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Marketing on Social media

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Instagram banner

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album Cover

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Promotion & Marketing Research

With the creation of my brand and my music was confirmed, I then researched how to market and promote it. My strategy To engage with the target audience, I began setting up my artist profiles on social media. I created a facebook page, Instagram account and used my own existing youtube account as a source of interaction and to present myself more professionally. These platforms would become important for the advertising and promotion of my album and would separate me from my personal accounts. One element that I wanted to use to market the product was by having advertising videos. Using after effects I was able to create 2 short videos advertising my album. The first video would be the initial countdown and almost teasing what was to come. This method would be effective as it would get people curious and to become invested into what was actually coming.  

“Music must support the process of making consumers aware of the product and create an enticing image of the brand.” (Kubacki & Croft, 2004)

Another thing I had to think about concerning the marketing and promotion was the format dimensions. This would have to be adjusted to fit the location of the 

The inclusion of links in the marketing content will be crucial as it is the pathway for the audience member to follow to get to my product.  

The campaign that I will use will be to regularly upload content leading up to the initial release date of the album. This will include a campaign of one or two of the tracks which has received the first and releasing them before the album as their own singles. I will approach this using a mystery strategy and revealing little bits at a time to gain curiosity and attention.

A final useful method to utilise once the album is out is the analytical and statistical data. This will provide me with information based on where and how the audience is coming from . From analysing this I will be able to adjust and change any

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Uploading & Distrubution

Once my tracks have been fully mastered with vocals on, the next step will be to upload it and make it available to the consumer market. The platforms that I will be uploading to will be Band Camp and Youtube. I have set up the band camp platform ready for the release of the album once the final production has been complete. Preparing for this I have started to create my bandcamp page and started to upload banners and album artwork. I have also started to create a video for the distribution for youtube. This created after effects will have my logo react to the music creating a more dynamic video that just a still background. 

When thinking about the final location for my tracks, I have to consider what platforms my target audience are most likely to use. Youtube is a good source for uploading video to, however, my target audience I have discovered listen to music by streaming it. (Bernsen, 2015). However, I will also have the option to download and purchase a digital mp3 version of the track using bandcamp.

Streaming sites are now more popular than ever, and with devices and internet services improving consumers expect to hear music on these platforms. To get my music heard I have to upload it to compete with the competition   

  “Spotify’s can lay claim to 36% of the global streaming market” (Iqbal, 2020)

 When researching how to upload to spotify I discovered you have to use a digital service provider and this is a service that you have to subscribe to. The benefits of this is that you will receive payment from royalties based on the amount of streams you have received. There are different services all with different plans, distro kid is £16.21 for a year, whilst you keep 100% of royalties. Another service is routenote which is a free service, however, you only receive 85% of royalties per track. These services will also upload to other sites such as apple music and amazon.  

   Bernsen, E. (2015, June 29). The Top 10 Digital Platforms to Upload, Share, and Promote Your Music. Retrieved May 26, 2020, from blog.sonicbids.com 

website: https://blog.sonicbids.com/the-top-10-digital-platforms-to-upload-share-and-promote-your-music

Iqbal, M. (2020, May 8). Spotify Usage and Revenue Statistics (2019). Retrieved May 14, 2020, from Business of  Apps website: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/spotify-statistics/

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Contracts

As I expect to work with other artists I have been researching contracts and how to create one that is both professional and fair. This will protect both me and any other artist featured on my album, especially with the distribution of any revenue collected. These are the collection of royalties and will have to be distributed to the contractually agreed amount. This agreement must be kept for any acquired residual income in the future. The contract will also protect the copyright of the tracks and album  (Brain, 2003)

 Brain, M. (2003, May 22). How Recording Contracts Work. Retrieved May 9, 2020, from HowStuffWorks website: https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/recording-contract2.htm

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Mixing & Mastering

When mixing and mastering my tracks, I wanted them all to feel as if they were in the same album. For this I looked into ways that I could uses these processes to accomplish this.

When starting my research into how to mix hip hop tracks, and as I require a vocalist for my tracks, I ventured to discover tips on how to mix them as it would be an important instrument in my track. I discovered that by keeping the vocals tight and with little reverb will keep them at the front of the track. I also looked into accident parallel processing to the vocal, especially parallel compression. This would allow me to add more harmonics to the vocal. (iZotope & Nichols, 2019)

When preparing my tracks for the final mastering process, I researched different mastering chains. Approaching this, I looked into Izotope Ozone 8 for creating a mastering chain. Using Ozone 8 allows me to keep everything in the same plugin and I started with having a normal EQ at the start followed by a dynamic multiband compressor. Following that I had a dynamic EQ and followed by the maximiser to limit the entire process. (Wyner, 2019)

 I also had to take into account the destination of the tracks and this made me focus on metering and LUFS of a track so it sounds good in the location it resides. For bandcamp and spotify the recommended LUFS is -14 and anything above or below this will be autocorrected.

I started watching a series by isotope looking into mastering through a series of short episodes gathering some useful tips. When mastering the track, having the correct environment is crucial, as well as the equipment. I also discovered that having the same playback level for mastering would allow me to get used to how my system of speakers and audio interface sounded and by not changing this I would be able to start with the same level for each track . (iZotope, Inc., 2019)

 iZotope, & Nichols, P. (2019, November). 8 Tips for Mixing Rap and Hip-Hop. Retrieved April 27, 2020, from iZotope website: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/8-tips-for-mixing-rap-and-hip-hop.html

‌iZotope, Inc. (2019). Are You Listening? Ep. 1 | Audio Mastering Basics [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-6Lnp8RB00&list=PL4dISychPQEvW2RRu5BqQUciqm8zBfu7q

 Wyner, J. (2019, May 30). How to Master an Album, and More Audio Mastering Questions Answered. Retrieved May 27, 2020, from iZotope website: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/how-to-master-an-album-and-more-audio-mastering-questions-answered.html

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Album Artwork

To make my own brand unique and recognizable I first had to think about creating a brand and name logo to use. I started with using my somewhat established name, DJ Yarnold, and from this experimented with a range of different fonts. I knew that having a logo would enable me to use this further down the line for marketing and promotional purposes, incorporating it into videos and any other media format. Sticking with this style of typography would be important into establishing myself visually with my target audience. To enhance certain aspects, I decided to use the same font but change it slightly to create more of a divide, and to draw focus to the album name. This would be important as It would be easier for the audience to determine the name of the album as it would be more prominent. This also affected the positioning and size of the font and other artwork

I wanted to utilise a colour scheme for this album that consisted of only a few colours that blend well together. I decided to use turquoise, Pink, black and white. 

White:

Black:

Blue : 44e5f8 

Pink : ffc0fd

To enhance my image further, I decided to create a simple character design that was resembling of myself. The creation of this would be used to further solidify my image, making available another logo and visual concept to strengthen my brand, product and identity. 

I created 4 single cover art pictures each unique in appearance but encapsulating the 4 primary colours. Using the four colours I was able to give them all a different background making them all slightly different but at the same time connected to each other. Adding and changing the colour of the border was also a useful effect. In each of my  

Album cover.

When creating the Album cover I wanted to fit it to the music that was going to be in the album. 

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Lift Off

My Project begins today with looking into techniques used in UK Drill and Grime music and how I can incorporate this into the two tracks in these genres I will be creating for this four track Album. My research has discovered that a lot of these tracks and artists such as Wiley have used equipment such as the Korg Triton to create a square wave lead so I will use Native Instruments VST Massive to create a similar sound as the foundation. (attackmagazine, 2014)

I also researched the typical drum kit’s and packs that are used and a technique that is commonly used is using a gliding 808 bass which glides to the corrosponding note when played at the same time. 

 attackmagazine. (2014, August 7). Grime Synth Basics - Page 1 of 2. Retrieved March 5, 2020, from Attack Magazine website: https://www.attackmagazine.com/technique/tutorials/grime-synth-basics/2/

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Testing 123

Test post!