tombentleypom-blog

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Indigo Haze European Tour Plan - ST5

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UK Tour Plan for Indigo Haze

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Production Project - Track Links

https://soundcloud.com/tom-bentley-994442532/bitter-town

https://soundcloud.com/tom-bentley-994442532/guitar-instrumental

https://soundcloud.com/tom-bentley-994442532/queen-maddie-1

https://soundcloud.com/tom-bentley-994442532/gone-tomorrow-1

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Production Project - Audience/Market Research: Evaluation

The first thing I will do is create a one-sheet so that when I apply to be featured on various platforms I’ll be able to send one, relevant piece of information that will sum up the EP as well as me as an artist.

Once I have this, it will enable me to send my music off to radio shows as well as apply to BBC Introducing. At the same time as trying to get radio coverage, I will start contacting blogs with below 5,000 subscribers and YouTube channels with below 50,000 subscribers. I may try and contact slightly bigger blogs and channels soon after if I receive a positive response from my initial enquiries. It’s unrealistic for an artist of my size to expect to be featured on blogs and channels with over 100,000 likes as they have access to artists with much bigger fanbases than I have.

Once I start to develop a small buzz through radio, YouTube and blogs, I would then try to contact the magazines and internet radio stations that I sourced. I would wait until I had positive reviews on blogs and was being curated on YouTube and local radio playlists before contacting magazines as I would want something to show for myself upon contacting them. Magazines wouldn't feature an artist of my size unless I’m able to prove I’ve already been receiving a positive buzz on other platforms.

Once I’ve started to reach out to various platforms, I would set up social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter so that people are able to find me if they come across me on other platforms. I would also get someone to set up a wikipedia page on my behalf as you can't create a page for yourself, but it would look more professional and I’d be easier to find if people tried to find me on search engines. Another advantage of having a social media presence is that my friends/fans can share my content to build an even wider fanbase, and Facebook allows you to sponsor posts that I could use to reach out to more people in the local music scene.

By this point I hope to have started to build a core section of a fanbase. To aid in this I will upload one or two songs onto Soundcloud or Bandcamp so that people can find my music if they want to. At this point I wouldn't distribute my music to major streaming services as people aren't likely to come across it due to the mass amount of content on them and would therefore not be cost effective.

The final promotion I would do is organising a short tour as a support act either for another artists tour or for different artists each night in different cities. Playing shows would give the platform to sell physical copies of the EP before it was released onto streaming services.

After promoting the release fully, I would distribute my EP onto all major streaming services. At this moment in time I would use LANDR distribution as it seems to be the most cost effective service for a release of this time and would give me professional mastering alongside the distribution. My music isn't currently being used as part of any sync deals and so going with a distributor such as TuneCore or CD Baby wouldn't allow me to benefit from the full extent of their offered services.

Upon fully releasing the EP, I may look to begin my promotion process again with slightly more notable channels, blogs, radio stations, etc. to fully maximise the EP’s opportunity for success.

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Production Project - Audience/Market Research: EP Overview

My 4 track EP is built around the indie-folk sound that a lot of my inspiration as a songwriter comes from. Three of the four songs are acoustic (or have minimal percussion/a basic drum beat) as I wanted the instrumentation to link back to the theme of the EP as it’s about my perspective on humanity and the way people react both with each other but also with the world around us, hence the raw sounding instrumentation and production.

From doing my research into how I will go about promoting my EP, I decided that I needed a lead single that would demonstrate what I’m about as an artist. This is where the opening song of the EP comes in as although it still holds the indie-folk vibe to maintain consistency it is a lot heavier sounding and has more creative production running throughout in order to grab listeners’ attention.

The reason I wanted a lead single for marketing and promotion purposes is because it’s unlikely I would get an entire EP played on the radio or uploaded onto a YouTube playlist; I needed one song that could be used for this type of promotion and wanted something that encapsulated my sound as an artist. For an artist of my size I also felt it was important to be able to put out a single that would draw attention to a full EP release, as people who haven't heard of me before aren't likely to listen to an entire EP the first time they come across me, whereas they may listen to one single to decide whether or not they like my music before listening to further releases.

I picture my artwork being very natural with a lot of brown, green and yellow colours being used. I would be featured as part of the artwork but alongside something more scenic and metaphorical of the EP themes - it’s important I’n on the cover of my first release so that people know who I am and can connect with me more, whereas follow up releases I feel I could have more creative freedom. I would also experiment with using striking colours such as purple or pink blended in with the earthy colours to catch people’s attention.

My target audience isn't age or gender specific but rather genre specific within the indie-folk scene; I will be able to market to such a broad target audience by promoting across a variety of platforms such as YouTube, blogs and radio. I have also tried to focus my promotional efforts on geographical scenes that favour indie-folk, such as Bristol, Brighton and Birmingham.

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Production Project - Audience/Market Research: Creating a one-sheet/metadata

In order to apply to play venues or have my music reviewed and featured on blogs, magazines, YouTube and radio, I would need to put together a one-sheet with all my artist information, as these can be pivotal when trying to make attachments with industry professionals and gatekeepers.

One-sheets typically contain the following information:

Artist Name

Title of the Album/EP/Single

Release Date

Record Label

Track Titles

Genre/”Who I Sound Like”

Composer Information

Artist Bio

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Production Project - Audience/Market Research: Live Music

After finishing my research into how to promote my music through blogs, magazines, YouTube and Radio, I started to think about the end goal of promoting my music. Although I’ve looked into digital streaming platforms so that people are able to listen to my music if they come across the promotion, I also started to think about the live music sector. Live music and recorded music seem to work hand-in-hand in terms of promoting each other - if someone comes across my recorded music and like it they're likely to come to a live gig, same as someone seeing me play at a show and enjoying my music so they may go home and try and find my recorded content online.

Promotion Companies

Zaneus Promotions (West Midlands)

Works to book artists on their books onto gigs, tours and club nights. They work with acoustic, blues, indie, folk and country artists (amongst others) and so would clearly have experience in promoting for an artist like myself. To apply I would have to submit a press pack to artists@zaneus.co.uk. Artist fees vary depending on the event.

RAPromo (West Midlands)

Books artists for pub gigs, one-night gigs and small festivals. Caters for genres including blues, acoustic, country, folk and indie, and so would be comfortable promoting my music. Unsigned artists can send a message via Facebook but booking agents/managers have to email resurrectingapollo@live.co.uk. Artist fees: showcase, charity gig, support slot at unsigned gig all pay £1/fan on the door tally; a headline slot at an unsigned gig is £1/fan on the door tally plus up to £50 expenses; a support slot at a signed gig pays up to £100; signed acts have deals arranged with discretion.

The Catapult Club (Birmingham) - http://www.thecatapultclub.net

Promotes for venues in Birmingham such as O2 Academy 3, The Rainbow, The Flapper, The Sunflower Lounge, The Asylum 2, and The Hare and Hounds King’s Health. Artists email arthur@thecatapultclub.net with a link to their Facebook page, a mobile number for ease of contact, and information on where the artist is based in the UK.

Out of all three promotion companies I looked into, The Catapult Club is the only one that I would contact regarding the possibility of being put on their books. They have an easy to find website and clear information regarding their venues and portfolio of artists, whereas the other two didn't seem very legitimate as they aren't working with notable venues.

Venues

Besides promotion companies I looked into venues that  could approach myself about the possibility of being put on the bill in the form of a support slot with artists of a similar style of music to myself. The aim of this would be to create a network of gig venues around the country to play a short, week-long tour in support slots to further promote my music to people who wouldn’t have heard of me. As well as being able to make a more physical connection with potential fans as I would be able to show them my music personally rather than through the digital platforms I have found, I would also be able to sell my CDs and merchandise to people who enjoyed my music.

The Marrs Bar [Worcester] - brian@marrsbar.co.uk

The Sunflower Lounge [Birmingham] - info@birminghampromoters.com

The Louisiana [Bristol] - thelouisiana@gmail.com

The Crew/Queens Hall [Nuneaton] - CD/cassettes sent to venue’s address (alternatively, I could contact my uncle as he is a promoter for this venue)

Frog and Fiddle [Cheltenham] - contact promoter/venue directly

Green Door Store [Brighton] - toni@thegreendoorstore.co.uk

Sofar Sounds

Alongside their YouTube channel, Sofar Sounds also runs a lot of live events in the form of secret shows - they will announce a lineup and city for a gig but don't reveal the specific venue until the day of the show. Sofar Sounds has developed a following over the last few years and they take full responsibility over the promotion and running of each event, therefore as an artists all I would have to do would be turn up to the venue and play. Sofar Sounds pay the artists either in the form of monetary payment or a promotional video filmed at the event.

Sofar Sounds puts on gigs all over the world. The following locations are cities/towns in the UK that I could easily access:

Swindon

Oxford

Birmingham

Brighton

Bristol

Cheltenham

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Production Project - Audience/Market Research: Journalists

Blogs

Reviews and interviews on blogs would be a great way of reaching out to a new fanbase that otherwise may not come across my music. People who subscribe to music blogs are obviously going to have a strong interest in music, therefore making them a strong core market to try and target.

I have found the following blogs that would be appropriate for my EP:

Lucy McCourt - 100 Facebook likes (https://lucymccourt.com/tag/blog/)

Turtle Tempo - 400 Facebook likes (http://turtletempo.co.uk)

Knox Road - 1,000 Facebook likes (http://www.knoxroad.com)

Xune Mag - 2,000 Facebook likes (https://xunemag.com)

IndiePulse Music - 2,000 Facebook likes (https://indiepulsemusic.com)

Music Emissions - 2,000 Facebook likes (http://www.musicemissions.com)

HearYa - 2,000 Facebook likes  (http://www.hearya.com)

The Blue Walrus - 4,000 Facebook likes (https://thebluewalrus.com)

Country Fried Rock - 4,000 Facebook likes (https://countryfriedrock.org)

HighClouds - 6,000 Facebook likes (http://www.highclouds.org)

For Folk’s Sake - 6,000 Facebook likes (http://www.forfolkssake.com)

A&R Factory - 10,000 Facebook likes (https://www.anrfactory.com)

Folk Radio UK - 16,000 Facebook likes (http://www.folkradio.co.uk)

The Thin Air - 21,000 Facebook likes (http://thethinair.net)

The Music Ninja - 32,000 Facebook likes (http://www.themusicninja.com)

Stamp the Wax - 35,000 Facebook likes (http://www.stampthewax.com)

BIRP.FM - 43,000 Facebook likes (http://www.birp.fm)

Drowned in Sound - 86,000 Facebook likes (http://drownedinsound.com)

Indie Shuffle - 113,000 Facebook likes (https://www.indieshuffle.com)

Pigeons and Planes - 791,000 Facebook likes (https://pigeonsandplanes.com)

I would begin approaching blogs with a small following as they're more likely to feature an artist of my size. By gaining coverage in smaller blogs I’d hope to catch the attention of some of the bigger blogs that would then want to feature my work if it’s creating a buzz in a particular region or scene.

Magazines

Coverage in local music magazines will draw exposure towards my music for people in areas I am likely to play shows in, therefore will help build a following for my live music as well as my recorded music.

SLAP Magazine

An online and printed magazine distributed throughout Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. It includes reviews, local gig calendars and advertisements. SLAP Magazine is distributed heavily through gig venues and instrument stores which means the people coming across it are almost definitely going to have an interest in music - if people come across a positive review off my music whilst they're at a gig they may decide to try and come to one of mine as they clearly enjoy live music.

(http://www.slapmag.co.uk)

Counteract

Music magazine based in Birmingham. Includes band/album/gig reviews, a “what’s on” type gig-guide for Birmingham venues, and interviews with featured artists. As Birmingham is the biggest local city to me, and one that I would have access to easily due to location, it is important for me to try and build a fanbase there.

(http://counteract.co)

Bristol Live Magazine

This is a sister publication alongside London in Stereo. It gives exposure to upcoming and established artists from Bristol and surrounding cities. Similar to Birmingham, Bristol is a big city with a strong indie music scene that I should try and reach out to people in as it’s local enough to build a fanbase.

(http://www.bristollivemagazine.com)

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Production Project - Audience/Market Research: Streaming Services

Streaming services would make my music more accessible for people who discover my music at gigs, via YouTube, hear it on the radio, etc. and want to find more of my content.

Popular Streaming Services

Amazon Prime Music

Apple Music / iTunes

Deezer

Google Music

Spotify

Tidal

Soundcloud

Bandcamp

Distribution Companies

LANDR

CD Baby

TuneCore

Ditto Music

Loudr

Record Union

Loudr

Mondo Tunes

Reverbnation

Symphonic

iMusician

The Orchard (work with labels only, not individual artists)

AWAL (selected applications only)

LANDR - (https://www.landr.com/en?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=BrandSearchENCore&utm_term=landr&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5pPIoLOK2wIVATgbCh3HswOSEAAYASAAEgLsHPD_BwE)

As well as global distribution to all major streaming services, LANDR also offer a professional mastering service for all tracks distributed by them

Easily track listeners and fanbases through a report dashboard

Artists keep 100% of their royalties

Prices start at £1/month up to £4/month for release only packages; mastering packages range from £4/month to £25/month

TuneCore - (https://www.tunecore.co.uk/?ref=c_1006622&cmp=e_1t1&utm_content=257789023346_&utm_term=tunecore&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=uk_b_temo&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI34n8tLOK2wIVEeEbCh34PQeiEAAYASAAEgJpT_D_BwE)

Worldwide digital distribution of albums and singles to all major platforms, but also able to distribute your songs as ringtones via iTunes

Offers a Music Publishing Administration pack to enable artists to collect their royalties and sync fees through TuneCore - this service allows you to keep 90% of your artist royalties, but drops to 80% if the TuneCore creative team secures a licensing deal for your music; the MPA pack costs £75 as a one time payment

Prices are £29.99/year for an album release (rising to £49.99 after one year), £9.99/year for a single release, and £19.99 for a ringtone

CD Baby - (https://members.cdbaby.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoty_1LOK2wIVQlXTCh12fwftEAAYASAAEgKLjvD_BwE)

Offers physical as well as digital distribution to all major platforms; also offers sync licensing service

They’re the only distributor who will collect rights owner royalties for you

They have several packages starting with CD Baby Free which gives you access to sell downloads on store.cdbaby.com and on your own website; CD Baby Standard costs £9.95/single and £35/album and enables you worldwide digital and CD distribution, collects royalties earned through YouTube, and collects sync licensing for music used for TV, film and video games; CD Baby Pro costs £34.95/single and £69/album and as well as offering the same as the lower packages, adds Performing Rights Organisation affiliation, song registration with global collection agencies and worldwide publishing royalty collection

Symphonic - (http://symphonicdistribution.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIupb74rOK2wIVFRIbCh3oQgBgEAAYASAAEgKLMvD_BwE)

Worldwide physical and digital distribution, as well as marketing, licensing and publishing

Distributes to all major streaming services but also to Beatport (a service especially important for artists making electronic music)

Services cost a £25 sign-up fee, plus £10.99/release for 1-5 songs, £19.99/release for 6-10 songs, £29.99/release for 11-15 songs, and £39.99/release for 16-20 songs

Record Union - (https://www.recordunion.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjrD18LOK2wIV7wrTCh0X0QsAEAAYASAAEgKtLfD_BwE)

Global digital distribution to all major platforms, as well as Juno Download and Beatport

Record Union has a unique partnership with Sony Music to help get artists heard by a major label

Discovery tool gives your music more visibility

To distribute to one digital music service costs £7/single, £10/EP and £13/album (add additional services for £2/year/service); distribution to six digital music services costs £10/single, £13/EP and £16/album (add additional services for £2/year/service); to distribute to all digital music services costs £15/single, £20/EP and £25/album

Bandcamp - (https://bandcamp.com)

Stand-alone online store but doesn't distribute to other services

Enables artists to sell physical merchandise and self-release CDs

Artists are also able to add a Bandcamp ‘Buy’ link to their Soundcloud

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Production Project - Audience/Market Research: YouTube

Having a strong online presence is vital in the modern music industry as it allows the greatest ease of access for people trying to listen to and discover new music. After taking this into consideration, I felt that YouTube would be a good place to start building my online presence as it's a free service that everyone has access to.

Examples of YouTube channels that suit my style of music:

UK based

The Hyve - 150,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/wearethehyve)

alexrainbirdMusic - 410,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/alexrainbird)

European Based

SAD [Netherlands] - 20,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwMiYEXMHe27SHJWOlPJTsw)

Indie Folk Central [Netherlands] - 60,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPRvJpnEZFonePU9fJGcLLQ)

MORindie [Austria] - 110,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/MORindie)

SleepMusic [France] - 150,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJXF9XB773B7oF1RuKUcaNQ)

Wave of Good Noise [Switzerland] - 200,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/WaveOfGoodNoise)

MOSTLY Strings [Portugal] - 400,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMostlyStrings/featured?disable_polymer=1)

Rest of World Based

SamFish Music [New Zealand] - 30,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY8NK-Ch9-ClQk6i3X3boVA)

The Indie Folx [USA] - 40,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxDQFwWmDLqo7uFZp3do1mw)

IndieCurrent [Canada] - 150,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/IndieCurrent)

Indie Nation [LA, USA] - 290,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS34YVeqtFViWRB3jc3o2FQ)

IndieAir [USA] - 750,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVoraDictyd89xgZt-J2Frw)

Other Small Channels

Indie Music - 5,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN9FFTRr_3rJ2bBEd3R9vDw)

The Indie Folk Music Channel - 10,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/IndieFolkChannel)

Indie Music Dimension - 30,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_MH4Sme5jV2nS24bDXJ15w)

Fancy Melancholic - 50,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/fancymelancholic)

Live Music/Acoustic Session Channels

SoapBox [UK] - 2,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/SpbxMedia/featured?disable_polymer=1)

Sofar Sounds [Global] - 560,000 subscribers (https://www.youtube.com/user/Sofarsounds)

 Each of these channels have contact details that I could use to approach them regarding having my music featured on their channel. Although it is unlikely that all, if any, channels would get back to me, if even just one channel liked my music and featured it on one of their playlists it would give me exposure to a whole new fanbase.

I would target initial efforts on the UK based channels before moving on to channels from Europe, North America and New Zealand - approaching the smaller channels first before attempting to get onto more popular ones as this feels like a natural progression for an artist of my size.

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Production Project - Audience/Market Research: Radio

I began my market research by looking into the more traditional form of music promotion that is radio. I decided straight away that an artist of my size wouldn't be able to have access to playlists on national/international stations and so kept my research heavily targeted on smaller stations that I could easily apply to.

BBC Introducing

As I couldn’t find any local stations that were either small enough or noteable enough to apply for (all stations were either part of big corporations or were so small they had no platform for breaking new artists), I focused my attention on the local BBC Music Introducing platforms for BBC Hereford and Worcester, and BBC Gloucestershire. BBC Introducing is free to apply to and is an ideal platform for new artists, such as myself, to have their music presented to an audience they wouldn't otherwise have access to. BBC Introducing has famously kickstarted the careers of artists like James Bay, Jake Bugg and Blossoms (as well as hundreds of other successful British artists), and so I figured uploading to BBC Introducing gave small artists nothing to lose but potentially a lot to gain. The BBC Introducing DJ for BBC Hereford ad Worcester (my local station) is Andrew Marston, and so it may be effective to contact him separately with my music and information about the EP and myself.

Internet Radio

Alongside conventional FM radio, I also looked into internet radio as it’s quickly becoming a popular way for people to access new music online.

NTS Live (https://www.nts.live)

The first example I found was NTS Live, which streams it’s shows live from London and Manchester in hour long intervals per show/programme. The station has two channels running side-by-side to provide a wide range of programming throughout the day.

I found the following shows would fit my indie-folk vibe that runs throughout my EP:

Solid Steel (solidsteel@ninjatune.net)

Country Hayride

Kit Grill

Mixcloud (https://www.mixcloud.com/discover/)

Similarly to NTS Live, Mixcloud has thousands of contributors all with their own podcasts/radio shows that are easily accessed via the mixcloud website. I found that a lot of the folk shows were of a similar style to the indie-folk vibe that runs throughout my EP. Particular contributors that came across as being somewhat approachable for my music were Columbus Music Magazine, Calypso World and Soho Radio. As well as having specific shows, Mixcloud also allows its users to compile their own playlists of songs they've heard through Mixcloud programming, which would give me even greater access to a wider fanbase if people liked my music and added it to a playlist that they shared with their friends/followers.

KUTX (http://appradiofm.com/radio/KUTX-98.8-FM-Austin,-TX-USA-sh3e5/)

KUTX is owned and operated by the University of Texas, America. Although geographically this may seem like a strange choice, musically it fits perfectly with my genre. KUTX focuses its programming quite heavily on indie-folk music and so could potentially give me access to a fanbase in the southern regions of America, and although they obviously wouldn't travel from America to watch my live shows, they may purchase my music/merchandise as the indie-folk scene is popular in that region.

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Event Management - Event Overview: My Contribution

I would say that a lot of the tasks we fulfilled were a group effort and no one made any key decisions without consulting everyone else first.

My biggest contribution came on the day of the live event with helping to ensure everything ran smoothly as part of my role as stage manager. I feel as though I fulfilled my responsibilities without any issues arising and each artist seemed comfortable with the way the evening was laid out.

I also tried to mediate between ideas at meetings if we all had slightly different ideas on a subject. I feel that although everyone brought an equal amount of creativity to the group, I tried to add an additional business mind set to each decision we made as a group and tried to think over each point rationally rather than just acting impulsively as I feel this may have happened had I not been consulted on some areas of discussion.

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Event Management - Live Event: Reflection

Successes

Our main success was getting 40 people to buy tickets resulting in a £60 profit. This was achieved through our well targeted marketing plan but also through word of mouth as people found out about the gig and invited more people to come along with them.

Our concept as a whole was a success as having artists from each of the three years and alumni attracted audience members spanning a wide year-group range. The concept also developed a fun and friendly atmosphere within the venue and everyone in attendance (staff, audience members and artists) all seemed relaxed and content at the quality of the event we’d delivered. One of our main goals when planning the event was to make artists feel as comfortable as possible as it’s something we’ve felt personally hasn't always been a priority at events we've played - I feel as though we achieved this through delivering a quality artist information document and liaising with each artist over all their concerns, no matter how big or small.

Another success was our use of MooMoos and tattoo raffle promotions to entice people to attend. It was a feature of our event that I feel really separated our event from other gigs that people may have been to.

The final success was our ability to begin building our brand. We managed to launch a live events sub-division of Big Pappi Records until the title Big Pappi Records Presents which can be used in future to host release launch-parties for our artists single, EP and album releases.

Failures

The only major failure came with our inability to immediately contract artists once they'd been booked. Had we done this we would have avoided basic issues like artists pulling out of the gig at short notice.

Our time management also drifted slightly from our initial GANNT chart and although this had a very low impact on the overall running of the event it still meant we had less time to perform certain tasks. We could have potentially had an even more successful event had we stuck to our timings as it would have allowed us time to perform tasks that we hadn't planned for that would have enhanced our event.

Conclusion

In conclusion I think we worked well as a group to deliver an event that exceeded my personal expectations. We managed to liaise with one another about each decision without any arguments or serious disagreements about how something should be done.

Despite making a few small errors, we’ll be able to learn from those mistakes in order to make our future events even more successful.

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Event Management - Live Event: Execution

Event Video

https://www.facebook.com/BIgPappiRecords/videos/264152467462278/

Financial Reports

This is our financial report for all of our expenditure and income. As can be seen we managed to keep our event very low costing with only 5 points of expenditure. We knew from early planning stages that ticket sales would be the only form of income on the night and so we wanted to keep our costs below our estimated ticket sales. As can be seen with the tattoo raffle we broke even and for the deposit and rider package we lost £50. However, our ticket sales accounted for £120 income to give us a total profit of £62.

I have previously discussed our deposit and rider deal with Smokey Joe’s in a post prior to this one. In summary we used the £50 deposit money to pay for the artists’ rider rather than take it back as proper revenue.

We sold tickets for £3 each after talking to other people on the course and asking them how much they would be willing to spend on a gig. The general consensus was that £4 was seen as slightly too expensive seeing as a lot of the artists play free entry gigs in Cheltenham and so people wouldn't care if they missed this gig because they could go and watch the artists play somewhere else for free. We settled on £3 entry as alongside the MooMoos discount we felt that was a fair amount to expect people to pay for the artists that we’d booked. We had 40 people buy tickets on the door to account for the £120 ticket revenue which exceeded our expectations of getting around 25/30 people in to watch the gig. Just under a quarter of the crowd were non-music students (however they were still students at the university) which showed we booked the right artists and promoted the event well as we were able to attract people who wouldn’t usually attend a gig.

In conclusion with regards to our financing it may be worth spending more on marketing and promotion in an attempt to get more people interested in the event - that way even if we spent slightly more we would most likely have more people in attendance which would boost our profit margins. We could also try and sell tickets in advance for a discounted price - this would ensure ticket sales even if people didn't turn up for the event. Savings could be achieved on venue hire if we booked a venue that would allow us to bring our own rider - this would mean we could purchase a much larger artist rider for a lot less money; on the other hand, £50 for venue hire and a rider could be considered cheap anyway, as Frog and Fiddle would have cost us £80-£100 just for venue hire alone based on our research.

Health and Safety

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Event Management - Live Event: Planning

Audience

As the event itself featured university based artists we figured it as best to market the event most heavily to other university students. Our primary audience was students with links to the music courses at the university (popular music, music business, creative music tech.) as we’ve noticed at gigs prior its’ very hard to get none-music students to come to gigs in Cheltenham.

We didn't want to limit our audience purely to university students and so made plans with our marketing tactics on how to try and draw other people in to the gig.

Marketing

Once we had the event details finalised we went about designing a poster. Callum took the lead on creating the poster but we each had our say on how it should look and what colour schemes to use.

This is the finalised poster design. We made sure that our company branding was present on the poster to draw attention to it as we were conscious it was a perfect opportunity to start promoting ourselves. We decided on a predominantly white colour scheme for the foreground because it stands out clearly and it’s easy to read over the darker background image.

A lot of our marketing was done via social media because it’s a proven way of making quick connections to potential gig-goers. We put out regular posts on both Facebook and Instagram for the artist lineup, MooMoos discount and general event information. Rather than announce the entire lineup in one post we spread them out over three posts to announce the two teams and then Jay Mansfield as special guest host. Marketing the announcements in this way gave us a greater number of posts than we’d have had doing one announcement - each post was being circulated to the same people to try and create a repetitive marketing cycle to try and force people to take notice of the event.

The above screenshots show the date of posting as well as the number of people reached. As is shown by the people reached tally, our marketing started to gather momentum towards the end of the marketing campaign as we received a sudden influx of post clicks. We put out the same posts on Instagram at the same times and days as we did on Facebook.

As well as our social media marketing campaign we also wanted to utilise physical posters as a way of marketing to people that we don't have access to via social media. We printed off a collection of posters and took them into high street cafes, take-aways, music stores and other small independent stores. We tried to target places that attracted a lot of student customers as this was our primary target market - places such as Valentino’s, Go Peri and Roosters all have a large student appeal and so we asked if we could put our posters up in these shops, to which they all agreed. We also put several posters up around the university campus to achieve further student outreach.

One further marketing tactic that we tried was handing out flyers at Badlands Record Store during their Record Store Day event. I came across this event when scrolling through my Facebook feed a couple of days before the event itself and thought it would be a good audience to target with flyers as they clearly have a keen interest in music. As well as handing out flyers outside the store we also got the store’s employee to put our posters in people’s bags as they were paying for items. This was somewhat successful as people seemed interested in our event but it didn't actually boost the number of people in attendance. If we were to try this marketing tactic again with a bit more persistence then it could potentially be a highly effective way of drawing attention to events.

Future marketing could be effective using the same marketing tools just on a bigger scale to this time round. We started marketing just under a month before the event which gave us plenty of time, we could have just tried to find more content to post about on social media to keep people interested and further entice people to attend the event.

Tech

Our tech requirements for the live event:

PA (including speakers, cables, mixing desk, microphones)

Cameras

A full PA kit was provided by the venue, Smokey Joe’s, and the camera equipment was provided by our hired photography and film staff. We didn’t have to bring any equipment ourselves which made running the event a lot smoother on the day as we didn't have to worry about anything in the build up to the event.

The event featured only acoustic artists and so no drum kit was needed. This helped make the stage area look a bit tidier and less cramped as when we've attended gigs at the venue before the stage area has looked messy due to it being so small.

Booking

We all worked together to compile a list of artists that we thought would be suitable for our event. Our main consideration was finding popular artists that would draw a guaranteed crowd as we wanted as strong a lineup as possible. Current PoM students we shortlisted were:

Jack Cooper

Hot Beige

Dom Watton

Tandem

Courteney Yeoell

Ryan Nicklin

Lewis Shepherd

LEAH

Chloe Hepburn

Will Mawer

Conor Begley

Rosie Mountjoy

Alumni students that we shortlisted were:

Harry Daniels

Ben Cipolla

Bobby Scaife

Will MackMersh

Dan Walton

Lucy Gray

Charlie Sly

Melissa Grace

Rob (Thrill Collins)

After considering our shortlists we decided to book Jack Cooper, Courteney Yeoell and Ryan Nicklin to represent the current PoM team - each of these artists agreed to play with no real issues arising. Our initial thoughts for an alumni team were Harry Daniels, Bobby Scaife and Ben Cipolla - they all initially agreed to play, however Bobby went back on this as he didn't want to over play Cheltenham and Ben Cipolla had double-booked himself on the date of our gig, however both gave us a reasonable amount of time to rebook artists.

After suffering this set back we went back to our shortlist and considered who else we could bring in to replace Bobby and Ben. We contacted Will MackMersh but he had work commitments. We then decided Charlie Sly and Lucy Gray would be ideal as they're both still based in Cheltenham and are popular amongst the PoM course - both of them agreed to play however Charlie pulled out a day before the gig and so we didn’t have time to find a replacement (this cannot be evidenced fully as he pulled out for personal reasons that we don’t want to display on a public blog).

Once we had a finalised lineup we were able to add them onto our posters to begin our marketting.

Me and Callum worked together to book the artists and liaise with them on basic queries about the gig. As Matt was sound engineering the gig he communicated with the artists if they had any technical queries - both Jack and Courteney had questions regarding the use of drum kits and full band setups with which Matt dealt by visiting the venue and looking over the PA equipment to see if it was possible. We decided it would be possible to house a full band if necessary but upon further communication with the artists both parties agreed it would suit the atmosphere of the event better if they played with an acoustic solo/duo setup.

Reflecting on our booking as a whole I’d say we managed it well and successfully dealt with artists dropping out if they gave us enough notice and time to do. The main thing we could do to improve on our booking process would be to contract artists immediately after them agreeing to play at our event as this would prohibit them from dropping out at short notice.

Contracts

We drew up contracts for the artists so that they fully understood their roles and responsibilities at the gig.

The contract clearly indicates their fee will be paid in the form of an artist rider and tells them what we will be obligated to provide as the hirers and what they’re obligated to provide as performers.

As well as contracts we also created an artist information pack. As performers ourselves at other gigs we’ve often felt extremely under-informed as to basic information such as sound check and stage times, venue load-in arrangements, film/photography arrangements, amongst other things. Because of this we wanted the artists playing at our gig to feel as comfortable and prepared as possible and so we did research into event management protocol and discovered that an artist information package is an industry standard document when hiring artists (something that we've never received before except for Wychwood Festival).

Both the contract and artist information document were distributed amongst the artists 4 days prior to the event. Upon reflection I feel as though we could have distributed this information sooner to give the artists a clearer picture of what to expect from the gig straight away as this may have helped to answer some of the questions that our performers had. However, upon sending out the documents everyone knew exactly what was going on and everyone turned up to soundcheck for their allotted time (with the exception of Harry Daniels who let us know in advance he would be arriving late).

Promotions

We wanted to try and find an extra incentive for people to come to the gig besides the music. We immediately thought that a deal with MooMoos Clubrooms would bring more people in if they could get discounted entry to MooMoos after. Callum contacted MooMoos and they got back to us saying we could offer people who attended the gig £3 entry to MooMoos (as apposed to the usual £6), a free queue jump and a free cocktail. We were able to market the event with this promotion and use it as leverage to attract more people to come as they felt they were getting something out of it.

Another promotion we had was Callum’s idea to have a tattoo design raffle costing £2 with the winner’s design getting tattooed onto Callum. Although this didn't benefit us financially as the £34 we made through the raffle went straight to Cal to help pay for the tattoo, it definitely brought in a bigger crowd as people came to the event so that they could take part in the raffle.

Our two promotional ideas worked well and definitely contributed to bringing in a bigger crowd than the initially expected. It may be effective for future gigs to think of more promotions we could do to attract even bigger audiences to our event.

Meetings

The same as with the broadcast event we conducted a meeting every Thursday to discuss our progress with the event and what we needed to do moving forward. We all had equal input in pitching ideas and created a productive setting for us to get a lot of work done in small amounts of time. We communicated small issues via text/Facebook messages but the bulk of our decision making was done face to face.

At each meeting we discussed in detail both the creative and logistical aspects of the live event. This included poster and wristband designs, artist choices, genre themes, promotional ideas, artist information documents and contracts, etc.

The only way to have made our meetings more productive with regards to the live event discussions was to have more regular meetings as there was a lot more to discuss when compared to the broadcast discussions.

Venue

Our initial enquiries into venue hire led us to contacting The Stable as it has a relaxing vibe very similar to the one we wanted to create at our event. However, an issue arose with having difficulty charging people to watch the gig as it’s a restaurant and so we couldn’t charge people entry. Although this wouldn't have impacted the event on a creative level, and would probably have attracted more people if it was free entry, we decided that on a business level it didn't make sense to run a gig that had expenditure but no income.

After this set back we started thinking about other venues in Cheltenham that could offer a suitable setting for the gig. We decided that too many gigs are done at Frog and Fiddle, and 2 Pigs and so it wouldn't be anything special for people going to watch a gig there. Because of this we decided that Smokey Joe’s was probably the ideal venue between being a decent size to get an audience into but also having a quirky vibe. Prior to the gig we went into the venue to check the size of the stage and standing/seating areas so that we could draw up a quick plan of how we could make more space for people coming to watch. We only ended up needing to push some of the tables and chairs further back in the room as this opened up the space a lot more for people to watch the performers.

The only venue cost was paying Smokey Joe’s a £50 deposit which we would get back after the event had finished. However, they wouldn't allow us to run gin our own alcohol for the artists as the venue sells alcohol themselves and it would lower their sales; to overcome this obstacle we decided that rather than taking the £50 deposit back from Smokey Joe’s for the venue hire, we would use that money to open up a £50 bar tab for the artists as their rider, which seemed to go down well amongst the artists.

It could be an effective idea for future gigs to try and create our own venue for people to come to. Either in the form of a house gig or by hiring somewhere that doesn't normally host gigs and turning it into a one-night gig venue. This would allow us full control over the creative and logistical aspects of the venue hire and would enable us to make a really fun and relaxed feel to our events.

GANNT

The GANNT chart shows our projected timings for the completion of each task. Although we did end up falling 1-2 weeks behind our GANNT chart it didn't prohibit how effective we ran the gig as we allowed ourselves plenty of time when drawing up the GANNT chart in case of this eventuality.

Sticking more rigidly to a GANNT chart for future events would help us to have a better sense of organisation and despite this not really being an issue during our planning as we maintained high standards with our time management, it may create a more steady work flow rather than doing a lot of planning and marketing on one day and none the next day.

Staff

We compiled a list of job roles that would need to be fulfilled for the event to run smoothly:

Sound Engineer

Artist Liaison

Stage Manager

Door Staff

Photographer / Videographer

As Matt was the most experienced sound engineer between our group we decided that he should perform that role. As each artist only had one instrument and one vocal it was easy for him to perform this task and he did so with no issues, all the artists turned up on time for sound check and so we were able to have a full line-up check prior to the event starting. As Callum had dealt with a lot of the artists in the lead up to the event he continued as artist liaison for the event itself - he was responsible for meeting the artists when they arrived at the venue and dealing with their requests regarding the rider. I performed the role of stage manager as I have some experience doing this role before at a festival - I worked closely with both Matt and Callum to ensure the artists sound checked on time and knew exactly what time they were on stage. I felt as though I performed my role well as everything ran smoothly and all of the artists knew where they needed to be and when. Will’s role was to oversee the event in it’s entirety and help the rest of us with any tasks such as setting up the PA and deciding revised stage times following Charlie Sly’s last-minute cancellation.

We hired door staff in the form of Will and Callum’s girlfriends as we felt this was a role we were best off employing someone else to do so that we could focus on other jobs - we had a couple of issues with people not wanting to pay but these were quickly resolved by one of the event organisers.

We also hired Jonny Nolan to take photos and Jake Randall to record some videos of the event. They were easy to hire and easy to work wit as we explained their roles upon contacting them and before they agreed to work. Fortunately neither of them asked for any form of payment and so we bought them a couple of drinks each to say thank you, but it still managed to help keep our costs down.

Our hiring policy worked effectively as it meant we were able to perform the tasks expected of ourselves without having to worry about things like taking ticket money and photographs. In future the only staffing change would come if we hired a venue that insisted on using an in-house sound engineer, although this wouldn't effect the group dynamic as Matt would simply assist with one of the other roles.

[tombentleypom-blog]

Event Management - Live Event: Rationale

The idea I initially wanted to do was to do a rap-battle tournament akin to the 8 Mile film scenes. However, the logistics of this with not really knowing enough rappers, particularly ones that could freestyle to a high standard meant this wasn't really a viable option.

We did like the idea of having a competitive edge to our event though and so thought about going down the battle of the bands route. Matt suggested booking alumni artists as he felt they would bring in a bigger crowd. I felt we could draw on the alumni idea to develop a battle of the bands concept with two teams rather than the every-band-for-themselves type events everyone has attended before; with there being a team made up of UoG alumni and a team made up of current PoM’s (one from each year group to try and maximise the appeal).

Battle of the bands events are a very common thing and so we didn't take inspiration from any one particular event. However, the battle of the bands event that was run last year attracted a large audience of students and so we knew it was something that people would be interested in attending.

Big Pappi Records

Around the same time as beginning our events project, Will and I had started looking into setting up our own record label - Big Pappi Records. We thought the event could be a good way of starting to build a brand for the label.

The two of us set up a meeting with a graphic design student to discuss a potential logo design. After talking through the logo design he agreed to do it for us. He originally quoted us for £9/hour and estimated it taking him between 1 and 5 hours to complete - we couldn't afford to pay the top end of this scale and so tried negotiating with him so we could pay £25 as one set fee, to which he agreed.

Once we had the logo designed we were able to set up social media accounts for the company in order to advertise our events through that as well as our personal accounts.

[tombentleypom-blog]

Event Management - Broadcast Event: Reflection

Successes

Overall we ran a broadcast event that ran smoothly from start to finish, with only a few minor issues.

Our biggest success was thinking quickly about how we could change our event slightly to fit only having one artist rather than the several we’d initially planned for. Despite having to change the event it still worked as an effective marketing tool for the live event and attracted over 200 viewers.

We worked well to organise that event with zero costs and to find a suitable venue that we could easily access as we broadcast from Matt’s house. We also developed a simple yet effective concept that didn’t need any additional equipment hire as we owned all the required tech.

We communicated well throughout the process and played to each other’s strengths when dividing up roles.

Failures

Our biggest failure was our inadequate booking of artists for the event. We began the booking process far too late as we were focusing heavily on the live event and couldn't think if a solid broadcast concept until later than planned.

We also let the fun natured vibes of the broadcast take over slightly as it began to feel slightly hectic towards the end of the broadcast, despite us knowing exactly what was going to happen next - maybe a solid script or rehearsal of the event would help with these issues in future.

Failure to have written any definitive contracts was also a failure in terms of legality, but we did receive verbal consent from Ryan to broadcast him live. If required at a later date Ryan would be able to sign a contract saying he agreed to the terms of the broadcast and that he was aware of his roles and responsibilities.

Conclusion

All things considered I think we managed to coordinate a successful broadcast event that served it’s purpose as a promotional tool for the live event.

Despite some issues with artist bookings we were able to quickly find a way round it and develop our idea so that it worked with only one artist.

We attracted 211 views to our broadcast which shows we successfully promoted it and the broadcast itself was both fun and engaging.

The biggest thing to take out of our broadcast event is that we've developed a concept that could be repeated with different artists and could become a regular feature. In future we will know where we could make slight improvements to the planning and execution, but also how to successfully market the event in order to attract a large number of viewers.