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FAQ

Topics:
1. What is an EPK (Electronic Press Kit)?
2. What is important in the flow of information?
3. How to do interviews via e-mail?
4. What does the promotional flyer (Reader) contain?
5. What is an Radio ID Jingle?
6. What is the duration of a PR campaign?

1. EPK
An electronic press kit (EPK) is a press kit in electronic form of promotional materials. This variant can be offered to the prospect - in contrast to the classic printed press folder - preferably by a download version on a filehoster website. Proven sharehosters for example, are Google Drive, File-Upload.net etc. An EPK sending on CDR or DVDR has therefore become very rare.

An EPK should comply the requirements of editorial staffs, to avoid the research of their journalists for reporting or the review or the interview.

Song streams without the possibility of downloading are not accepted by most music magazines, as it is advantageous if reviewers have the .MP3 or .WAV files with information etc. available on their respective devices for creating articles regardless of their location and internet connection.

One should create 2 complete EPK downloads, 1x as .MP3 and 1x as .WAV version.
(Radio stations in particular prefer the higher quality .WAV format).
Optimal therefor is the compressed "Zip" file format.
The following designations are ideal:
"EPK_MP3_BANDNAME_en.zip" and "EPK_WAV_BANDNAME_en.zip"

Each EPK should be provided with a web link that can be used throughout the PR campaign.
The 2 complete EPK downloads should be possible without logging in by means of a single link or clearly visible link button.

Into the 2 main folders (1x .MP3- & 1x .WAV-variant) individual subfolders with corresponding titles are to be inserted, which in turn contain songs, graphic material, info etc:


• 'Music':
all songs of the respective release in .MP3 or .WAV file formats in complete length with full listed titles
(songs must have ID3 tags, at least each with song title and band name, so that MP3 players can display this when playing)
• 'Visual':
up-to-date, relevant and printable, high-resolution graphic material such as band logo, band photo(s), cover artwork etc. plus an corresponding subfolder, titled 'Visual Credits', as text or word file with the respective artist or photographer's name in the context of the image rights
(Band photo files must all be individually named with the name or pseudonym of the respective musician for correct attribution)
• 'Info':
one or several PDF files with current bullet points, band-biography, line-up (names of musicians & respective instruments), complete discography, all main band-websites and contacts (e-mail etc.)

May also be included:

• list of positive reviews - max. scores to 70 %, graded by score descending
• chronological list of previous interviews
• chronological media feedback to concerts
• live recordings
• tour-dates


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2. Information transfer
In case of direct communication of the band with the press, media representatives, etc., METALMESSAGE must be informed immediately in order to ensure the latest level of knowledge.
Preferably, the band should refer directly to METALMESSAGE in the beginning, when, for example, requests for information and pictures are received.

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3. Interviews (e-mail)
For interviews via e-mail, answers should sent these way:

• Return of the answers within seven days to METALMESSAGE via e-mail for forwarding
• In case of an specified deadline (final date of delivery) these date must be adhered to without fail
• Schedule-wise basically applies: the earlier, the better
• Answers should be logical, grammatically correct and in the form of complete sentences
• Answers should be written in detail and clarified informative
• Answers should be placed between the respective questions
• Don't use a plain text document, this leads often times to serious conversion errors at the recipient
• Never write answers directly in the e-mail
• Work anytime with a special built question/answer document, which have to be attached to the e-mail as a word.doc file
• At the top of the question/answer document should be listed:
- name of the respective medium
- current date
- band's name
- responding musicians and their instruments - these must be named individually in advance of their respective answers
(If all answers are representative for the whole band, this should be noted accordingly.)
• Since some webzines take over the content of interview documents 1: 1 by means of copy & paste, it should be noted, in which two lines the beginning and the end are of what should appear in the published interview.
• The content subject line of the e-mail should be written always (under regard of upper- and lower case) this way:
"NAME OF BAND / interview answers by NAME OF MUSICIAN / NAME OF MAGAZINE / YEAR (f.e. 2020)"

• Interviews for print media:
several additional, printable band photos in high resolution are needed as download link.

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4. Promo Printsheet (Reader)
Physical sent out promotional material should always necessarily contain an professional as possible designed, supplementary color printed sheet (Reader).
If available, a printout of the info-PDF from the EPK is suited optimal for this purpose.

It should contain all of the essential and updated info to the band in general.
This saves the editors, which taking care of review, interview or any other reporting, a sometimes pretty sophisticated and unnecessary, time-consuming investigation.

If the supplementary sheet spans multiple pages due to more extensive info, they should be clearly visible numbered in chronological order and stapled together in stable manner. (As ideal in the latter case proved PVC clip-files with transparent cover page.)

Promo-Printsheet must contain:

• Band's logo & -photo
• Firm written, preferably extracted created band-biography with most important basic data etc.
• All worth knowing infos about the sent release
• Numbered tracklist with total playing time
• Completely listed line-up with name and instrument of each musician
• Complete discography incl. demo mediums etc.
• All relevant web addresses and contact(s) to the band (address and/or e-mail)

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5. Radio ID Jingle (Radio Station Identification Jingle)
Radio ID jingles are briefly and repeated clips in the program for the clearly identification of a station.

Since the visual characteristic is missing in radio broadcasting, jingles contain certain noises, music, sounds or spoken material.

Thus Radio ID Jingles play an important role despite their short length, as it would require much longer without, to identify a specific channel.

Radio stations also use individual Radio ID Artist jingles:
spoken by artists in station-specific manner, to announce their song advertising for both sides as much as possible.
Example: "This is XY from the band XY from XY and you are listening to Radio XY!"

The artist records his or her personal contribution to the Radio ID Artist Jingle in digital form and then sends the spoken word as a zip file via e-mail to METALMESSAGE for forwarding or directly to the responsible radio presenter, who then embeds it accordingly in his or her recognition ID for the radio show.
 


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6. Time Duration (PR campaign)
The time duration of a PR campaign depends primarily on the amount of the budget available for it. Music media regularly always like the latest, so that as much attention as possible can be generated, preferably with unreleased titles.

The most prolific for public relations is therefore to distribute the first press announcement about 3 months before the official release date.

It has proven to be optimal if on the day of publication by this already diverse, positive media feedback is available in order to achieve as much attention as possible.























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