Music Marketing Project #2

Hello! This is part two of my music marketing project. In this phase, we got to apply everything we learned in part one to real-life situations. We created an imaginary artist and built her brand from the ground up. Our artist, Sylas, is a 23-year-old living in New York. The illustration below, made by Emi, shows what she looks like. Sylas is a passionate and eccentric artist who fled to New York to escape a toxic relationship. Our research from the previous project showed us that incorporating symbols and small details into a brand is helpful for marketing, so we decided that dragons, zigzags, swirls, and fire should represent her. The dragon below serves as her logo.

With her songs focusing on her struggles with a energetic and passionate twist, Sylas’ music is as emotionally complex as she is. We wanted her music video to reflect this, which led us our song choose: Time is Running Out by Muse. Her backstory is built around the lyrics. Back in her hometown of Flint Michigan, Sylas met a guy she really wanted to date, but her friends constantly warned her against him. She knew he was toxic and that dating him would only hurt her, but she did it anyway. Hence, we used the contrast between fire and water in the music video. Sylas represents fire, while the guy represents water. In the end, she chooses to drown and kill her flame.

Here is the link to the music video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/188Mwi06Qp70Loaf_3l7LreIiEE2878uo/view?usp=sharing

We all met at my house to film the video, which we shot in three parts: first, outside in the living room, then in a dark room for the promotional clips, and finally outside by the pool. The video below provides more behind-the-scenes details. After filming, Nico and I edited the video, while Emi, Andrew, and Robbie worked on the brand, marketing campaign, and presentation (linked below).

The presentation:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGY0ofj0wQ/zWryqARSuS4NmT5_pzfJLA/edit?utm_content=DAGY0ofj0wQ&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

After the relationship, Sylas felt she needed a change. This album cover represents the last photo Sylas took of Michigan before leaving her hometown for good, giving it sentimental value.

I learned a lot through this project, including how to manage stress and anger in socially acceptable ways. Seriously, having such a unique project close to midterm week was quite an experience. Next time, I really hope to work with Zach. I also had a weird shift in my mindset during this project. I realized that it’s genuinely better to use any free time available to finish tasks early, so that everything is done days ahead of deadlines. I’m also now more aware of others and how they feel. Who knew that socializing could actually make you better at socializing? 

Music Marketing #1

For this project, we picked our groups and were randomly assigned a music genre to do a case study on. From here, we picked two distribution companies and assigned two artists to each group member. Each member was to research the artist's background, history, branding, and marketing. 

Our case study was on rock subgenres, and I was researching The Strokes. I started on their website and followed that to their Instagram and YouTube, where I found nothing. Sure, they had music videos on their Youtube and posted merch drop announcements on their Instagram, but aside from that, there was nothing. After very little digging, I found a fan account that regularly posts content on The Strokes. This became my introduction to their past interviews, which were a fountain of information on The Strokes' experience with touring, writing songs, and the stress of fame. It gave me a lot more insight and surpassed summarizing a Wikipedia page. From here I kept digging and adding to my case study until everything was filled aside from the section on target audiences and marketing. With all the new information I gathered, I inferred that The Strokes acted like an unknown 2000s indie band despite being the complete opposite. This is because they are appealing to those with nostalgia for the early 2000s and to those who wish they remembered such an era. This unique way of branding is what attracts so much attention.

After this project was submitted, our group was assigned another one that was meant to be built onto this one. I'll admit our planning for this one wasn't ideal, but we quickly got back on track to what our group should be doing. Nico, a member of my group, and I were assigned the task of planning out our music video. We worked on the storyboard and built up a shot list. Andrew was tasked with marketing, Robbie with the presentation, and Emi with branding. Although they got distracted quickly, I always managed to refocus them on their work. That way we all finish quicker and get to go home and nap.