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 FeMi Boye An Fmp Write up Yo

In this Section I will be identifying my demographics and precedents for my three tracks E.P. & I will eventually use this information to determine whom I will market this E.P. to and how I will market it to them

As mentioned previously marketing is one of the most fundamental parts of any artists campaign. Marketing in the music industry is a fundamental process, it determines who the target is how there going to buy the product and why they are going to buy it. There are several factors that affect the decisions of a marketing division; Demographics, precedents, financing & availability I will be explaining what some of these factors are and why they are so important; Demographics practically the most important part of any marketing campaign more commonly know by the name “ target audience “. “Demographics are the characteristics of any human population” I.E. the dividing factors between any group of people such as, age, gender, race, income, sexuality and so on. In the music industry demographics are used to determine whom the record is to be sold to and precedents are usually used to describe the six divisions in social classes in the United Kingdom.

My E.P. consists of three tracks two original tracks and one cover.

The cover is a more modern version of “Heaven” which is a song by the cure a very influential alternative rock band who were at there prime in the mid 80’s I felt that they were a band that best represented what the E.P. was about and would relate better to an older audience.

The other two tracks were originals which I had made more in an n*e*r*d style combining dance rock and hip hop elements to make an overall easy to listen to track.

I have been doing my fmp in an alternative funk rock style inspired by the rock band N*E*R*D.  The market for this genre is a fairly broad one so it increases the chance of potential profits however more work has to be done to reach a large variation of people. I chose this genre because it has proven to be a popular genre amongst dedicated fans and people who don’t listen to music very regularly at all and this still very much a relevant part of pop music culture.

My target demographic are 14 to 36 year old male and females this has been a steady and consistent demographic. The genres are also constantly in the charts.

The Marketing campaign for this project will involve an extensive online campaign, magazine covers, radio plugs and live events. The online campaign will center mainly on social networks; Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are all social networks that are all heavily dominated by the music industry ever since the phasing out of MySpace the idea of full integration with fans on a social level is an idea that has taken the industry by storm giving the fans the idea that they are not just following a band or an artist from a distance but they are talking to them as friends. I feel like this is a very important move for the marketing of the E.p. The Band would not only use the bands fan page, which would have tour dates, release dates and mediums to buy the E.p, as part of the marketing campaign the band would release an official personal account where they could chat with fans and really interact with the people

As an industry we I am aware that magazines are not the best way of promoting a band directly mainly because of the difficulty of getting a new band in the magazine let alone having them on the front cover, that’s why we decided to incorporate fashion in the bands image, widening the amount of people that see them we intend to have partnerships with BAPE, Uniqlo, Urban outfitters, H&M and American apparel, these are brands that support the bands image and in turn allowing the band to become some what of fashion icons featuring in magazines such as format magazine, Tokyo Fashion, indie magazine, Fruits & year Retro. Whilst maintaining musical respectability by aiming for magazines such as vibe, stoners rock, rolling stone, the source and many others. 

Radio plays are a big part of the campaign, having radio plays are a sign of commercial success and having a radio plugger allows your song to be herd regardless of how well known it is. We aim to have the cover of the cure song played on the radio as many times as possible on Capital FM & magic why? A cover song is almost a sure way to get noticed by a demographic looking for the approval of the fans of the original artists and trying to have new fans believe that the song could belong to no one else but you. With the popularity of the original and having a unique interpretation of the song playing it on capital is sure to have everyone listening to it especially a new fan base. Playing the song on magic would be a great idea, magic is know for its older fan base because they play music from previous time periods such a the 80’s and 90’s this would be a perfect place to interact with another bands demographic and gain popularity amongst older fans

Going along with the bands image as a rebellious post punk type group I decided to take a spin on doing standard shows and create something I called the “Block party” tour where essentially the band would host twenty-two separate gigs in random public locations across the U.K. and only have tickets available for 2weeks in advance. This is a big risk but as most rock artists know shows are where money is made and it is an opportunity to be theatrical with music. Psychologically people are more attracted to items that are unobtainable I believe make the locations mysterious and the tickets seemingly exclusive will encourage people to attend these events.

The Recording process

I will b explaining the production and recording of each track on the E.P the difficulty’s I encountered and how I overcame them

Reality – Track one

Reality was the first track I had done it contained a lot of elements and probably took the longest to construct.

Drums – the construction of the drums was an integral process. When I was writing songs for the E.P. I didn’t have any access to live drums and knowing the importance of live music in my chosen genre I knew the drums would have to be something that would sound good live as well as in the studio mix. I decided to patch my Roland Tr-626 into My MacBook to record some authentic sounding toms I sampled those the cymbals and the kick mixed each sound individually and mapped them into the ultra beat sampler in Logic. I then proceeded to make the initial rhythm with the toms and added a simple kick snare pattern and added the temple blocks from previously recorded samples. When I had access to drums I intended to re record the toms and the kick however I was satisfied with the sound I had and only recorded cymbals for a more natural sound. As the drums started to form I realized that they were not rhythmically technical so I recorded some finger snaps unfortunately the recordings were ruined by that fact that I had forgotten to remove the pop shield I quickly resolved this by re recording. .

The Synths

The majority of the synthesizers were recorded to give the track more authentic feel

The two lead synths were recorded from a Roland JP 8000, the synthesizers were routed to a digital mixer, which made the recording process much easier we were able to get a crisp clear signal without any problems.  The apregiated pads and the sweeps were recorded by routing the micro korg into the mixer by direct input.

I recorded congas to make the toms sound more prominent however upon doing this I realized that it sound messy in the mix so I mixed and effected them making them sound like synths whilst it added rhythmic effect.

The guitars and bass were the last instruments I recorded were the bass and guitar. This became a quite lengthy task but it was worth the wait. I had previously recorded a midi version of the guitar melody so when I was ready Richard could play a liv version of this however he found it difficult to play the melody at first so it took him a few takes but he eventually grasped it. I wanted a clean sound but I opted to record it through the mesa instead of the focus write to give it a little boost I did the same with the bass. Finally I recorded the vocals there were no problems with this we had it done in a few takes.

Void – Track 2

Void was the most enjoyable track to make at the beginning the only idea I had for the track was that I wanted it to sound ruff and improvised.

I had Daryl record a beat box pattern which we had to record in double time so he would catch the tempo better we did a few takes with and without the pop shield to try and get a variation of sounds.

The main problem with the beat boxing was that the mixing process was extensive trying to create distinctive kick and snare sounds and I realized that I couldn’t mix each sound distinctively so I recorded a kick and snare to support the sound of the beat boxing. The Drums that were recorded were problematic I had to ask for someone to help me tune the kick and the snare as I did not know how to I then got an AKG D122 to record the kick and a Shure SM 57 to record the snare The Arp is also from the JP8000, which was recorded by, and interface going into the mac in the studio the mac. Recording the Arp was slightly problematic the beat box pattern was slightly out of time meaning the arpeggiator which had to have a tempo assigned to work was also slightly out of time however I resolved this by recording the Arp one beat slower than the track then I effected it with delay and a modulator to create an effect to my liking. The Guitar sounding instrument was a Stagg Ukulele Recorded with an AkG C414 that I recorded at the sound hole to get a more hollow sounding tone.

Track 3 – Cure (cover)

This was probably the easiest of the four tracks to record I had a band called Havera come and record it.

The first thing I recorded was the drums unfortunately there were to many changes in the drum pattern to record four bar pattern four a loop. I used to AKG C414’s for overheads, a Shure sm81 for the crash cymbal a rode nt 5 for the hi - hat, a Shure sm57 and a sm58 for the top and bottom snare, an AKG D112 for the kick to Shure pg56’s for the rack toms and a Rode NTA-2 for the floor tom.

I then recorded the bass using a trace Elliot 1215 bass amp decided to use the Rode NT- 2 off center to record it so I could get a softer cleaner sound, I chose this method over direct injection just to give it more of a natural edge.

I then recorded the acoustic guitar in stereo using to AKG C414 ‘s with one near the neck and another by the sound hole and panned them far left and far right. The rhythm guitar was recorded by direct injection just so I could affect it accordingly.

The lead Guitar was run through a Fender Amp and a Boss Me- 70 Effects pedal, the guitar went thought the pedal then into the amp that was recorded by two dynamic microphones a Shure Sm57 and A Shure SM58. I recorded the vocals using an AKG C414 she recorded the vocals then I went to later mix and affect them did the Vocals and backing Vocals.

Because of the nature of my tracks and where and when I recorded them I wasn’t available to assist a lot of recordings however when I was in a helped to the best of my ability. One of the most frequent ways in which I assisted my colleagues was by being the desk operator helping my colleagues record instruments which they were not able to record themselves or helping them record in situations where problems arose and the person did not have the ability to resolve the issue themselves.

Another way I assisted a colleague which I thought was very interesting was by being their ears as an assistant producer, one of my colleagues had impaired hearing by the final stages of mixing in her project so she asked me to listen to her tracks and listen out for any problems or any room for improvement that I could hear, however at this point we encountered another problem with the Macintosh itself and I assisted her by bringing it to the attention of the studio technician and we were able to resolve the problem. Another way I helped was setting up microphones I had helped to set up and connect microphones for two students in studio b which is a studio that has frequent issues because students being used to having things already ready in studio A. I assisted one of my colleagues by helping them edit vocals, one of my colleagues vocalists had messed up a few notes on a track and we needed pitch editing software rather than automated pitch correction software which I had available at the time although in the end my tutor ended up editing the vocals my attempt helped my colleague notice flaws and some changes he later decided on making. Overall I believed that with my knowledge and past experiences I could have been more helpful but when I was needed I think I worked to the best of my ability.

To conclude

I believe that the FMP project very well I enjoyed myself worked hard and came to a successful end. I think for the most of the project I was motivated and tried as hard as I could, my ideas were well thought out and I wasn’t rushed into doing anything “ half assed” (well I could name a few things that I did). I was of use to my colleagues and I fulfilled my roles as a producer writer and engineer in the studio.

If there is anything that I could learn from this I would say that I need to keep my timing, planning and focus very strict, not because I was not prepared because I believe I was but because I wasn’t confident in my own planning and allowed many other ideas to fill my head and enter my music which is not completely a bad thing but I felt that every new Idea that I had lead to the disruption of my schedule. Lastly I think my E.P. was very good and the ideas and outcome of it were marketable.

Marketing

Marketing in the music industry is a fundamental process, it determines who the target is how there going to buy the product and why they are going to buy it.

There are several factors that affect the decisions of a marketing division; Demographics, precedents, financing & availability I will be explaining what some of these factors are and why they are so important.

Demographics

Practically the most important part of any marketing campaign more commonly know by the name “ target audience “. “Demographics are the characteristics of any human population” I.E. the dividing factors between any group of people such as; age, gender, race, income, sexuality and so on. In the music industry demographics are used to determine whom the record is to be sold to.

Precedents

Precedents are usually used to describe the six divisions in social classes in the United Kingdom

A upper middle class Higher managerial, administrative or professional

B middle class Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional

C1 lower middle class Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional

C2 skilled working class skilled manual workers

D working class Semi and unskilled manual workers

E Those at the lowest levels of subsistence Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income

However this is also a great marketing tool helping to discern who to appeal to, when to appeal to this group, what tools used to appeal to the group and how.

 As a standard marketing agents should look at; age, gender, ethnicity and social grade.

Advertising

Advertising is a combination of all factors discussed in marketing in a friendly form, lets use an example.

Justin Beiber: He is a young white male pop singer his target precedents would be

11 to 16 year old middle class females of all ethnicities. As you se we touched on gender, age, ethnicity and social class. Now advertisers would use that information to choose where to advertise for example you would be more likely to see a Justin beiber concert poster at a salon not a rugby pitch. As a whole being specific in these decisions allow a record label to become more cost efficient in advertising and hopefully turn a profit.