Music Marketing Progress Blog Post- Mariana Deters
In AICE Media we are learning about marketing in the media. My teacher is teaching us this by assigning us a genre and song, which we will have to create a fake band for, market, promote, and make a music video for. In this project I am working with two of my classmates (D and B).
First, we researched 2 recording companies (Fearless Records & Warner Music Group), their history, bands and artists they work with (rock), ways they promote, and their distribution practices. This gave us a better idea of what to do with our promotion and band in a more "realistic" and proper way.
^ Links to all of our research (Done on Docs)
We also conducted deeper and extensive research to understand the current trends in the music industry, identify our target audience, and analyze competitors. We researched market trends, target audiences, and competitors. First, we examined industry reports, explored music streaming platforms, and delved into social media to understand the most current trends. This process enabled us to align our project with the preferences of rock music enthusiasts. Then, we examined the audience. Knowing the audience is very crucial. We utilized analytics tools to gather insights into the demographics, preferences, and behaviors of our potential rock fans. This informed our decisions on content creation and promotional strategies. We decided the age group we would target is ages 15-25. Last, we researched successful artists in our genre. This provided valuable lessons. We examined their marketing tactics, engagement strategies, and fan interactions to extract insights that could be applied to our project.
Even though we were able to find so much helpful information, this was extremely time consuming and stressful. A challenge we faced was data overload. This made the process difficult because it slowed the process. Sorting through vast amounts of data was challenging. We had to filter out irrelevant information and focus on key insights to avoid getting overwhelmed. Additionally, another challenge was the pace of changing trends. The music industry is dynamic, with trends evolving rapidly. Keeping up with the changes required constant vigilance and adaptability.
Next, it was time for us to start our "fake band". We started brainstorming our band name, members, and music video. We decided to name the band "Parasomnia". We thought it was a good band name because it sounded unique and edgy (slang). We also decided we would have a band of 5 members.. a lead singer, 2 guitars, a bass, and a drummer. We also gave each band member their own name. Later, we started brainstorming a music video idea. We thought it was better to start the music video before the marketing and distribution strategies because that way we would have something to promote (and more time to film and edit!). We all instantly agreed we wanted a storytelling music video, so we started brainstorming ideas of a fun story that matched our song's lyrics (our fake single was "Something From Nothing" by the Foo Fighters). We listened to the song more than 100 times (I have the entire song memorized). Then, we had an amazing idea! We decided the story would be of a sad and bland young man finding himself and becoming a famous YouTuber. We drew the story out on a piece of paper and it seemed perfect.
So, we started recording the music video. We changed the name of the song to "Here I Go". I called 5 of my friends over to become our band members (D, C, F, M, & M). We went to the Hard Rock Hotel Guitar to film (and got kicked out..) and it was mostly a success! We got some incredible shots with the guitar in the background. Then, we went to my house and I called more friends over (R, A, and B) to be actors in the music video. We recorded in my house's dining room, living room, bathroom, and garage. We got some incredible shots and had a lot of fun. It took us from 1pm-7pm to film everything.
^Picture of the band logo
Our next step was editing. We started editing on an app called "VN". We are still working on it but most of it is done. We added brighter colour filters, a bit of lightning, blurring, and synced the singing. Moreover, we also started a bit of our promotion and marketing strategies. We started some social media accounts and edited some pictures of the band's concerts, fans, etc. We, as well, made a logo of the band.
Our next steps are to continue editing the video and continuing promotion. We also need to distribute and organize all of the information in our slides properly. We are almost done and are extremely excited!
