Music Marketing Blog Post #2

Over the course of the Music Marketing Project, I learned more about the following processes: research/brainstorming, production, post-production, and presentation.

Research/brainstorming: during this process, I learned how it was critical to order the tasks into smaller and achievable goals. Not all projects will follow a linear order, but will overlap in the real world where there are larger scale projects. Therefore, during brainstorming, we laid out all the tasks into a google document where soft and hard due dates were assigned to each section as a guide. Furthermore, the importance of the brainstorming is that it allowed the entire team to put input as to how the assignment should be completed, leading to idea building and helping to develop a raw idea as to the brand for our punk group called NRV. During research I learned the punk genre in more ways than one: there are various subgenres of this type of music and it has a very specific target audience, its niche. During research, it is important to ensure that the group agrees with the research topic such as the label record and bands in this case. During research, I found that many punk bands are more underground than those in the pop and alternative bands. Therefore, it was harder to find marketing information on several bands. The research was a critical aspect of this project as it would stem as the foundation of the entire assignment. It would feed into the presentation and help to explain production methods. In this, I learned that it is important to have more research on hand than to have too little. 

Brainstorming also included the creation of the storyboard. The storyboard will help during the filming of the video and would frame a cohesive story of which we made several edits prior to the production stage. 

For the storyboard, we wanted the story to align with the genre and trends set by the genre. Therefore, by learning how the subculture of punk resides with elements of harsh realities and rebellion we decided to make out video about a girl who rebels against societal standards and embraces her true self through punk music.

Production: while in the production stage, we worked on the samples for marketing, video, and powerpoint for presentation. During the production stage, I learned a very important lesson. Prior to the creation of the video, we had planned a set day to film. When the day came, the date of the filming began to get pushed back. This caused the filming to become more last minute than originally intended. In order to avoid this in future examples such as during the AICE video component, the dates must be agreed upon wholeheartedly by all the group members. While filming we chose a secluded area in the school where we could not be distracted by other students so we could get the best shots. For the powerpoint, we first decided what information on the slides should be there, then making the presentation more appealing to the viewers. The powerpoint to us is a tool to convey our information and we decided not to have the presentation be our information. This distinction allowed us to have a more convincing and professional delivery. 

Furthermore, for the presentation to appear less daunting with information we employed a strategy of highlighting the information most critical on the slide such that it does not force the viewers to read entirely off the presentation to get the key concepts and more focus could be directed to the presenters. 

The marketing strategy was made easier in part by the large amount of research collected. For the marketing strategy, we looked to successful bands such as The Destroy Boys, who used social media to their advantage in order to gain a mass following, even through the Covid Pandemic. On top of this, we looked to the genre trends which included several D.I.Y. (do it yourself) elements which created the punk feel as it would make it look more raw. I used several scholarly articles and journals on marketing in order to create a plan based on the facts. As well as this, I viewed the trends on the different social medias to find which ones would best suit the band's intended target audience of which almost 79% use Instagram. Furthermore, by using various distributors like The Destroy Boys, it allowed for more outlets for the audience to grow. 

The marketing samples were made easier to choose based off the marketing strategy to make examples of our plan to market the band NRV. 

Post-production: the post production included the refining of the video and practicing for the presentation. The video's shots were edited on Premiere. However, we ran into issues with the rendering of one scene which would appear inverted yellow without any effects. This issue was solved by re-exporting the film. As well as this, the film was originally short by three seconds, our solution was to slow down the scenes naturally in order to reach the time. Practicing for the presentation, we created note cards so we do not have to turn our backs on the audience which would divert their attention and make the presentation less interactive. As well as this, the critical information would be placed on the note cards such that the audience learns the most from the presenter and not the board. 

(Frame of the video)

Presentation: for the presentation to run as smoothly as possible, we preloading the links such as the video and the website which we created as a marketing sample. Therefore, when it came time to show the video and website it would not slow the pacing of the presentation and would also not run out our time limit to present our information. As well as this, while presenting, we ensured that all members had a speaking part and were engaged in the presentation in order to improve the imposed logos onto the audience. 

Reflection: over the course of the project, the most important thing which I learned is how to manage a team. This will be critical when working on the video component for the Cambridge Portfolio project as well as we can work in groups. I learned that one person working on a project is not enough. As well as this, I took the leadership role in taking initiative and dividing the work such that the large project could get completed in a timely manner. While there were some setbacks such as the slowing of the filming, we were able to get back into rhythm. Leadership is important during these types of projects as it can motivate students to make better projects than they would without it and looking at a critical standpoint helps to align with the rubric.