Daisie Spark
Event Management student
Case Studies and Research
Soundcloud
Soundcloud was founded in 2007 and remains to be one of the worlds top audio distribution platforms and attracts over 175 million monthly users. It is a free-streaming platform that has been a longstanding giant and it doesn’t seem to be declining in popularity. Many major artists and rising artists turn to soundcloud for it’s sociability and shareability features.
The “news feed” style of the homepage, repost and favourite options along with the followers and group communities play a huge part in expanding the reach of SoundCloud’s extensive library. While there is plenty of users who take advantage of the system in attempts of growing a large following, SoundCloud is a go-to option in giving fans the opportunity to stream your latest single for free.
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is an interesting music platform. The website is geared toward independent musicians, but it tends to attract more of a niche following of both artists and fans. As a platform that promotes free streaming as well as financial support of the artist, Bandcamp has an all-in-one capability which can prove to be useful for musicians who want to put all of their eggs in one basket. There are plenty of successful artists who have effectively promoted their material on Bandcamp, but you need to be wary, because if your music doesn't resonate with a particular demographic, it can get lost in the mix.
Audiomack
Audiomack is not to far behind Soundcloud in being a platform that is fan-friendly streaming. Audiomack allows artists to artists to measure the reach of their music with it’s variety of trend based rankings. The exact number of plays per day/week/month are avaliable and the “what’s trending’ homepage makes it easy for consumers to know what is most popular and most likely what they are going to listen to. Audiomack is a well-positioned platform and a wise choice for independent artists who want full visibility into the marketing efforts of their new album.
Spotify
Over the past several years, Spotify has worked its way up to be an extremely powerful digital music service and is a king in the music streaming business. The massive library of music from major artists has made it and attractive option. Free users are burdened with frequent advertisements while premium users enjoy ad-free as well as offline listening. As an up-and-comer you are better off using SoundCloud and Audiomack from a streaming point of view as it ultimately provides fans with easier access to your music.
This research has helped me find out what places are good to publish music on that get the most benefits to it, soundcloud and Bandcamp are my two preferred as one helps you make an audience and the other helps you make money from that audience.
As we were releasing the track onto Bandcamp I decided that I would research into some of the help and FAQ's that Bandcamp provided while you were uploading onto it.
It gives you a good way of knowing what pricing is best for your tracks by providing you with this information:
It gave you an option to write your Lyrics out into Bandcamp which we didn't end up doing as this was a freestyle and we didn't have the lyrics recorded down.
It gave me a valuable explanation for future tracks that we have the lyrics for and why we should write them on Bandcamp.
I did some further research by looking at the bandcapm page of one of the small independent labels that I am researching into. I wanted to do this as I wanted to see how it should look considering they are of a similar genre of music to us. This really helped as I looked at their header and I tried to make one that showcased our personality, it is still a work in progress but we have something that looks good for the moment.
Small independent labels that are local and smaller artists that are similar to Jordon.
i first decided to research a local label that is based in Brighton called Yogocop.
They have a bancamp page which was established on Bandcamp in 2012, they are a small independent label and they have 27 albums\tracks on their page. It was founded in a basement within Brighton. They were a group of likeminded producers and MCs. It was founded by 4 artists; Bennaddict, M.KOZI, Concept Of Thought and Cloud 9. They have a website that also has a link to their shop that sells their merchandise. They also have their own Soundcloud page which has 3,612 followers. On there they have a total of 121 tracks published with their most popular track being Concept Of Thought - Bringing it Back (prod. RiggleBeats) which has 53.5k plays and is a free download.
They are currently working with:
Benaddict
Illiterate
Mr Slipz
NuphZed
Hank Hiller
Kemastry
Tom Yum
Harvs & KLB
Bo Bribery
WunDrop
Awfer
Cloud 9
Who are all of the similar style which shows that they focus on this genre of Hip Hop and Rap.
https://yogocop.bandcamp.com/ https://yogocoprecords.com/about/
Artists similar to Jordon
Kemastry
Kemastry is similar to Jordon. He is signed with Yogocop Records. His music is released through their Bandcamp page while also releasign his own things on his personal soundcloud which has 568 followers with his most popular song being WUNDROP x KEMASTRY x NUPHZED - HIGHLY LIKELY [PROD. WUNDROP] with 6’434. This is good as he only has 8 tracks on his soundcloud.
WUNDROP
Jordon is similar to an artist called Wundrop. Wundrop is signed to Yogocop Records. His music is released through Yogocop’s Bandcamp page and he has his own soundcloud page which has 998 followers on soundcloud and 13 tracks published. His most popular track is DON’T CARE (PROD. MR SLIPZ) which has 10.5k plays. He is also based in Brighton.
Another small independent label
Freshly Squeezed Music is a small independent label and publisher that is based in Brighton and it was founded in 2005. They have an award-winning compilation seiries, night clubs and live event WHITE MINK.
They have a facebook page that has links to their Youtube and their shop. The page is mostly promoting released and upcoming music along with gigs that they are involved in.
They have a Soundcloud account which has 20.6k followers. They have 78 tracks and their most popular is Swingrowers - Midnight - [edit] with 200k views.
This part of my research has helped me because it has given me an insight into what it takes to create a record label and what it takes to get to where they are. It has also shown me what I can do with my label and has given me inspiration to get it as big as I can.
How to promote your music
https://newartistmodel.com/promote-your-music/
So I used this website to research the ways you can promote your music successfully. It gives you 3 ways to do it effectively and a conclusion.
The first tip that it gives you is what you can do to use social media the right way when promoting the music. It explains that you shouldn’t use it as a straight up marketing platform but also tells you how to structure your posts so that they can be the most effective as possible. It provides a checklist and examples of what they mean however it is in the form of an ebook and although it is free I don’t like to listen to them so I havent got them to email in to me.
It tells you that it is good to give the followers a little update of when you are in the studio and if you’re filming for anything. It gives you advice about what to do if you’re on tour by telling you to take photos of the venues and of the audiences and share them. You need to manage your time well and not let the social media side become your main focus.
The second tip is one about selling your music and your website. It tells you that your website needs to be always adapting and changing, to have an ever changing website you could set up a blog that also allows you to communicate with your followers as it tells you they need to be visiting your website as often as possible, this is because the more often they’re on your site the more they are exposed to albums, mech and possible tours.
Another way that you can engage with your audience is by making a landing page, a landing page is used to collect email addresses, to raise awareness, to give your fans more information, or to make sales.
The third tip is about promoting through email. It is a useful way to promote things if you use it the right way. Unlike collabs and blogs, your email list is a way of marketing to your current fan base. It is a good idea to include links to your websites as the people who have signed up to your emails are wanting to be linked to new releases or new blog posts.
A way to get people to sign up to your email list is by offering a trade to get them to sign up.
The conclusion just gives you things to remember and it gives you things to help you in the future (The free ebook).
I think this is very valuable to my research as this shows me that there is more than instagram to promote your music, there are emails and there are many ways to expand your audience and your website.
Roles within a record label
Management Roles:
CEO/President/Managing Director - A CEO, President or Managing Director of a Record Label’s main duty is to concentrate on the general direction of the entire label, they deal with the politics of the business, the artists signed and the different methods of marketing. The CEO is the person in control of final approval of each department's work. An owner of a small label whilst filling the strategic role of CEO, is also involved in day-to-day jobs such as marketing and networking.
Vice President/Director - The Vice’s are directly responsible for delivering the strategy of the record label as finalised by the CEO. They will hold meetings and plan for future aspirations and targets with different department heads. Key tasks at this level include negotiating with distributors, the purchase of media and just generally keeping the business running ect.
Finance - In bigger Record Labels accounting is often titled Business Affairs. This department is directly responsible for accounting, banking, taxes, and the royalties of all the artists signed to the label. Accounting usually reports directly to the CEO as it is vital for the survival of the business, that income exceeds expenditure.
Legal - Each Record label will have a group of lawyers to handle all of it’s legal affairs. They mainly concentrate on contract negotiations with artists. They also work with vendors, and manage all other contractual needs of the Record Label. The legal department is often one of the bigger departments of a Record Label. In many cases in the USA, CEO’s are more likely to be attorneys themselves, in the UK the legal departments are not as powerful and CEO’s are more likely to come from an operational or marketing background.
Artistic Roles:
A&R (Artists and repertoire) - They are often considered the partying department of the Record Label. These people are in charge of finding new artists and setting up a production team to work with them. This department is often what keeps the artist and Record Label communicating together. A&R helps to choose song selection for sets and albums, sign producers to produce the artist’s album and negotiate prices. They negotiate with recording studios as well as video houses. This a very sought after job however it is highly pressured. If artists produce badly selling albums or are not popular, blame is often given to this role along with the artists.
Junior A&R - A Junior is often a ‘trendy’ young person who has contacts and an ability to get into the most popular parties/hottest clubs. They basically know where to find the people’s people in the city they are from. An A&R Department might have 100’s of freelance Junior Reps if the Label is keen on signing new talent. They will only get paid if they bring something good to the table. A&R employees can be stationed around the world.
Production - Production is responsible for the audio/video output of the record label. They make sure artists are at the studios on time and are using them effectively. They work with the A&R department to make sure everything is done on time and is organised.
Artist Development - Most Labels have stopped providing ‘Artist Development’ as they now try to sign artists that are fully developed into their own genre. That means it is unlikely that work is needed to get the artist into the market. Through the years labels have learned that developing artists is often the wrong thing to do. Programs such as XFactor and American Idol are all about this, changing an everyday person into a celebrity who can attract large audiences and sell lots of CDs. Portraying the right personality/image and having correct stage presence are a few typical things that the Artist Development Department would work on. Smaller labels can give feedback to artists and suggest they get professional help for example suggesting an image consultant or voice trainer.
Marketing and Publicity
Marketing - The marketing department of most record labels nowadays tend to focus on Street Teams, Art and Design/the image of the artists and online promotion. Street Teams give out flyers, put up posters and sell tickets to younger groups of people. The Street Teams also ring into radio stations to request songs. A similar role is that of a Plugger, who plugs DJ’s at radios to play a specific track on their playlists and try to supply their bands with live guest appearances and sessions on radio stations. The Marketing Department is also in control of the bands art and design. They design everything from posters and flyers to CD covers and in-store banners.
Online - Social Networking Staff promote bands in the label creating and using websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr and Twitter. These social media sites are used to keep the fans up to date with the latest news and releases. Other online work is creating banner ads though Vevo on YouTube and creating/updating band websites. The online department also has smaller sub departments such as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), programming and PPC (Pay Per Click) managers.
Publicity - A publicist is responsible for getting their artists coverage in the media whether it be on the radio, TV, online or in print. They attempt to put a positive spin on any bad press and try to get the most out of all the good new/events coverage that has been reported. Publicists want to get their artists invited to parties, events, and news worthy situations which will increase media coverage for that artist.
Sales - The sales department is in control of basically everything the labels artists are selling. This is mainly CD’s, DVD’s Merchandise and signature instruments etc. The Sales Department is a large department within the label, they make the deals with the different manufacturing and distribution business. The sub-department ‘Sales Distribution’, make sure that when the artists merchandise/CD’s etc are ready to be sold they have all the materials prepared with the manufacturers to make sure they are produced and released on time.
This has helped me because I have been all of these roles and after researching them I can see which departments I have excelled in and which ones I have struggled with which will help me work on it. My strongest roles have been the CEO, finance, Legal and a lot to do with the artist management side of things. My weaker roles are Online and Sales as I’m not very confident at connecting with the online audience but I’m also good at the publicity because I can see the good in a bad situation, which is useful as I will then be able to look into any bad publicity and try to make it into good publicity.