Marketing and Promotion

Marketing a product is an important thing to do before it's release. There are good ways of marketing a product and these techniques are:

• Using social networking sites such as facebook, twitter and instagram.
• Using soundcloud and youtube to upload previews of of the songs that will be on the E.P or album/mixtape
• Launches that will help promote the music product pore even after it's release
• Sending the music to radio stations and getting airplay

These techniques are useful and crucial ways of making sure people know about your music product and will help showcase your talent. A music product without promotion will not help your product get much recognition and not many people will know that you've released a great product to listen to. Marketing your product is the only way of exploiting your music to the public and yourself as an artist. So this is why it is important to exploit yourself as much as you can to ensure people know who you are and show them how talented you are. 

In order to make my music product successful I will need to consider the styles of music, the target audience, promotion and release date. The styles of music that are on my E.P are rnb, ambient and hip hop. My target audience will people aged 18 - 24 and I will promote my E.P by sharing previews of my songs on soundcloud and youtube and sharing my E.P's artwork to facebook, twitter and instagram. I will also need to think about the release date. The release date is a key thing in my E.P because I need to allow myself enough time to produce, record, mix and master the songs and get in touch with an artwork designer to make the artwork for my E.P and possibly make posters to hang up. This product will be a free digital download and no physical copies will be given.

I uploaded one of my E.P in April and so far it has received 64 plays, 1 favourite and 1 repost. In order to gain more plays and favourites I would need to post this song on facebook, twitter, youtube and post a picture of the song on instagram because these social media sites are used frequently on a daily basis and this is a good place for me to start promoting my E.P. By doing this people will know I have a music product in progress and they will be interested in downloading the fully finished product. Adding hashtags on mostly twitter and instagram is another good way of promoting a song from my E.P because hashtags is a benefit of more publicity more people will know more about me as an artist and what my goals are.

Event Planning

Me and Jay organised an event to take place at Westminister Kingsway College and this event was for raising money for the 'Amy Winehouse Foundation'. Before the event took place we needed to book the venue, a date for the event, equipment list, refreshments and posters. Without this list of things the event would've not happened. So it was important for us to make sure we had everything we needed. We decided the event should take place in college on the 3rd June from 12pm - 2pm. So me and Jay spoke to Wendy who is in charge of booking the college for events and told her about how important it was for us to book the college for this assignment. The next thing we did is create and print out 40 posters and hang them up around Kings Cross and inside the college building so that people know about event and know when to come. This was a good way of advertising our event.

The next thing we had to do is give a tech spec to Grant. Before we gave a tech spec to Grant we had to make sure everything we needed was on the tech spec or otherwise things will have gone wrong. So we made sure all the equipment was on the tech spec before sending it Grant. However, we had to send the tech spec to him a week in advance and we sent to him much later. So this was a false error but we managed to get the equipment on the day of the event.

On the day of the event we brought 11 bottles of cola and 200 plastic cups but one of them was going to be used for donations. We used 1 cup for donations and 50+ cups to serve coca cola to people. As we were doing this me and Jay spoke to some people offering them a free cup of cola and asking them to make a small donation for charity and we explained to them why we were hosting this event. On the day of the event it was Jay's responsibility to bring all the equipment that was needed for setting up the decks and it was my responsibility to bring my memory stick and help Jay with setting up the decks. If I didn't have my memory stick with me I wouldn't be able to play music and if I didn't help Jay with setting up it would've taken longer for him to set everything up.

After setting all the equipment up and applying power to it Jay adjusted levels for the decks. The way we did this was by me playing a song and adjusting levels on the decks and Jay adjusting levels on the mixer. After we gained some levels for the decks I played 1 and a half hour set, however the set had to be cut off at the very end because it caused distractions for people taking exams. So I cut the music off and I helped Jay cut the power off and un-ring all the equipment and put it back in the trolley take it back to the music floor.

Next time I host another event in a group or pair I will need to make sure what I'm doing and I need to allow myself more than enough time to get everything in order because if I don't do any of these things then my event will not go well according to plan and the will be very likely to not happen. When organising events as an events management employee there is no room for error and it's important that everything runs like clockwork.

The images below show what me and Jay done on the day of the event.

Budget

Studio Time - If I were working on a new project I will produce the music for it at home rather than in the studio because all I need to produce the music is a pc/mac, a pair of headphones and a daw to work on, plus, this will help me save time and money and I will be very concentrated on composing new ideas and extending those ideas into a full length song. However, if I were to work in the studio I would work at 'Bowerman Studios' for £35 per hour or £250 for 8 hour session. This studio has great hardware and software equipment and this equipment will be very handy to use in my project in terms of producing and recording. I can also use this studio time to mix down my songs as well as recording them and producing them.

http://bowermanstudios.com/ 

Mastering - I would send my finished mixes to a professional mastering engineer because I know as a producer I shouldn't master my own music. If I want a great sound each of my songs the best thing to do would be to send them to a professional mastering engineer because they will have the best hardware and software equipment and EARS to make my pre masters sound professional just like commercial songs I listen to. I would send my pre masters to www.ebonyredaudiomastering.com because they charge £25 for 1 track to be mastered professionally and I have listened to examples of their work and I really like what I hear. They have also mastered music for BBC Radio 1Xtra and this means they are professional, reliable and dedicated engineers that take their clients seriously.

Artwork - For artwork I would pay £10 to an artwork designer and I will tell what I want it to look like and I will also tell to write whatever I want him to write. For example I will tell him o write my artist name and the title of the E.P. £10 for a 1 sided digital piece of artwork is a fair price because it isn't too high or too low. It's important for me to find an artwork designer who can create top quality artwork for artists and producers and charge very little for it. Also, artwork is what makes a music product stand out and capture people's attention. So it's important for me to make my music product stand out as much as possible.

Online Promotion - I would promote my music product myself and I would do this sharing the artwork of my music product on my personal facebook account and official facebook fan page. I would also share the artwork on twitter and instagram as well as facebook because these two social network sites are used by a lot of people and this is a beneficial way of letting people know I'm releasing a music product and it will convince a lot people to have a listen to it. Another way I can promote my E.P is by uploading songs taken from my E.P to soundcloud but not making them downloadable and I will write the details of each song in the description and this way the people of the public can have a preview listen of what's to come. I can also upload a video with 30 second previews of each song that will appear on my E.P to youtube and by doing this I am promoting myself more and I'm spreading the word to people about my E.P.

Radio Plugger - Instead of hiring a radio plugger I will send some of my E.P tracks to radio stations using http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/uploader because it's free to sign up and this will be a good way of sending music to radio stations and getting radio play for the music that will be on my E.P. It will also help me get more recognition as a producer and artist and this will be a good way of showcasing my talent to people. This website is a very useful site to send music to radio stations because I can select which radio stations to send my music to and I can send music 1Xtra as this radio station is listed and 1Xtra is where most RnB and hip hop tracks are played. I can also earn royalties for radio play as long as I have signed up with PRS.

I would make my E.P a free download if I wanted to but if I wanted to make a profit out of it I would sell it for £3.00 and if I managed to sell 500 copies of my E.P I would earn £270.00 profit. By making a profit out of my E.P it shows how much people appreciate what the hard work and effort I have put in to make my E.P project happen and it also shows how committed and dedicated I am as an artist and producer. I will have spent £1230 pounds to produce, record, mix, master my E.P and get someone to do artwork for my E.P and this is how I would've made £250 profit. 

Professional Roles

1) The roles I have filled in my E.P project are composer, producer, mixing and mastering engineer. I have composed, produced and mixed my E.P and I have mastered other people's music like Kipras for example. All of these roles were key roles in this project because the composer and producer roles are the key roles that compose the ideas for each track and structure the ideas into a full song. The mixing engineer role was a vital role in this project because the mixing engineer ensures that everything is balanced and is ready for the mastering phase. Finally, the mastering engineer role was very important because the mastering engineer adds the final touches to the mixed song and he/she ensures to achieve the best out of this track before it gets released on either itunes, beatport, 7digital, etc.

In this project I have worked with people from 1st yr and 2nd yr music and they're roles were singer-songwriter and performer. They're roles were important in this project as well as the other roles listed above because they were going to write the lyrics, practise their lyrics with the instrumentals I gave them and perform their properly in studio sessions I had with them. In these sessions I communicated with them telling them that I was going to record them in comping mode and I would tell them to lay backing vocals, ad libs or harmonies in whichever section in the song. I would also let them know about what's good about the recordings and I would tell them to re-record this section or another section because it was off key or not in time with the instrumental. This is how I managed to achieve the best out of the people I was working with and make the instrumental (s) sound like a proper professional song.

The roles I have filled in group recordings are technician and producer. The technician role was a very important role for me because as the technician it was my job to rig all the mics up to the equipment that was being used in those sessions and it was also important for me to make a note of which channel the mics were going into so that we wouldn't get confused with the cabling, make false errors and ensure the session (s) run smoothly. As the technician it was also important for me to un rig and put all the equipment back where I took it from as this for health and safety. As the producer it was important for me to communicate with the band I was recording and tell them when I was about to start recording them and when they must be silent before and after recording so that I can get a recording of them with no background noises and end the recording with an audio tail. It was also important for me to make the that every logic file was saved in the audio drive and labelled appropriately with the audio files copied to the project. If I didn't do any of this everything will have not gone accorded to plan.

2) I filled roles such as DJ and promoter for my events management. These roles were very important for me because if I wasn't at my event to play a 1 and half hour set or let people know about the event taking place, the event would've not gone to plan and it will have been a waste of other people's time because they would've come to enjoy the music I would be playing and they would've donated some money to charity as well. Also, if this event wasn't promoted enough there wouldn't have been many people at the event and it was important to invite as many people that were able to come along to the event. I worked on this event with Jay and the way worked around it was by what the event needed in terms of equipment, posters, fliers, venue, date, time, etc. We thought about these requirements carefully because there was no room for error and we did more than double check the list of things we needed for our event.

I have also filled roles as a live sound engineer and technician in gigs back in December, The Harrison Pub, 1st yr festival and end of year show. These roles were very vital in these shows because it was important for me to be on time for bringing equipment, rigging everything up, sound check and making sure there isn't a problem with health and safety. As a live sound engineer it was important for me to make sure levels on the mixing desk were green and make sure the equipment used in the performances were balanced. If I noticed anything that's was going above green it had to be turned down or otherwise this will cause feedback and it will make whichever instruments unbalanced. For the 1st yr festival and end of year show it took teamwork to bring all the instruments and equipment down from the music block and set it all up in the theatre.

3) I see myself in the industry as a music producer and dj. To make these roles successful I will need to make contacts with artists and session players about my projects and discussing collaborations. This will be a great way of making my music product look and sound professional because the music won't just be produced in the box and the music won't just be instrumentals. I will also need some experience as a dj and some examples of dj sets in order to get shows in clubs. It's not easy finding shows and the more experience I have the more likely I will be chosen to DJ for a show.

I will also have to contact people that do events management so they can help host and promote an E.P or album launch as this will help me get recognised by other members of the public and probably A&R representatives. Another thing I will need to do is join PRS and send music to radio stations because once I have joined PRS I earn royalties from my own music when it gets aired on radio and getting my music aired on radio is a good way for people to recognise me and other artists I have worked with and it will help my fanbase grow bigger.

E.P Evaluation

What is your E.P called?

My E.P is called Voyage.

What styles of music are on the E.P?

They styles of music on my E.P is RnB, Ambient, Hip Hop.

What genre would you categorise the E.P as? It can be more than one.

I would say my E.P's genres are more RnB and Ambient because some of the songs have pad chord progressions and some of them have a slow tempo.

Musically - How well does your E.P fit into the genre you work in? Compare your work to your favourite artists.

My E.P does fit into these genres and I know this by comparing my music to RnB artists like PARTYNEXTDOOR & Jhene Aiko. When I listen to PARTYNEXTDOOR's music the sounds that are used in some of his songs are very ambient and mellow and when I listen to Jhene Aiko's music some of the sounds used are ambient as well but some songs are not always ambient and mostly have a slow tempo. The instruments used to make the rhythm in her songs fits in well with the sounds used because the instruments are not harsh sounding like hip hop or trap snares and hats and they have a subtle and smooth tone.

In terms of technical standard (recording/mixing) - are you happy with the E.P? Tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of your music.

I am happy with the recording of my E.P because I used very top quality mics such as the Rode NTK. The NTK brought clarity to the vocals I recorded and I wanted the best vocal recordings for my E.P because in this project I thought about what I wanted this final product to sound like and I was focused on making sure the vocals have clarity and presence. However, I did use the SE Titan to record Imani B because I didn't know the golden rule of the NTK at the time.

Mixing wise, I would say the tracks can be improved more. I would improve them by listening to the drums and making sure their frequencies are well balanced and by this I mean not too much or too little lo end for the kick and making sure the hi end instruments are not harsh sounding. I would also make sure everything is well balanced in volume making sure one instrument is not overpowering another instrument. I would make decisions on what should be the loudest instruments or sound in the mix and I would decide what instruments and sound need to be less loud.

Technically - How well does your E.P fit into the genre? Compare your work to your favourite artists.

I have compared 'Imani B - I'm In Love With You' to PARTYNEXTDOOR's song 'East Liberty'. I would say my song has a thinner sound than 'East Liberty'. When I listen to the kick, sub bass and snare of that song I listen to how fat, strong and punchy those instruments are whereas my song has a thin sounding snare, no sub bass but strong kick. So I would say this song, technically, doesn't fit in well as much into the genre. I have compared also 'Camilla x King Reginald - Don't Forget' to 'East Liberty' as well and I'd say this song fits in well with the genre because this song has a fatter kick, layered snare drums, bass and sub bass but I would say the mixing of the song can be improved and I'd improve it by making the vocals less loud, making the clap less loud and making sure there isn't too much lo end in the bass and sub bass.

Did you collaborate with other musicians/artists on your E.P?

Yes I did. I have collaborated with people in level 3 music yr 1 and yr 2. I have collaborated with Imani B, Camilla & Reggie.

Who did you work with in the studio? What roles did they fill? How did this help you complete your E.P? 

I worked with the same people in the list above and the roles they for filled were singer-songwriter and they helped me complete my E.P by writing the lyrics for the instrumentals I gave to them, rehearsed them and recorded them as soon as they were ready, plus they also recorded ad libs, harmonies and backing vocals around the lead vocals.

Which role are you most comfortable in? Why?

The role I am comfortable in is the producer role. This is because I am very focused on composing chord progressions, melodies, rhythm and basslines and I am very focused on structuring the ideas I've composed and I don't have any difficulty with getting the ideas down into whichever daw I am using.

What was the most important piece of equipment you used when making your E.P? How did you use it? Why was it most important? 

The most important piece of equipment I used was the Rode NTK mic. I used this mic to record all the vocals required for my E.P. This piece of equipment was very important to me because I wanted to bring the best out of the vocals. I didn't want to use a mic that doesn't bring the best sound for the vocals and the NTK was a brilliant mic to use in my E.P because I knew this mic is a valve condenser mic. For me, vocals are a key thing in a song that people like listening to and this is why it was important for me to make sure the vocals have clarity and presence. So this is why Rode NTK mic was such an important piece of equipment in my E.P.

Give me an example of a studio session that went really well. What was good about that session? Why?

I had two studio sessions with Imani B back in January and these two sessions went very well. They went very well because in the first session we managed to record all the vocals for the chorus sections. We recorded one chorus and I copied those recordings onto the other chorus sections so that we could save ourselves some time and not record them again. In the second session we managed to record all the vocals for the verses and bridge in one session and altogether, it only took two sessions to record the full song. Another reason why these sessions went well is because Imani didn't waste any time with getting his vocals recorded and he made sure to perform his vocals as if he were performing live.

What is your favourite track on your E.P? Why is it your favourite?

My favourite track from my E.P is 'Imani B - I'm In Love With You'. The reason why it's my favourite track is because I really like Imani's harmonies and backing vocals. These sets of vocals add a warmer and gentle sound around the music and other sets of vocals, plus, these sets of vocals are well layered with the lead vocals and this makes the track itself not sound empty and alone. Another reason why this track is my favourite is the track's mix. The drums are cutting through and so are the vocals and this is exactly how I wanted the drums and vocals to sound like in this track.

What are you going to do with your completed E.P? Send to labels? Post online for free? What are your plans for the future?

When my E.P is finished and ready for release I will upload it online and make it a free download. I will make my E.P a free download because this E.P will show the talent and experience I have and this is a good way of getting heard more. My future plans is to promote myself more, make contacts with singer-songwriters and session players for future projects, getting aired on radio and making contacts with events management for E.P or album launches.

What is the most important thing you have learnt when creating your E.P?

The most important thing I learned is parallel compression. Since I have learnt parallel compression I have been able to make most of my drums and vocals cut though the mix and make them louder. Another thing I have learned is getting the balance of the vocals right by pulling the faders down on the mixing desk and listening to the vocals carefully and making sure they are not too loud or too distant in the mix. Another thing I have also learned is compressing vocals hard without making them sound over-compressed and making them louder using the make up gain.

What is your most recent music purchase?

I haven't been purchasing music recently.

How much money do you spend on music every month?

I spend £1.98 on music every month.

How much money do you spend on going to gigs/clubs?

The gigs I have attended were a free entry and I don't go to clubs very much.

How do you plan to make a career in the music industry? What are your future plans?

To make a career in the music industry I will have to be very active in making contacts with music managers because they will be the ones who will get into contact with record label A&Rs and they will help me earn a place in whichever label. I also must make contacts with singer-songwriters and session players because they will be useful people for future projects and making contacts with events management is beneficial too because they will help me with hosting and promoting E.P or album launches and this will help develop my fanbase. Another thing I must do is join PRS so that I earn royalties every time my music gets aired on the radio.

Mastering

In this assignment I have been given three of Kipras' tracks to master. When I received the pre masters there was something wrong with all three of them. There was no headroom to work with and all three of them were heavily limited. I also noticed one of the song's vocals sounded too distant. I e-mailed Kipras to send me the same tracks with 6dB of headroom in each track and nothing in the output master such as limiter, compressor, EQ, distortion, etc and I also told him to use a 320kbps reference track so that he can get the correct balance of Huseyin's vocals before he sends it to me. I asked him to do these things because the limiter was messing up the dynamics of each song and the dynamics are an important thing to work with especially in the mastering stage. I told him to make the vocals louder in one of his mixes because the vocals is an important part of a song. People like listening to the vocals of a song and it's important to hear what the singer/rapper is saying, plus, the vocals is what brings a song to life.

Empathy Slow - Old School Love - I mastered this song at home using FL Studio. I used this daw because most of my mastering plugins live on that daw and I can work with this daw with ease. I dragged the pre master onto FL and I listened to it to make some decisions on what needs to be changed. I noticed the kick was too bassy and was the most overpowering thing in the mix. So I used an EQ and reduce the thump of the kick and reduce some of the lo end so that the kick is balanced and is allowing the other instruments to cut through. I made sure there was still some lo end because this track is a uptempo house track and this genre of music needs some lo end so that people can dance to it. I used another parametric band to make the body of the track stronger because the body of the track wasn't strong enough and needed boosting. The body of the track is another important thing in electronic music because the body of a electronic track give the track life and energy and this was an important key thing for me to do.

After using EQ I used compression and I used compression to glue the peaks and make the waveform balanced in volume. With the peaks compressed it will be easier to make the song louder as everything will be balanced and level. I used a slow attack because I wanted to let the transients punch through and the transients are an important thing in a song and if the transients were compressed the song's dynamics will have no breathing space and everything will be squashed too much. I used a fast release and I used a fast release because I wanted the compressor to work fast. I didn't want the compressor working slow because a slow release will compress the song for too long and this can lead to over-compressing and it will mess up the song's dynamics. So it was important to keep the release short. Finally I used a small ratio and small threshold and I used the parameters this way because I wanted a small amount of these parameters so that I can compress the peaks of the song and make sure they are levelled out and this way it will be easier to make the waveform look like a brick wall.

I then used stereo spread on the song because it didn't sound wide and using stereo spread is a good way of making a track louder and wider. I wanted this song to have a wide sound because stereo spread adds more energy to a track, especially a electronic track. I used the stereo width parameter and I listened very carefully as I was pushing it because I didn't want too much stereo spread. Too much stereo spread can lead to a track sounding out of phase and I didn't want this sound for this song. I wanted to make this song sound as wide as possible without making the song sound out of phase and this is why I opened my ears and listened very carefully to what sounded wide enough and what sounded out of phase.

After using stereo spread I used a plugin called 'Fruity Blood Overdrive' and this plugin is used to amplify the frequencies in the song and make them louder and this plugin only distorts a song when too much pre amp gain is used. I only used the pre amp gain to make the song louder and as I was doing this I listened very carefully to the song as I was pushing so that if it starts distorting I can reduce a bit of the pre amp gain and make sure it's loud but not distorting. My target was to make the song hit zero constantly throughout the song and the blood overdrive wasn't enough but I knew if I put a bit more the song will distort and the song will sound crushed.

The last thing I did is use a limiter to make sure the song is playing at one level and compress the peaks a little bit more. I used the limiter by over-processing it and I over-processed it by by turning the output to -20dB and turning the gain by 20dB. I then turned the release to zero so that I can listen to the horrendous distortion and from there I would push the release until I can no longer hear the song distorting. After pushing the right amount of release I would reset the gain and output to zero and I over-processed the gain again so that I can listen to the song heavily limited and reduce the gain until the song sounded stable and not heavily limited.

Empathy Slow - You and Me - I listened to next track and I noticed this track had more lo end than the first track and this overpowered everything else in the song. So I shelved out more lo end than the first song because I wanted to make the frequencies balanced but I made sure I didn't shelf out too much lo end because this song needed some lo end as this track is an uptempo dance track. I then used 3 parametric bands and these bands were used to reduce the thump of the kick, make the Huseyin's vocals louder and make the body of the track stronger. I used these parametric bands this way so that I can make the song sound well balanced in and give the song more life. The last thing I used is a hi shelf and I used this band to make the song sound cleaner and brighter. It sounded dull and muffled without the hi shelf and I didn't want this sound for the final finish.

I used more compression than the first track because the more peaks in this track and they were a bit bigger. I set up the parameters the same way I set them in the first song but I used a lower threshold so that I can squash the peaks as much as I can. However, if I listened to the song being compressed too hard I would need to make bring threshold up a bit and make sure the song doesn't sound compressed and that the dynamics have some breathing space and the transients are not being squashed. I noticed the compressor gave more headroom and I wanted the song to play at roughly -6dB and I did this by using very little make up gain to ensure the song was playing at that level.

After using EQ and compression I used the same plugins from the first song to add the final touches to the second song and I repeated the same steps of using the limiter because over-processing the limiter is a good way getting the right amount of limiting and making sure the limiter isn't working too hard, plus it's useful for glueing the peaks more.

Technusk - In the third song was tiny bit bassy and subby. So this meant I didn't have to shelf out much. I only had to shelf out a little bit of the lo end to make sure the bass level wasn't drowning the the other instruments and sounds. I used two parametric bands to reduce a very little amount kick drums' thump and make the body of song more lively and finally I used a lo pass filter to cut of some of the hi end because the hi end sounded very harsh and piercing and this isn't the sound I wanted for the finished master.

I then used very little compression because there wasn't many peaks in this song. I parameter I changed is the threshold. I used a small threshold because I didn't need to squash the peaks that much and there wasn't many peaks to squash. Like the first two songs, I made sure dynamics had breathing space, the transients not being compressed and making sure the compressor wasn't squashing everything hard. I then used a tiny bit of make up gain to make sure the song was playing at -6dB.

From there I used the same plugins from the first track to add the final finishing touches before bouncing all three finished masters individually and burning them into a cd.

Summer Gigs

Equipment List:

14 XLR Cables
Mini Jack - Jack (Laptop)
Audix D6
4x DI Boxes
9x vocal mics (2 wireless)
8x Jack - Jack Cables
Bass Amp
2x Guitar Amps
V Drum Amp
Headphones
Midi - USB Cable (Midi Keys)
Mic Stands
Risers
Guitar & Bass Stands
Floor Wedges
Mixing Desk

These pictures show the staging and connections of the equipment that will be used in the end of year show. Instruments like the bass, electric guitar and acoustic drums don't need D.I boxes because the sound they produce is loud enough for the whole audience to hear. However, the kick drum on the acoustic drums will require the audix d6 because the kick isn't loud like the cymbals or snare drum. The vocal mics will be plugged in directly into the floor box and the D.I boxes will have jack - jack inputs first and then they will be plugged into the floor box.