What to Put in an Artist Bio and EPK That Labels Actually Read

Your bio gets read the way your music gets heard: the first few seconds decide whether the rest happens at all. Nobody on the receiving end opens an artist bio for pleasure reading. They open it with one job — to decide, fast, whether this artist is real, active, and worth a next step. Everything in the bio either answers that question or gets in the way of the answer.

That holds whether the reader is a label, a promoter, a journalist, or a playlist editor. The bio and the EPK — the electronic press kit, which is simply the package the bio travels in — are not paperwork. They are the first impression, and they arrive before your best song does.

What to include in an artist bio

Who you are and where you are from. Name, city, and the one line that places you. A reader should be able to say where an artist comes from after one sentence, because place is part of the story every label tells about an artist. Toronto is home base here, and it gets stated plainly — do the same for wherever you are from.

Your sound, in one honest line. Not a paragraph of comparisons to the biggest names alive. One line a stranger could repeat back: the genre, the energy, the thing that is yours. If the line could describe ten thousand other artists, it describes nobody.

Proof that you are active. Releases with names and dates. Shows played. A video that exists. This is the section most bios fake and every reader checks. You do not need a long list — you need a current one. Silence reads as finished, even when it is not true.

Where to hear the music. Working links, placed up high, not buried at the bottom under a wall of text. A bio that makes the reader hunt for the play button has already lost the reader.

How to reach you. One email address that a real person checks. Not three social handles and a hope. Business moves at the speed of whoever actually answers.

The EPK: one link, everything inside

The bio is the story. The EPK is the folder the story travels in, and the rule is simple: one link opens everything. Inside it, a reader should find your music first — your strongest tracks, not your entire catalogue — then clean photos that actually look like you, the short bio plus a longer version for anyone who wants more, your videos, and your contact details once more at the bottom.

Keep it current. An EPK is a living document, not a graduation project. New release, new photos, new show history — update the same link. The fastest way to look inactive is a press kit whose newest item is two years old.

Write the bio in two lengths while you are at it. The short version is one paragraph — who you are, where you are from, your sound, your latest release — and it is the one that gets pasted into emails and submission forms. The long version carries the fuller story, for your own page and for anyone writing about you. Same facts, same order, two sizes. When a reader asks for your bio, the answer should take you ten seconds, not ten days.

What gets a bio skipped

• Hype with no facts. “The future of music” tells a reader nothing. Dates, names, and links tell them everything.
• The life story, unedited. Your whole journey matters — later. The bio’s job is the short version that earns the long conversation.
• Dead links and locked files. If the music does not play on the first click, the bio does not get a second one.
• No contact path. A reader who cannot reach you in ten seconds moves on to an artist they can reach.

Put it together, then send it properly

None of this requires a designer or a budget. It requires honesty and order: who you are, what you sound like, proof you are working, links that play, and a way to reach you. Write the bio you would want to receive if you were the one doing the listening.

When yours is ready, send it the way you would want to receive it. You can submit your music through the S71 Music Portal on the SE7EN FIGURE homepage — your own artist page, your own direct-to-fan platform, no middlemen — or reach the team through the contact page. Either way, the package decides the first impression. Make the first impression say you are serious.