Business Plan

The First Draft (Releasing An EP)

Objective:

My aim is to record and release an EP (The First Draft) that is mixed and mastered so it's ready to be listened to by people whom are interested in my music. I aim to sell 100 copies or more, regardless of format, so I can walk away with a profit.

Target Audience:

Ideally, my target audience is everyone that enjoys listening to music but since I'm not at such a level where I can grasp everyone's attention, my target audience will be in London since that's where I'm based at.

My majority target audience will have to listen to hip hop for me to catch their attention since that's the genre I specialize in, however, this is where my USP (Unique Selling Point) comes into play. Seeing as hip hop is heavily based on the use of samples, this can attract those who don't listen to many hip hop because they can simply like a song of mine that samples their favourite genre and that could lead them to opening up to not only my music, but the genre as well.

My target audience wouldn't have an age range simply for 2 reasons: As I said earlier "Ideally, my target audience is everyone that enjoys listening to music", the other reason would be my USP. Seeing as I'm primarily a sampler, I sample from records that have been released ranging from modern genres of today to as far back as I can go (i.e. blues, classical, folk) and everything in between. That would mean my interest in music could cross over someone with a similar age to mine and someone who's well in their 30s, 40s, 50s and so on.

Although it's hard to determine how much income my target audience will have to their disposal, I do know that they'll have enough to purchase my EP as I plan to set the price at a very reasonable price (more info in Marketing Strategy).

The one thing that will attract people to my music is my individualism and how I try my best to be myself rather than trying to emulate other artists or be a mixture of other artists. However, seeing as there are countless people trying to be their favourite artist, there are also a lot of people who want to do things differently and my target audience may turn their heads, for whatever reason, to another act who may have a similar mind-state to me.

Timeline:

First and foremost, the music needs to be created/written so I have to something name, record, make artwork for, promote, sell, etc. Then, once each song is named and the track listing has been sorted out (to make things easier in the long term so I don't have to worry about that), I'll then look to record everything I've arranged for the EP so that I have something to give to the studio engineer(s) whom are mixing and mastering my tracks, however, I could decide to master some tracks myself simply because I'm the artist and I know what sounds I want to accomplish.

Once all that is completed, I would then turn my focus on the artwork and I'd spend less time than I would because I already have the product so I could base the artwork off of the music on my project and after all that, I'll then decide on what format will I want to release it on simply because I won't know how long it'll take me to the EP (it could take a day or even years to make something I'm satisfied with, as evident with many other musicians) so if I decide what format I want to release it on from the very start, it may affect me in the long term and I could miss out (i.e. vinyl sales going up in sales in 2014 ever since 1996). Once all that is completed, I will then turn my attention towards promotion and advertisement because by then, I'll have a finished product with it's own packaging ready to be consumed.

Marketing Strategy:

My product will be an EP consisting of 10 tracks and I chose to have it at 10 tracks because I want to grasp and maintain the listener's attention within a suitable time range. For instance, if I had more tracks, that would mean that the EP would be longer and I'd run the risk of losing the listener's attention, or they'll become bored, etc. As mentioned earlier, my USP is the fact that I sample and that really expand my target audience from simply being "mainly fans of one genre" to being "general music fans of various genres".

My EP will go for a price of £3 (if not, then certainly cheaper), but since it'll be available on different formats, prices will vary. I chose to set it at a cheap price because I want it at a price where it's affordable for everyone, regardless of what class they're in (i.e. working class, etc). In regards to format, I plan to release the project on digital, CD and vinyl (£2.50 for digital, £3 for CD & £4 for vinyl), however each format will have it's own feature.

For digital, I'll just release the original EP in it's initial form, for CD, I'll place a hidden track at the end of the last song and for vinyl, I'll alter the production work, especially songs produced by me. Also, I'd sell my project for a cheaper price for those that turn up to see me perform but the prices will vary dependent on how many people turn up to my show. You will be able to purchase the music through virtual stores and places such as supermarkets and retail stores, however once again the format will be taken into consideration. For example, for vinyls and CDs, I can sell it through websites such as www.discogs.com.

For promotion, I plan to advertise my project everywhere I can. For example, I can advertise through
local newspaper ads simply because I've never seen an album get advertised via newspapers, let alone a local one. One other affective way would be to get my project promoted/reviewed by a blogger (the bigger the blog/blogger, the more exposure I get) and I could do a favor for them in return. I can also ask a friend to help me create some flyers so I can post them around venues. I can also advertise my project through social media outlets, for example Facebook, because I can then reach out to people who I may never ever reach and if they're interested, they'll click on the link and discover me and my music.

Development:

Once I release this EP, I plan on continuing producing/composing more music and writing more lyrics, releasing more EP's and releasing LP's in the process, as well collaborating with other artist's, whether if it's only a single or a full length studio album.

Budget:

Since this is my first EP and I don't have a huge (or any) presence in the music industry, I can instantly save myself a lot of money and gain more time by choosing to create the EP at home. I can also decide to record at home but that'll require me purchasing a microphone (£40+ for condenser, £15+ for Dynamic but you can find some really cheap).

I'd also need acoustic foams for the room I'll be recording in so I'll be looking at around £30+ for some tiles. However, I can simply go to a friend's house (who happens to be in a music collective with me) and record my stuff their for free which can save me around £85, plus he offered to mix down and master each track for my project for free, so that covers my concerns for mixing & mastering costs. However, the only other person(s) that would mix down and master my tracks would be myself simply because I know what sounds I want to accomplish in the music I make.

For artwork, I would prefer to do it myself to compliment my project. I would either draw the artwork and alter it with the use of photoshop (or something similar) or don't draw at all and gather images and/or takes my own pictures and solely solely use a program like photoshop to execute what I want to do.

For the format, digital will cost me nothing as I can simply upload it on sites like Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc. For CD's, I can buy stacks of empty CD's and burn the music on the CD's myself (I'd be looking at £20 or less for stacks of empty CD's). For vinyls, I understand it's difficult these days to get a pressing, however, through my friend's family friend whom works for a small label directed me to a place very local to me (near Holloway Underground Station) where I can press 2 vinyls for £25.

For the advertisement, I plan to have around £50-£100 because the more money I have for advertisement, the more I can spread my name out there and let people know I exist, meaning that investing a bit more into advertisement can pay off for me in the long term.


I will have two main sources of income to invest into all this: part-time job and doing sets with my collective. Funny enough, I know a bunch of guys that have invested in a sound system (which is still growing) and they organize legal events and me and my fellow group members were fortunate enough to perform on one of their stages and get paid for it. I also met someone at the event who planned on hosting an event at the same venue later in the year (December) and asked for a promo by my group so he can confirm a slot for us.

I'd much prefer a part-time job to a full-time simply because that gives me more time to focus on my music and not have all my spare time consumed by work. It would also give me motivation to keep on creating better music for the project and not to slack off as I'll always keep telling myself "You're doing this job to fund for your project".