1. A mix that starts right away
One festival booker, writing about bands, gets a feel for an act's songs in 30 to 90 seconds. “If two of the first three tracks are not what we expect, this usually leads to the end of the road.”[1] Put your best recent mix first, as a link that plays: SoundCloud or Mixcloud, not a download.[3][2]
2. A photo they can use
One photo a promoter can put on a flyer: high resolution, easy to crop.[2] “Your press photo should be the very first image we see.”[1]
3. A bio they can paste
Two lines can be enough. Mixgraph, on press kits that get passed over: “What sinks most of them is length.”[2] The bio matters most after the booking, when the promoter has to sell the night.[1] Examples in three lengths: DJ bio examples.
4. A short rider
What the venue provides, what you bring, how long setup takes, where the monitors go. A former club owner on the longest rider he had seen, about 20 pages: “90% of what was on that 20 page rider would have no significant impact on the show.” Ask for standard gear.[4] Four versions to copy: DJ tech rider template.
5. A booking contact
An email address that someone answers: “the contact address you actually read”.[2] On the page and in the PDF.[5]
Link or PDF?
Both. A link is the default: it can carry a player. But some festival portals require a PDF upload. Keep that file under 5 MB and put the link to your live page in it.[5] The PDF that works is simple, one or two pages.[3]
Our free template is 2 pages and 463 kB.
What nobody asked for
None of these sources asks for view statistics or for a choice of layouts. Our paid plan sells both. Weigh that as you like.
On PRESS-KIT.CLOUD
The form has a field for each of the five: SoundCloud and Spotify links, played on your page (Mixcloud is not supported); photos; bio; technical setup, split into “venue provides” and “artist brings”; booking email. You get a page and a PDF from the same form.
Sources
- Marc Secoy, festival organiser, writing about bands, “Here’s what Sonicbids promoters actually care about in your EPK”, Sonicbids blog, 6 June 2014
- Mixgraph, glossary entry “EPK” (a vendor of DJ tools), undated
- Pirate (studios for musicians), “How to create a DJ press kit”, 19 May 2021
- Borzoo Mehrzad, former club owner, on DJ riders, DJ Times, 22 April 2020
- BookedKit, “Should my press kit be a PDF or a link?” (a vendor of press kit pages, and a competitor of ours), 15 April 2026
All read on 2026-10-15.