Music Marketing 101
What is Music Marketing?
Music marketing is the process of raising awareness for one's music. It's all the glory of promoting and selling a song, music video, merch; anything that entails the artist's creation.
Assignment:
In my AICE Media class, I was given a project to complete about music marketing. We had to construct an image that would promote a new, upcoming artist(s). Every group was assigned a different genre with four different songs that they could choose one from, all by different artists (that already exist of course) and create an entirely new band or solo artist. My group was given pop music. We chose the song "Carry On" by Fun.
Pop Artists:
Rundown:
How We Chose the Song:
After listening to every song we were given, in detail, we decided to go with "Carry On" because it was the one we envisioned reconstructing the best considering the other's didn't have the marketing potential we wanted to reach with the resources we have.
Brainstorming for the Band Name:
The song "Carry On" gave my creative group members and I the feeling of being young, free, optimistic, and real. We wanted to create a band that gave the same vibe; and that we did. Our band is called Senior Trip. I came up with the name as I was listening to different pop artists that gave similar vibes, like Mac Miller. Senior year is meant to be enjoyed to the fullest as it the last year in high school before everyone parts their own ways. With certain obstacles, like college applications and decisions, senior year has it's ups and downs. At the end of the year, a trip is what usually brings everyone together for one last time after 9 months of hard work. These trips create the best memories and the best times; therefore, I found it fitting.
Brainstorming for the Music Video:
While the song was repeatedly playing, we would start to see snippets of what that verse would look like if it were brought to life. "Carry On" is a song about moving forward and defeating challenges that may be in the way of success or happiness. With many hours to brew ideas, we came up with a couple great ones. We came down to one by singling out which we couldn't do given the amount of time we had and the resources at hand. We all agreed that a girl reminiscing her best friend's presence would be ideal. As she recalls all the great times, she's faced with sadness and mourn, but she soon heals and meets new people that help her move forward.
Brainstorming for Promo:
With inspiration from other artists, like The Weeknd, my group decided to create a campaign that would strike attention in "unusual" and creative ways. We made social media accounts for Senior Trip (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter) as that is the best way to gain new following in today's age. We also deeply liked the idea of guerilla marketing because that's one of the quickest attention grabbers as it is very random and it occurs in the most toured cities like LA, NYC, Miami, etc. In addition, since our theme revolves around space, we concluded that releasing the song on July 2nd, near independence day, would allow the making of custom sparkler packages to seal the theme together.
Challenges and Solutions:
Honestly, we only came across one issue so far, and it was choosing times and dates to film the music video as we are all busy individuals. We worked this out by splitting parts of the project. Three of us could meet up after school hours (so we are), however, our last group member was unable to attend so she worked on the logo and the website while we were filming, that way things were productive.
What's Next?
All we have left to do is editing for the music video and finishing the marketing presentation. We predict this will all be completed in time to review our band's image top to bottom so we can ready to begin selling.
To say the least, I thoroughly enjoyed working on this marketing project because it taught me several clever marketing tactics that I know will benefit me in the near future!!
Stay cool,
Isabella
