After learning about the Media Context essay along with it's prompts, formatting, and it's respective vocabulary, we were assigned a Music Marketing Research Project to research a specific music label and two artists under their label as "Case studies." In groups of 4 we were randomly assigned a music genre to research and we all had to focus on different artists. The full instructions were as followed:
- Your group (groups consist of 4-5 people) will be randomly assigned a music genre.
- Conduct and compile research on the marketing and distribution practices associated with the genre of music:
- Each individual in the group should choose one music production company and two artists/groups represented by each company that represent your assigned genre (if there are numerous artists or groups you wish to research that are all represented by the same production company, that is fine). The artist/group that you choose must have produced and released music within the past five years.
- Be sure to research modern trends in marketing and distribution, as well as past practices.
- Your case studies should be artists that have released music (a full album is best) within the past five years.
Use the link below to access a blank chart. Each group member will fill out one chart. Charts should be shared with fellow group members.
We were assigned to the Pop genre. I chose to research the record label Island Records and the artists Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan. I made the following chart:During research, I realized how important partnerships are in terms of building a larger audience and maintaining an original target audience. I found it interesting how Sabrina Carpenter partnered with a masculine whiskey brand to appeal more to older male audience, as her target audience is mostly 18-24 year old girls. It was genius as it kept to her brand, as she's partnered with alcohol brands before, promoted her music, all while expanding her audience. Partnerships were also a great way to establish brand identity as Chappell Roan, known for her outlandish, drag-inspired makeup looks, partnered with Sephora to match her brand. These insights helped us plan for the park 2 of our music Marketing project, creating our OWN brand through a music artist/group.
Our group was given 4 songs to choose from that was part of the music genre we researched (we ended up picking the song "We are Young") and from those songs, we had to Create a marketing campaign for a new music artist/group. We were tasked to build the brand from the bottom up and use this marketing campaign to introduce our musician(s) to the public.
Our group decided on a sort of 2016-inspired boy group, focused on living in the moment and having fun, living solely by the moto "YOLO." Our groups brand aesthetic is focused on the boy bands "One Direction" and "5 seconds of summer" making various promotional videos to bring back the 2010's aesthetic, riding on the wave that is the 2010's aesthetic coming back on especially Tik Tok. They'd use Tik Tok to create raw, fun content to attract teen to young adult female audiences. Instagram, a PINNACLE of the 2010's aesthetic would be used not only to promote their music, but bring back the same aesthetic that seemingly everyone had back in the 2010s.
Our band's aesthetic is very casual, but also beachy , as they're all california boys and the beach is a major part of their brand. Think "Cake by the Ocean" by DNCE type of aesthetic. Ripped jeans, jean jackets, stripped shirts and checkered vans at the beach. Here's a Pinterest board of the aesthetic/brand they're trying to portray:
