Music Marketing #2

 

    When we first started this project a few weeks ago, I did not know what I was expecting our project to look like by the end. We got to base our project on the rock genre and immediately got to researching  bands and record companies that are relevant to this genre. We focused on artists that have released music in the last 5 years and on the marketing and distribution practices they engage in in order to get inspiration for our own band. We discussed what our band would be named and we decided on “The Lemon Drops” and created an aesthetic around this name and the style of the song we were assigned. Since our song was Blues rock and the name had to go with a fruit, we decided to take inspiration from the 70s rock bands like Fleetwood Mac and create an earthy aesthetic for the band. Lastly we came up with the number of band members and the instruments they would play, as well as their names and personalities.

    After establishing the basics, we got to planning our marketing strategies for the band’s new song “So Caught Up.” We came up with the band’s social media handles, as well as the band members, and in which social media platforms they would be active on. We bounced ideas off of eachother and decided that the band would be most active on Instagram and Tik Tok in order to appeal to their younger audience who has an interest in bands that try to embody the vibe of vintage rock and also Facebook and Twitter to reach nostalgic, older audiences. We decided that sticking to trends in social media like posting “ Day in the life” videos on Tik Tok and picture carousel posts on Instagram would successfully reach a young audience and provide a sense of familiarity to the fans. We also thought that including information about where the band is performing, when their music is coming out, and general information about them would be important to post on social media and it would also facilitate fans to get to other ways of marketing and distribution by promoting interviews, song pre-sales on Spotify and Apple Music, links to the website, etc. 

    On the topic of social media presence, we also decided that each band member would have a social media presence of their own and they would interact with fans through their own accounts to increase relatability. Moving to merchandise and physical advertising, we decided to sell guitar pick, merch, and vinyls on the band’s website in order to increase revenue and also to create a sense of community within fandom. The vinyls would also include posters of the band which would serve as promotion on its own. We also researched which festivals and events the band could participate in to gain exposure. 

    Regarding the production of our video, we decided to create a promotional music video for our song because we thought it would work well as a first video in order to introduce the artists to the world. We created a story board where we mapped out which shots/angles, camera movements and composition our shots would have, as well as how we could edit these. We came up with ideas for our video and decided that we would need two different sets for it, as well as different costume changes. We decided that some of the scenes would be of the band playing their instruments and singing their song in a dark room with moody lighting and then other scenes would be of the band in a natural environment doing a promotional photo shoot of the band. The first scene would establish their creative vision and the second would establish the member’s dynamic and personality. We all decided which days we were able to record our videos and take out pictures for magazine articles and posters.

After we recorded the content we decided on how it would be edited.

    Looking back on our work, I feel proud of time management skills and teamwork. I think that this project will help us all on our Cambridge portfolio project by giving us a taste of what managing our own time is like, as well as dividing tasks up in order to effectively complete the project as a whole. Experimenting with shots/angles, camera movements, sound, and editing will help us when we get to recording our portfolio and give us an idea of what looks good and what doesn’t. I believe this project increases our confidence in creating our own storylines as well.