EPK for bands: what bookers actually open
A link that plays at once, a full-length live video, three lines of text — that is the whole booking package. Plus the list of what the booker skips.
A booking package is the EPK, or electronic press kit, that forms and bookers ask for. It consists of three things, and all three can be checked in a minute: a link that plays at once, a full-length live video, three lines of text. These three things are the whole package; anything more gets in their way.
The whole package
One link that plays at once
A single link behind which your music starts without a login and without a detour — a streaming profile or a page of your own. The booker clicks exactly once; if a sign-in, a folder or a choice of tracks comes first, that click is spent.
One full-length live video
One song, a real room, no cuts. The booker wants to see how you sound live and whether you get through a song — that is all they check at this point. A phone video with decent sound beats the edited clip with drone shots.
Three lines of text
Who you are in one sentence, what you want with a time window, what you bring. The three lines go in the email itself — not in an attachment. What the whole request email looks like is in Finding gigs.
What the booker skips
Eight-page PDF press kits, ZIP folders, Dropbox links with twenty files, the band biography from the day you formed, scanned press quotes. The booker wants to know whether you fit their programme — the link, the video and three lines give that answer. Everything else needs a second click, and the second click does not happen. What they need after the booking, you send after the booking: the technical rider, one page.
The package works for open calls too
The same three things are also your application for contests and festivals: link, live video, three lines — the forms rarely ask for more. What is accepting applications right now is in Open calls for bands.
FAQ: A website, a missing video and press photos
Do we need our own website for this?
To start with, a well-kept streaming profile or a single page with music, video and contact is enough — you do not need a website of your own yet. It starts to matter once you send requests regularly and want to be found.
We don't have a live video yet — now what?
Phone on a tripod, rehearsal room, one complete song, sound from the room. That exact format answers the booker's question. Without a video, send the package anyway: link and three lines first, the video follows.
Do press photos belong in the package?
One landscape photo in which faces are recognisable — that is what the club needs for its announcement, and it needs nothing more. It goes on the linked page, not as an attachment in the email.
Venues in Germany
97 in the catalog right now · as of 2026-10-28
- Batschkapp — Frankfurt am Main
- Blue Shell — Köln
- Lido — Berlin (Kreuzberg)
- Lila Eule — Bremen
- SO36 — Berlin (Kreuzberg)
- Sputnikhalle — Münster
- UT Connewitz — Leipzig, Saxony
- Volksbad — Flensburg
Where the package goes
The package only lands where your music fits the programme. Every venue in the directory comes with its genre profile — use it to pick the venues before the link, the video and the three lines go out.
The short version
One link that plays without a login. One live video: one song, one room, no cuts. Three lines in the email: who you are, what you want with a time window, what you bring. Attachments, folders and biographies stay out — the rider comes after the booking. The same package works for clubs and for open calls.
Every booker works differently; the package here is what small venues open first — no more than that.
Sources
- Stagecraft only, no external sources
Updated: 2026-09-13
General information, not legal or tax advice. Any figures are examples, not commitments.
Last reviewed: 13.09.2026
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