2. Table of Contents
1.0 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................... 2
2.0 Situational Analysis ...................................................................................................... 2
2.1 Joules Music Overview ......................................................................................................... 2
2.2 Strengths and Weaknesses ................................................................................................. 2
2.3 Resources................................................................................................................................. 3
2.4 The Audience ........................................................................................................................... 3
2.5 Competition.............................................................................................................................. 4
3.0 Plan Objectives............................................................................................................... 4
4.0 Brand Establishment .................................................................................................... 4
4.1 Social Media ............................................................................................................................. 4
4.1.1 Facebook ..............................................................................................................................................5
4.1.2 YouTube................................................................................................................................................5
4.1.3 Instagram..............................................................................................................................................5
4.2 Website...................................................................................................................................... 6
4.2.1 Themes .................................................................................................................................................6
4.2.2 User Experience ..................................................................................................................................6
4.2.3 Search Optimization............................................................................................................................6
4.2.4 Channel Integration.............................................................................................................................6
5.0 Spotify Strategy.............................................................................................................. 6
5.1 Contacting the Curators........................................................................................................ 7
5.2 Sharing Joules Music ............................................................................................................ 7
6.0 Financials......................................................................................................................... 7
6.1 Income Opportunity ............................................................................................................... 8
6.2 Expenses................................................................................................................................... 8
7.0 Future Considerations.................................................................................................. 8
7.1 Twitter – Brand Promotion ................................................................................................... 8
7.2 Merchandise............................................................................................................................. 9
7.3 Sponsorships........................................................................................................................... 9
7.4 Other Distribution Opportunities........................................................................................ 9
8.0 References..................................................................................................................... 10
9.0 Appendices.................................................................................................................... 11
A.) Editorial Calendar ................................................................................................................. 11
B.) Example Branding Mock-Ups............................................................................................ 11
C.) Expected Profit Example 2020 .......................................................................................... 12
3. 1.0 Executive Summary
Joules Music is an upcoming musician and songwriter, who has an impressive amount of talent
and creativity. Joules Music currently has an impressive repertoire when performing at small
concerts and venues, generally alongside a band. However, the musician has a desire to
establish herself separate from these bands and is currently feels stagnate in development. This
marketing plan is to provide to assist the artist with establishing and growing her following with
the intent to evolve the brand to a well-known name and opening opportunities in performing.
The plan covers a variety of strategies which will assist in the process of influence growth,
detailed in sections 4.0 – 5.0. The key strategies discussed are Brand Establishment and
utilization of Spotify. Also provided in section 7.0 are future strategies and considerations which
would be useful after some influence growth.
2.0 Situational Analysis
2.1 Joules Music Overview
The founder and owner of Joules Music; Julie Klein has been making music for 30 years
and is a trained composer, singer and bass player. Joules music shares an expressive
music that can relate to Happiness, Freedom, and a Melancholic sound. Joules Music
performs live at a variety of venues around Cocoa Beach expanding her audience and
brand.
2.2 Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths –
Entertaining: Joules Music is able to entertain a crowd for hours with her large selection
of music, this can be good for concerts, weddings and special events.
Special Style: Along with her eclectic style, she brings life to the stage with a positive
vibe for the venues. Also, Joules Music has lots of experience within the music industry
and can be seen as in her element while in the spotlight.
Songwriting: Joules Music has great talent for writing her own unique music.
Weakness-
Social Media: While Joules Music on social media sites are established, the number of
followers is still relatively small. The music industry is growing rapidly, and social media
has become a main source of exposure for artists. Joules Music has yet reached a point
where she is able to consistently gain a following on these platforms. This is critical as
79% of people are using social media within the US according to Statista.com (2019).
There is lots of competition in the music industry now and to gain a larger audience on
social media platforms is essential in today’s modern times.
Website: The webpage for Joules Music displays relevant information for the audience
and has a great gallery to view. The functionality on Joules Website is outdated and will
need to be essentially renewed. Having a high- quality website is important because
your website is often your first impression you give to potential customers.
4. 2.3 Resources
The resources for Joules Music will include time, money, people and tools. Based on
observation it appears that Joules music has to its disposal the following:
TuneCore: Distribution service that offers musicians the opportunity to place their music
into online retailers such as Spotify, AmazonMP3, iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic, and
others for sale.
HypeBot: Daily news and commentary on the music industry, displays technology and
social media that drives it for music industry professionals.
Photographer/Cinematographer:
Producer- Grammy winner Mike Couzzi
Band Mates
Relationships with people in the entertainment industry in Brevard County.
Time and budget were not discussed.
2.4 The Audience
The Joules Music audience consists of individuals that live in the Sunshine state and
enjoy getting out on weekends to listen to up and coming and well-known bands. The
audience is free-spirited and can listen to an array of different types of eclectic music.
Because Live events is where a majority of fans find Joules Music, it is clear that they
enjoy live performances. Following is a collection of various fan personas that can be
used to create a more direct conversation with actual fans through campaigns,
messaging, interviews, etc.
Customer Persona1 -
Amber Logan
Location- Cocoa Beach
Female- 30 years old, Musician,
Enjoys listening to live bands, plays instruments, likes to promote artist’s
music.
5. Customer Persona 2 -
Rick Jones
Location - Florida
Male - 44 years old, Father
Wants to enjoy time and find common ground with his daughter
Customer Persona 3 -
Betsy Smith
Location – California
Female – 55 years old, Single Mother
Looks for new music on streaming sites and likes musicians that remind
her of when she was young and listens to Rock, Folk and Americana.
2.5 Competition
Top 3 Local Bands that compete with Joules Music:
Grimes Alley Blues Band
The Gemini Band
Bitter Sweet band
3.0 Plan Objectives
Joules Music currently wants to grow in influence. To reach this goal, the following objectives
have been laid out within the marketing plan: Establish Joules Music as a brand through social
media and joulesmusic.com and to establish a commercially effective presence on Spotify. Also
included are future considerations to be determined after these objectives are met.
4.0 Brand Establishment
One key focus to achieve the objectives laid out will be to establish the Joules Music brand. This
is not a re-branding but instead a greater utilization of the tools already at disposal. The key to
succeed on creating the brand will be to consistently show aspects, and representations of the
brand. Coming up with brand colors, a logo (Appendix B), and a brand identity: “cool bass
playing chick” for example, would be a starting point. There is an option to hire a designer for
the logo creation and brand design, Upwork is one good starting place to find such freelancers.
Afterword the focus would lie in maintaining the correct atmosphere across all platforms, as a
consistent brand not only show reliability but also provides a way to introduce potential fans
easily.
4.1 Social Media
Social Media serves today as a daily aspect of life being used roughly two hours by an
individual every day (Salim S. 2019) Proper use of Social Media can make a consistent
brand stand out and remember, social media is an excellent platform to practice
6. patience, action, consistency, and timing to build up a loyal following. The following
recommendations for the social media include the content, for an example of frequency
for these post check Appendix A.
4.1.1 Facebook
Facebook is an excellent starting point for the establishment of the Joules Music
brand, with 222 current followers and an engagement of around 5-10% the
network provides a good starting point for implementing the brand identity: “cool
bass playing chick.” The growth of the Joules Music fan base will likely take place
here as Facebook casts a wide net, albeit with many holes. However, the holes
are not an issue for Joules Music whose wide variety of genres will be
appreciated by the diverse crowd and Facebook will surely captivate some of
them.
A simple way to improve audience interaction and growth would be to utilize the
features that Facebook has available, namely Live Streaming and Life Events.
These two particular facets of Facebook will be able to attract new audiences, by
live streaming events, rehearsals or even behind the scenes on music videos,
this will give those who don’t know Joules Music the chance to see and learn
about who they’ve just found, and live streams also welcome viewer interaction
which will help to build a community of people who enjoy the different types of
music.
4.1.2 YouTube
Utilizing YouTube would actually be rather similar to Facebook, the key to
growing the brand would be through videos both about who Joules Music is, what
the artist does, event recordings to promote both the music and the live events,
and also behind the scenes or backstage videos. Proper utilization will require
both posting these videos on a consistent basis, once every 2 weeks, without
posting too many of a single type to keep the audience engaged without locking
into one category of video. This will not only be a place for people to hear the
music but also learn more about who the musician is as a person.
4.1.3 Instagram
Instagram was mentioned to be more of a personal account for Joules Music,
and instead of trying to change this working with it would actually be a good
method for establishing the authenticity of the brand. By posting once or twice a
day just about daily life the brand will naturally gain both authenticity and
reliability, while no overexerting on a single social media channel. Keeping it
simple with Instagram is the best fit for this type of brand establishment.
Examples of these posting styles can be found from Fred Macpherson
(@fredmacpherson0) and Tahliah Debrett Barnett (@fkatwigs), these two
musicians post seemingly random, but they do so every day and sticking with
their brand. Fred posts try to capture art as his brand is that of an artist.
Meanwhile Tahliah post a lot of photos of herself in front of wild backgrounds and
poses to keep them fresh. So, while these accounts have a different brand to
follow their pattern can be kept. For instance, if the artist posts using authentic
7. daily happenings but varies them enough to be engaging then the fans will
naturally associate authenticity and creativity to the musician.
4.2 Website
The Joules Music website serves as the primary platform for the distribution of the song
EP “Beautiful.” The site could also serve as the hub for potential fans. Having an
effective website opens the possibilities for greater brand promotion through various
means including Email Marketing and Direct to Customer Marketing, while maintaining
control of the experience the website can provide. The current Joules Music website
while good could be improved to provide a more positive experience for the fans, which
would lead to establishing the reliability of Joules Music. There is also opportunity to add
content to the site that would honor the artist and encourage fan engagement.
4.2.1 Themes
JoulesMusic.com has an excellent homepage, that can be used as a base for
improvements to the other site pages. One simple solution to this would be a
restructure that reduces the number of pages to a small number perhaps only
two, a main page and a store page. Another choice would be adding more
information across the site filling each page with relevant information, having the
Grammy Producer page changed to a Partners page for example, which would
include the bands that Joules Music play with.
4.2.2 User Experience
Elements of the website can be examined to provide a better user experience,
what makes a site easy comfortable and engaging for visitors, welcoming new
fans and establishing a point of reliability with the Joules Music Brand. The main
aspects of this will be making sure the email list is more efficient and improving
the site button layout. Through testing the email list, the confirmation took over a
day to confirm when it should be responding immediately. Making sure all the
buttons on the site work as a visitor would initially expect is also part of improving
user experience, which would mean all the buttons currently not linked to a page
or social media profile are removed and those linked to the current page notify
the user in some way like a color change.
4.2.3 Search Optimization
Joules Music requires optimization in order to appear on a search for “Joules
Music”. The first thing that needs to be addressed is the Website Description,
while the site does not appear on a Google Search, the Joules Music Facebook
Page does, and its description can be updated to reflect the new brand, which
will help the search engine algorithms recognize Joules Music. Another change
to consider would be to replace the ellipsis in the about section of the site as this
type of punctuation tends to harm a site’s ranking in a search engine.
4.2.4 Channel Integration
This would be the most time consuming or expensive process of site completion
and brand consistency would see a dramatic increase in site traffic and fan
interaction. Integrating various social media channels would involve having a
8. consistent way to access every Social Media platform and the Website from all
other channels. Having a social media feed embedded into the site would also
help with maintaining a brand consistency across the internet, this is easily
achieved through plug-ins and widget generation, so not much work will be
required.
5.0 Spotify Strategy
The following Spotify strategy is one of the plan objectives the client wants to reach. Contacting
curators and sharing Joules Music online are two successful strategies to use to get onto
Spotify. When it comes to contacting curators to obtain Spotify playlists, this is a simple strategy
but comes with researching who exactly the curators are for the specific genre. Sharing Joules
Music is also an important factor in obtaining a Spotify playlist- sharing Joules Music through
many platforms SoundCloud, Bandcamp, and Music.ly can get the music out and will improve a
musician’s chances of obtaining a playlist.
5.1 Contacting the Curators
To begin, find out who curates the Spotify Playlist in the musician’s genre, (Featured
Content on Myspace, 2019). A lot of these curators are media or industry figures, for
example. Finding these curators is easy through Spotify or researching for them online
and simply emailing them. On rare instances some of the playlists are curated by the
platform itself, in this case, going directly to Spotify's artist liaison. Once the right curator
is found, send an email with a brief link to the musician’s music and a link so the curator
can find out exactly who the musician is. Short and simple is best. Curators are more
inclined to choose a musician if a Spotify profile is verified. Do this by signing up for the
“Spotify for artists” link: https://artists.spotify.com
It’s best to maintain a professional online presence on all of the musician’s social media
websites and on Google searches. If curators are interested in choosing a certain
musician, they will of course, do a background check on that musician. Anything
negative on a social media profile or musician website will affect their decisions in
choosing the music. Curators are busy people and sometimes miss a few emails.
Always follow up with them by email. Even if they didn’t respond to the first email, email
them again with a short and simple follow up message.
5.2 Sharing Joules Music
A great chance to increase the musician’s odds of getting added to Spotify is submitting
the music to Ditto Music. Curators are always accepting new music in many different
genres. If Ditto loves the musician’s music, they push it towards their connections of
Spotify playlist curators.
Here's the link to submit music to Ditto: https://www.dittomusic.com/blog/get-your-music-
featured-on-a-ditto-music-spotify-playlist
The curators are more likely to take a musician seriously if they have a huge following. A
musician’s best bet is to share their music on Spotify on all social media accounts. The
more followers, the more attention a musician will get from Spotify curators.
9. If a musician has any music in another artist’s albums or songs already on Spotify
playlists, share it! No matter how small the part is, share it because it will rack up more
streams. Also, a good tip is to tag the playlist’s curator that the musician is interested in
their posts so that it shows them that the musician is invested in their playlists.
6.0 Financials
6.1 Income Opportunity
Live event fees- For example, perhaps Jouels Music can sell tickets for $10 to 100
attendees and perform 3 times per month for one year starting from dates July 1, 2019/
Ending July 1, 2020.
CD sales- Sell 5,000 copies of CD’s for $13. An ideal way to sell these CD’s would be at
the Live Performances.
Spotify: Number of plays/ 50,000 throughout a one-year period ending July 1, 2020.
6.2 Expenses
Website/Redesign: Recommended; Freelance Website https://www.upwork.com
Logo: Recommended; Freelance Website https://www.upwork.com/
7.0 Future Considerations
After achieving the two main objectives, the following subsections are expansion ideas to further
promote Joules Music in the future. These subsections are leaning more towards the area of
brand establishment, selling successful merchandise, considering certain companies for
sponsorships that complement the musician’s brand, and other ways to distribute music to the
fans.
7.1 Twitter – Brand Promotion
When people come to a musician’s twitter page, make sure the bio is clear and concise
about what the musician does and who they are. The best option is to use keywords that
are frequently searched for on twitter. On the bio, also include a link to the musician’s
website for easy access to their content. Using hashtags on all tweets will allow users to
find the content they are interested in. Use hashtags that are broad enough for a larger
audience to reach in connection to the industry. Using these types of hashtags make
content easily searchable (Team K, 2018).
Promoting tweets allows businesses to target specific demographics with customized ad
messaging. Examples of this is the keywords a poster would use on tweets that will
appear at the top of the search results. Twitter is also a great way to promote events and
products. Examples of this is promoting coupons or discounts that followers can use and
when topping this off with a hashtag, more users can find the musician. This then is the
perfect formula for the musician’s brand.
And finally, the best reason for using Twitter, is that anyone can search for the fans. It’s
best to do this when a musician’s brand solves a problem or fills a need to people. Using
10. the search tool in Twitter, this can search for people talking about topics that are related
to a musician’s business and advertise their products or services to them directly.
7.2 Merchandise
The typical merchandise sold by musicians is the T-shirts and apparel, posters, stickers,
guitar picks, and of course the CD and albums. Bands on a Budget is a great production
company that does all the hard work of creating the merchandise for any musician or
band (Custom Apparel, 2019). This saves time and money while the company does the
hard work. The link is: https://www.bandsonabudget.com
For example, for a complete set of 50 women’s band T-shirts anyone can purchase it for
$373 and sell them at a customizable price. And best of all, the website provides free
shipping in America.
7.3 Sponsorships
The best possible option for a sponsorship is with Fender. Since Julie’s instrument of
choice is a bass and Fender makes high quality basses, a sponsorship with the
company would bring more recognition to Julie, as a musician, and to the company,
more revenue (Will Fender endorse my band?, 2019). In order to obtain a sponsorship
with Fender, a musician must first contact them for a consideration. A musician or
business manager would send a complete artist package that contains the music, video,
biography information, photos, press clippings, and a cover letter listing current music
gear the musician uses. This letter would also contain a proposal indicating an artist’s
expectations as an endorsee of a working relationship with Fender.
Here is Fender’s corporation address where a musician would send the request:
Fender Musical Instruments Corp.
ATTN: Artist Relations Dept.
17600 N. Perimeter Drive, Suite 100
Scottsdale, AZ 85255 USA
7.4 Other Distribution Opportunities
Great distribution ideas to consider are offering a musician’s music on online stores.
Great websites to sell music are called Limited Run, Big Cartel, and Storenvy
(Sonicbids, 2019). But of course, selling music on the musician’s main website is the
best option.
Selling music at local record stores can satisfy local fans. To do this, contact the store
and ask if the store manager wants to buy the musician’s music. And yet, digital
distribution may be the fastest way to get music to fans. Avenues are iTunes, iCloud,
and Amazon. Using a service such as TuneCore can help set up music online for a small
fee.
11. 8.0 References
Custom Apparel. (2019). Bands on a Budget. Retrieved from
https://www.bandsonabudget.com/products/t-shirts-and-apparel
Featured Content on Myspace. (2019). FAQ. Retrieved from https://myspace.com/
Salim, S. (2019, January 04). How much time do you spend on social media? Research says
142 minutes per day. Retrieved from https://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2019/01/how-
much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic.html
Sonicbids. (2019). Be Your Own Record Label: Everything You Need to Know About
Distribution. Retrieved from http://blog.sonicbids.com/how-to-be-your-own-record-label-
distribution
Team, K. (2018, January 25). 5 Ways To Promote Your Brand On Twitter | KWSM: A digital
marketing agency. Retrieved from https://kwsmdigital.com/5-ways-to-promote-your-brand-on-
twitter/
Will Fender endorse my band? How do I contact Fender Artist Relations? (2019). Retrieved
from https://support.fender.com/hc/en-us/articles/212775526-Will-Fender-endorse-my-band-
How-do-I-contact-Fender-Artist-Relations-
