Music Marketing Project: The Full Process

    The first step to the Music Marketing Project was to pick out a song from the assigned genre and begin to build a band and concept around that song. After being given three Rock songs, my group chose "So Caught Up" by an Australian group, the Teskey Brothers. The way we chose to approach the crafting of the band was to start with a number of people and genders. We juggled through ideas of having a two-person band or an all-girl band, but we eventually settled on having a coed band of five members. The motivation behind this choice was that we wanted the band to have a friendly and relatable energy, stemmed from friendship and kept together with the music. Sticking to a commonality within the Rock genre, we also wanted our band to have some drama like dating rumors between the two lead vocalists. Doing so, everything else was able to fall into place as we agreed that our main inspiration for the project was the band Fleetwood Mac.

    Inspired by the 70s style and drama of Fleetwood Mac, my group also had to recognize trends of the 21st century and how we could use the resources today to promote a band. Like most musicians, we gave our band "Lemon Drops" social media accounts across many platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This allowed us to give a story to our band, which is that the members have been friends for a while and have been posting original music on their social media accounts for a couple of months already, garnering a small fanbase. In creating a background for the band, we were then able to decide that we wanted the band to emit a vintage feel while also being relatable and grounded. 

    The next step was to research current musicians to figure out how they market and distribute their music. Studying the original makers of the song themselves, the Teskey Brothers, and a younger Rock band called the Inhalers, we were able to figure out the best method for the Lemon Drops to be introduced into the official music industry. We selected a date for their music to be released and planned to have it available to stream on most popular streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. We also thought it would embody the Rock image more if the band released physical music such as CDs and vinyls. Releasing CDs and vinyls also connects us to our target audience of people 15-30 who are passionate about music. My research showed that there is a revival in physical music among adolescents and young adults, and vinyl sales are up by 22% as a result (The Foothill Dragon Press). Popular artists like Taylor Swift have even released multiple color options of the same album on vinyl because of their popularity. So, having CDs and vinyls available to purchase for the Lemon Drops is beneficial to both their brand and music sales.

    Afterwards, we decided on the live performances, which mainly consisted of rock or blues festivals, where the band could perform and market their song. Based off the fact that the band has a lot of anticipated songs, we also thought it was fitting for the band to release an album and join as the opening act to famous Irish musician Hozier. Hozier performs mainly soul and blues music, and we plan for the Lemon Drops to gain a lot of attention from performing at his concerts where his fans are primarily teenagers and young adults. Once we had our information, we began to compile it all together and create marketing practices such as posters and social media posts. Gathering friends who would be able to help us with our goal, we set up days to meet and took pictures that would serve the image of the band.

    Creating a story board for our band's music video, we brainstormed storylines and shots that would be both visually captivating and portray the band well. Putting it into practice, however, stirred us away from our original plans. We ended up brainstorming new ideas to accurately embody the band's concept and came up with a new idea for a promotional video. The reason we shifted from a story to a promo is because we wanted the video to emphasize that the members of the band are what are being marketed through means of social media and fan interaction, so it was important that the band's first music video also displays the members as themselves to accomplish that.

    Completing this project has taught me many things about my planning and execution processes. I've learned to constantly look back at my work in order to make sure everything is being translated the way I planned for it to be. It's also ideal to have a clear idea of the task at hand and work in a timely manner for everything to be completed on time. At first, I wasn't managing my time wisely and I could feel the consequences of that when it came time to put everything together. When developing my Cambridge portfolio, I now know to split the work up evenly and how to best assemble my efforts. I also have learned many things of the media sphere and how to better portray real-world situations in my project. In the future when forming a similar project, I can look forward to correctly achieving what is being asked and enjoying the creative aspect of the task.