Class Notes 7th May '09
“Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate understanding of contemporary institutional processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange/exhibition at a local, national or international level as well as British audiences’ reception and consumption.”
We have decided to study the record label Smalltown America. (http://www.smalltownamerica.co.uk/)
Smalltown America is an independent record label based in London.
Smalltown America has in many ways carries D.I.Y. ethics towards all aspects of their industry.
Some examples that we discussed in class were of the band “ The Young Playthings.”
Examples of how in which STA and The Young Playthings used “D.I.Y. ethics” can be seen from within their first single.
The “Love U Like That” single was made by cutting and sticking an ad that they placed in the newspaper, which tied in with the name of the single. This was an example of how STA are using added value and a personal approach in order to gain an emotional connection between the artist and the audience, in oder for them to have the mindset that they are not just purchasing a piece of music, but a piece of art.
The use of the advertisement can be seen as a viral approach in order to publicise the band.
Viral marketing is a form of marketing in which news of a product or service is passed from person to person rather as a virus is transmitted. The media message may be passed on simply by word of mouth or more popularly/ effectively by internet or as in the case of STA and The Young Playthings, an ad in the news paper.
Of this particular single, 50 copies where sold, it took £76 to make compared to a gross profit of £200.
The next single “She’s A Rebel” was also given the same kind of treatment with much added value going into the CD with it’s interesting parcel / present display.
In the case of this single, 120 where sold (more than doubling the previous single) with the cost of producing increasing to £154 and a massive jump in gross profit to £480.
The third and final single, called “Fit for Me” had an interesting addition to the single. In this case each CD sold was given a free temporary tattoo. This was used as a very good, very original marketing tool. Another example of how they added value and an example of another viral campaign.
This single saw their numbers ever increasing with 150 copies sold, a production cost of £246 and a gross profit of £600.
This final single brought the total net profits to £806, however this does not include the exposure that all the single releases, gigs and press that The Young Playthings received.
Next they went on to produce the D.I.Y album. With the revenue generated from the first three singles they set their recording budget at £800. They spent £150 on mastering the tracks, mastering is a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master); the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). £150 for artwork, which includes an hour to turn the images into CD artwork.
£496.15 for 500 CD’s, including a 4 page booklet inside the common jewel case. £100 on promo mail outs, making sure that their music was heard by the right people. 300 where sent to shops at £6.15, generating £1845. 100 sold online at £10, generating £1000
Approximately the total costs of this process was £1500 and the total profit was £1000.
The process ended with a full album “Who Invented Love?” which allowed The Young Playthings to go on a full UK Summer Tour playing in big name concerts and artists. With a sales expectancy of 1200 and a profit base of 6000 with which The Young Playthings will use to record and market the 2nd album.
Marketing was a very large process of the success of The Young Playthings and STA as a whole.
STA made sure that their songs, sent out using the promotional mail outs, on the radio by the right people and on stations where the potential audience of the band would listen to. They also made sure to display posters at places that the band would be expected to play and where their expected audience was to be. T-shirts and other merchandise was given out to fans of the band, this was to give the bad a larger audience and encourage word of mouth advertising.
STA encourage the idea of “being bespoke.” This is, the encouragement of being original and individual to all the other music and products out there. The fact that STA is an independent record label allows them to be different and much more engaging.
An example of how STA was helping their artist’s to being bespoke is with a band called Oppenheimer.
In an Oppenheimer album, STA created a CD that which was designed in such a way that the listener had to rip it open in oder to get at the CD inside. This subliminally gave the message of a present inside the packaging as we have seen before with The Young Playthings previous single but also came with another advantage. As the cover was so beautifully done, had crafted with amazing art, the customer was forces to buy two of the same album. One in order for them to listen to but also one in which that they could keep as a collectors item. This simple design and originality allowed a relatively unknown band such as Oppenheimer to boost sales dramatically compared to how they could have fared with a simple CD jewel case.
Remembering that STA have a keen eye on D.I.Y. they believe that there are many free solutions on the internet to a lot of the problems that may arise.
One site in particular that we will be looking in to more is “CD Baby.”
CD Baby allowed a small record label with little money to spare, free US sales and distribution. This allowed STA a chance to enter into one of the largest music markets on the planet.
Another site that we discussed is Myspace. It is a social networking site that has become very focused on networking between bands, artists and DJ’s. This is breaking down the barrier between themselves and the audience allowing for a much better connection. This connection is the new found power in order to “get the tenner out of your pocket” i.e. to generate sales.
This site allows the public to see what they are doing using their blog, listen to some of their music e.g. their new single, back catalogue, remixes all by using the online player built into the site. It allows them to see the bands schedule with the upcoming gigs menu, see pictures of the artist and past gigs, embedded videos of the gigs or music videos.
Arguably the best feature with this site in breaking down the barrier is the comments option. This allows the audience to leave a comment on the page of the artist that they may read and reply to.
However this site in resent years faces much spam due to this feature, it again is a free resource that STA encourages their artists to use.
An example of how this kind of social network marketing can benefit bands comes from another STA band, “And So I Watch You From Afar”. This allowed a relatively unknown local band to fill a massive venue like Mandela Hall and gain a massive group of hardcore fans, all from a free resource such as Myspace.
