quotes from real articles, notable shows, or collaborators. If you do not have any yet, leave this out rather than stretching.

That is the whole thing. You do not need a video reel, a rider, a stage plot, and a manifesto. Add those later if you start booking shows that call for them.

Where does it live? Ideally on one web page with a simple, memorable link, so you can paste a single URL into any email. If you use a tool that builds a page for you, great. PMApub's ReleaseReady hub at /hub can generate an EPK and smart pages for this, and our lesson on creating a professional ReleaseReady artist profile goes deeper. A plain page you build yourself works just as well. What matters is that the link opens fast on a phone.

Write your bio with a fill-in framework

Most artists freeze on the bio because they try to tell their whole life story. Do not. A bio is a sales page for one question: should I listen to this? Answer that and stop.

Here is a framework that works for almost any genre. Copy it into a document and fill in the blanks.

1. The hook sentence. [Your name] is a [city or region] [genre or two genres] artist who makes music about [the main subject or feeling].
2. The sound. Their music sounds like [two or three words describing the mood] built on [the main instruments or production style].
3. The proof or the story. One concrete fact: a song that connected with people, a show you played, a project you finished, or the reason you started. Keep it true and specific.
4. The now. Their new [single, EP, or album] [title] is out [date], and it [one honest sentence on what it is about].
5. The next step. Listen at [link]. Contact: [email].

Write it in the third person (Maya writes...) for the long bio, because writers like to lift lines from it. Keep a first-person version for your social profiles, where it feels more natural.

A few rules that save you editing time

• Lead with what you sound like and who you are, not with your birth year.
• Be careful with comparisons. Naming one or two artists in a sentence helps people place you, but claiming you are the next anyone sounds like a red flag.
• Skip empty adjectives like unique, passionate, and genre-defying. Show it with a detail instead.
• Do not invent achievements. It is easy to check, and trust is the one thing you cannot rebuild quickly.

Then make the short version: keep sentences one, two, and four, and cut the rest. That is your 50-word bio, perfect for festival forms and playlist submissions.

An example bio, built on a fictional artist

To make this concrete, here is a short bio for a completely made-up artist. Nothing here is a real person or a real release. The point is the structure.

Juniper Vale is a Pittsburgh indie-folk songwriter who writes about the strange calm of working nights and coming home as the sun comes up. Her songs pair a fingerpicked acoustic guitar with soft, close-miked vocals and the occasional warm synth pad, somewhere between a late-night kitchen conversation and a long drive with the radio low. She wrote her debut EP in the hours after her shifts at a hospital laundry and recorded most of it in her spare bedroom. Her new single, Second Shift, is out on November 7 and is about learning to be proud of a life that doesn't look like the one you pictured. Listen at the link below. Contact: hello@junipervale.example.

Look at what that does. In the first sentence you know her city, genre, and subject. In the second you can hear her. The third gives you a human detail a writer could build a paragraph around. The fourth tells you exactly what is new. There is no list of every venue she has played, no vague claims, and no mention of dreams.

Now your turn. Take twenty minutes, fill in the five blanks above, read it aloud, and cut every word that you would not say to a friend. If a sentence sounds like a press release, rewrite it until it sounds like you on a good day.

Photos, the one-sheet, and your links

Photos

You do not need a pricey photoshoot, but you do need photos that are sharp, well lit, and clearly you. A friend with a decent phone and a window with soft daylight can get you there. Aim for two or three options: one portrait close-up, one with a bit more environment, and one that feels like the music. Offer both landscape and portrait crops, since different sites use different layouts.

Always name the files properly (yourname-press-photo-1.jpg, not IMG_4021.jpg), credit the photographer, and host the images online so no one needs to open an attachment. If a photographer took them, confirm in writing that you are allowed to share them for press use.

The one-sheet

A one-sheet is a single page, usually a PDF, that summarizes everything at a glance. Put your name and photo at the top, your short bio, your latest release with its date, two or three streaming links, and your contact details. If you have real press quotes or shows, add one line each. Make sure the links are clickable and also written out, in case someone prints it.

Your links

Test every link on your phone before you send anything. Use a link that goes to the song itself, not to a login page. Put your best track first. And include one email address that you actually check, because a press kit with no way to respond is just a poster.

What bloggers and curators actually want

Different people want slightly different things, but a few preferences are almost universal.

• Something to listen to right now. One click, no download, no password.
• A reason you chose them. One sentence is enough: you noticed they covered an artist with a similar sound, or they run a feature on songs about work and home. If you cannot write that sentence honestly, you may be pitching the wrong person.
• Brevity. Your email body can be four or five short lines. The kit does the heavy lifting.
• Timing. Send before release, not after. For instance, Spotify tells artists to submit a song for editorial consideration at least seven days before release, and that is the minimum, not the sweet spot. Give people more lead time wherever you can.
• Clear context. Release date, genre, and a one-line description in the first paragraph.

Do not attach a mountain of files, do not mass-email fifty people in the cc line, and do not follow up every day. One polite nudge after a week or so is plenty. If you hear nothing, move on and keep the relationship friendly; the same person may love your next song.

If you want help with the pitching side, our lesson on creating and structuring a high-conversion pitch campaign pairs well with this guide. And if you are using paid or sponsored coverage, remember that the FTC expects honest disclosure of paid connections in endorsements, so keep any such arrangement transparent.

Finally, remember that pitching a playlist editor does not guarantee a placement, whatever your kit looks like. Spotify says so plainly on its own pitching page. Treat every pitch as a free lottery ticket, not a plan.

Common mistakes that quietly kill your kit

Most of these are things nearly every artist does at first, so be kind to yourself and just fix them.

• The wall of text. If your bio is four dense paragraphs, no one will reach paragraph three. Short sentences, white space.
• Starting with your childhood. Unless the story is the music, begin with the music.
• Brag lists with nothing behind them. Ten vague lines about being unique do less than one concrete detail.
• Broken or private links. Test in a private browser window. A link that only works while you are logged in does not work.
• Huge attachments. They get blocked or ignored. Link to a hosted folder instead.
• One-size-fits-all emails. A blogger who writes about hip-hop does not want your folk single. Spend your time on a short list of ten right-fit people, not a long list of strangers.
• No date. If the release date is missing, the person has no idea whether to act now.
• Outdated information. An EPK that still calls your 2022 single your new release tells people you stopped paying attention.
• Hiding your contact info. Put your email in the bio, on the one-sheet, and at the bottom of the page.

A quick sanity check: send your kit to a friend who does not make music, and ask them to tell you, out loud, what kind of artist you are. If they cannot, rewrite the first two sentences of your bio until they can.

Your next 3 moves

1. Write the bio today. Fill in the five-part framework, then make a 50-word cut. Read it aloud and fix anything that sounds stiff.
2. Gather the pieces. Pick your best two or three photos, test your streaming links on a phone, and put it all on one page or folder with a clean link. If you want a head start, look at the tools in ReleaseReady.
3. Send five honest pitches. Choose five writers or curators who really fit your sound, personalize one line for each, and send them at least a couple of weeks before release. Then get back to making music.

Remember that tools, fees, and platform rules change, so check each platform's current help pages before you submit anything.