Yesterday was the due date for our quarter 3 project, the "Music Marketing Project". In this project, our objective was to use a provided song of our assigned genre of music, in my team and I's case pop, and create a marketing campaign for a new music artist or group we had to create. We were asked to build a brand/image from the "bottom-up" and create a marketing campaign presentation to introduce our specialized artist to a local group of investors (aka our peers and teacher). Along with this general outline, we were guided to break down and complete the necessary components of the project, including phases of background research, brainstorming/planning, production, post-production, and the last step: accumulating everything into the campaign presentation.
Background Research
In order to come up with successful marketing and distribution strategies, as well as begin to get inspiration towards specific brand types for our unidentified artist, we had to research. Without this key initial step, I can confidently say that I wouldn't have felt as secure in some of the decisions we made towards our artist, as viewing of "action and consequence"/"cause and effect" with artist decisions gave me insight into how even the most subtle choices (artistic, promotional...) creates the public image of an artist, music or not. Additionally, researching music labels/ media organizations as well as utilization of social media platforms for marketing gave me insight into the overall business side of music, something that as a consumer I don't usually actively take into account. All in all, researching specific artists in the pop genre showed me how just one genre of music (with a notable amount of subgenres) can be all-inclusive/ defined by so many unique artists with different narratives and approaches to their careers.
Relating to the process of creating our research chart, we compiled detailed notes exemplifying the marketing and distribution techniques of 4 different artists, as well as important details on 2 major music labels. We chose to include Republic Records, with signed artists Taylor Swift and The Weeknd, as well as Interscope Records, representing our chosen artists Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. We chose these specific artists because not only are they each very successful, but also we wanted to study artists who had very different public images. My group and I's goal was to investigate what individualized choices led to their success, but also specifically how noticeably different relationships to their audiences still gave them each massive popularity. Overall, we were curious how different choices had an effect on each of their outcomes.
We split the work up so that we would have to work on two columns of our research chart so that we could efficiently and deeply research each of our assigned topics. I wanted to research The Weeknd, mainly because of his mysterious and identifiable presence in the music industry, and how he stands out from many pop artists in terms of social media presence. I also researched Republic Records' history and presence in the music industry. After researching and comparing with what my group found on their specific artists, I came to the conclusion that social media usage (a key piece to marketing and audience interaction) has a spectrum. All decisions on posts or even lack of posts make up an artist's overall brand, with all choices configuring the audience's perception of an artist. Below is a link to our research chart:
Brainstorming/Planning
After our research, we began to think primarily about our music video. The song we chose out of four options was the song "Royals" by Lorde. We chose this song because the sound is relatively singular, with direct lyrics that reveal an artist's bravery, honesty, and experience. We thought that it would largely play a part in finding our artist's image, as this being her first single would immediately display her as vulnerable and individual. The lyrics allude to status and lifestyle, with some including "I've never seen a diamond in the flesh" and "That we're fine with this, we didn't come from money". It can be said that Lorde didn't have a rich upbringing, with the repeated chorus phrase proudly proclaiming "And we'll never be royals", claiming that she craves a "different kind of buzz". We wanted to keep the same meaning but make it applicable to as much of the target audience as possible, which in our case for pop is 16-21-year-old girls. So, we decided to showcase that the lyrics were more about introducing our artist as nonconforming and ready to steer her own path through visuals and symbolism. While I now recognize that we maybe should've begun from our artist to the video (in terms of brainstorming), I think that pondering on relating the lyrics to a specific message gave us insight into who our artist was, as the message is especially personal to her.
Apart from the music video, we also brainstormed on marketing and distribution techniques. We all contributed ideas that showed success to our research artists, but also tried to think of more spontaneous efforts to attain an audience/ general exposure or interest. One idea that Florencia, a group member, brought up was paying $150/day (1 day) for our artist's face on a NYC billboard in Times Square. This is regular for more known artists, so having her face on a big screen in one of the busiest cities in the world would be a great promotion for her new single. More specific and quick note-taking of some of our ideas can be found in my last blog post "Music Marketing 1-Research & Brainstorming", where I write more about specifics on content.
After we brainstormed ideas, we began to plan. Our planning process could've been more timely, with the leniency of time ultimately saving us from a more rushed final product of a presentation. We decided to film in two days and get the presentation done over several days, with no strict schedule planted by ourselves, which I now see wasn't a smart choice. For future projects, I now know that even if I feel comfortable with the amount of time given for a big task, I will set due dates and force myself to complete them.
Production
Our filming days consisted of one very late night and the following day. We decided that for part of our marketing, it would be a good idea to have a photoshoot for our artist Adeline X, which Isabel (a group member) would be playing, who is a young 18-year-old girl with grunge fashion taste and NYC girl aesthetic. While she may feel familiar, we wanted her to feel relatable to her target audience while still seeming intriguing. Our photo shoot would consist of outfits from the music video, as we would post the pictures before the video's release to build excitement and allude to parts of the video. We would incorporate colors specific to Adeline's current era (new single, new "phase") that have symbolic meaning to the music. For example, when she wears a black 90's esc dress, she is representing her "royal", unattainable self (artistic self, personal self...) that people want her to be. The further into the video the audience gets, the more Adeline starts to wear reds and whites, signifying her true, nonconforming self. All of these intentional choices were aspects of production.
The same night of the photo shoot, Isabel and I filmed the "royal" parts of the video (where she's wearing black). The following morning, the team and I went to a nearby park to film the parts of the video when she revealed the version of herself she is, where she wears a red dress out in nature. We shot out of order, with the final location being Isabel's ballet studio and its parking garage. The filming part of the project was fun, driving off the specific, original ideas we had on our storyboard but keeping the general plot the same.
Pre-Production
Because we wanted the video to feel professional, we filmed everything on cameras: one Nikon for behind-the-scenes footage and shorter clips, and one Canon camera for the majority of the music video. This affected the editing process, as I had to transport all the clips onto my phone through a rather time-consuming process. I edited on iMovie and Capcut, utilizing both apps to sync the music to the video clips and also edit the clips together. Before editing the actual music video, we had an idea to make a promotional video that gives a sneak peek of the music video, intriguing viewers while also giving them the date of the video's release.
Editing the actual video wasn't too difficult, as we already knew what order we wanted certain clips in. The hardest part was probably getting the beats as accurate as possible when cutting from clip to clip. The video took a couple days to edit, but I'm happy with how it turned out. We didn't change the lighting or adjust any of the clips, except for adding a filter on one of the "royal" clips to give it an Old Hollywood look. Here is the link to the posted video on Adeline's YouTube channel:
Presentation
Lastly, the final thing to do was to put our presentation together. As I was editing the video, the rest of the group was focused on putting together the presentation. We found a template that matched the vibe of our artist, with blacks and whites and added reds, with a font that looks almost scrapbook-y, yet trendy. We wanted our presentation to be aesthetic, with added background pictures from the photoshoot to individualize our showcase of Adeline X. While making our presentation, we also came up with more marketing techniques, like the formation of a model website acting as a hub for all announcements of our artist updates, and more final touches to our distribution plan (which includes digital and physical distribution of the single). Below is a link to the presentation:
https://www.canva.com/design/DAF66nqyG7Y/cb5QIlVQXcSbTBuhVGfv2w/edit?utm_content=DAF66nqyG7Y&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton
Final Thoughts
This project taught me a lot about the music industry. It gave me insight into image and branding choices (intended perception) as well as how everything connects - social media, artistry choices, etc... It showed me how artists have to keep up to date with trends just to obtain and maintain an audience, and how being true to yourself as an artist can naturally align with the target audience. The importance of the audience towards artist success, or any media success, truly shows the power of the consumer and explains why all the strategies for attracting them are in place. For future projects, this taught me to plan and give myself deadlines that I will have to meet to fully fulfill my expectations and goals towards future big projects.
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