#productionproject

Track 2 - Oceans

Track 1 - Chemicals 

This is track one off my EP for the Production Project! 

Introduction

For the EP project, I decided to record, mix and master 2 tracks from my original band, Glass Kingdom.

We are a progressive metal/djent band and take inspiration from artists such as Periphery, Tesseract, Between the Buried and Me, Sikth, and Animals as Leaders.

During our market research lectures we looked at things such as record labels for this type of music, what these type of artists use to sell and promote their music and what are prime locations for this specific genre of music.

Demographic

Although the majority of this music scene is based in American and European countries, there is a very prominent music scene throughout the UK, with bands such as Good Tiger, Oceans Ate Alaska and Tesseract at the top of the list.

But above all, the biggest area where this is prominent is the internet.

The djent community/genre was pretty much founded on the internet, and you only have to search through a couple of rock/metal music posts online before you stumble upon a your typical ‘djent’ memes.

As I said, as this music scene began pretty much online, there is a massive outreach for this type of music that is shared on the internet.

The sheer number of these ‘memes’ that are constantly being shared and floated about suggests that this genre has such as big identity online, that it could be seen as dependant on the social media presence.

Target Audience

This reason why I referred to the online presence of this music genre as a community was because many of the people who enjoy listening to this music are often musicians themselves.

Due to the highly technical musical elements and creative methods that are used to create this music, it can definitely be hard to get into if you’re not a musical person. This factor does have its negatives but also some positives.

The negatives would be that if were true, the creators of this music are possibly lowering their audience demographic, as musicians appear to respond to it more than non-musical people, however I feel that this can strengthen the bond between artist and the people that do listen to this music and who are also as musicians, as it gives off a sense of solidarity and a likeliness.

However, many bands employ both screamed and naturally sung vocals and this is the exact approach I took to writing and recording these tracks.

I wanted something which had a change in dynamics, not just one vocal style all the way through. With the clean vocals this can also extend to other genres of metal, broadening the audience demographic.  Furthermore, this extends the barrier of just ‘musicians’ listening to this style of music, as many more people feel able to relate to clean vocals more than screamed.

Tastemakers/Curators

There are many music curators and online figures who are known for promoting up and coming bands specifically in this scene, with playlists, music video reactions, as well as bands themselves who make playlists on Spotify featuring new artists, for example, US metal band Born of Osiris.

Although this specific genre of music doesn’t see much commercial radio time, there are companies such as Kerrang, Metal Hammer and Rocksound that feature artists from this genre through their weekly album reviews as well as online radio stations. Luke Morton is an tastemaker who writes weekly for Metal Hammer, and the most well-known tastemaker at the magazine, discussing what new music has been released and what he has been listening too.

I also have a good friend who runs a radio station where I live in wales, (Radio Tircoed) which plays metal music from local and up and coming artists as well as your more well-known ones. This could definitely be a promising opportunity to explore in order to promote this EP, I have been on there before with my previous band and it’s a great environment.

Another avenue that I think would be beneficial and highly probable of achieving, is using YouTube and Instagram content maker ‘Truant Reacts’

Truant Reacts is a music curator and his content revolves around posting videos of himself watching new music videos/lyric videos recommended by the public. He then shares his opinions and links to the video on all his social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

His audience is specifically targeted at the metal scene which is reflected by the music that he displays across his channel and he is very responsive across his social media platforms.

Conclusion

As we live in a world driven by technology and the internet, it makes sense to use the internet as a tool for promotion using as I mentioned, curators and public figures within this scene. Not to mention the fact that this music genre relies heavily on technology, not just from a marketing or a promotion point of view, but also from performance and the equipment side of things.

Not many bands within this music scene use valve amps anymore, it is all heavily reliant on profiling amplifiers such as Kempers or Axe Fx processing units, as well as running midi tracks, clicks and backing vocals to FOH via their l. It really is a genre that has embraced the evolvement of technology and has pretty much used it as a driving force, especially for the newer band that have emerged on the scene over the last 10 years.

These advancements can definitely be used to our advantage when trying to push our music and promote ourselves as artists. The initial plan for promoting the EP would be to first upload it to some form of streaming sites (Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud) and then begin to open up some networks between the people I have already mentioned.

As I have already spoke about, the Truant Reacts YouTube channel is very responsive to messages and requests and also the radio show that I have previously been on is also very easy to get in contact with.

I purposely decided to talk about certain tastemakers, curators and radio shows as I feel that these particular ones are a reachable goal and network for myself and the rest of my band to get on, which would hopefully open up other networks.

Links

https://www.instagram.com/djentspace/?hl=en – Djent Space (Instagram Account)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqAnBlp5RrpzoNLXHf6XUsA - Truant Reacts

https://open.spotify.com/user/bornofosiris/playlist/5IiIr54Z4ybxg3yiueHqBQ -Born of Osiris playlist

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnOz4ii-wwzlYdcXuJcbcigMNT3JElElY

- Jared Dines and Austin Dickey’s Underground Music Monday

http://www.radiotircoed.com - Martyn Kelly

Lazy Boy -

https://soundcloud.com/samuellouis/lazy-boy-free-download

Demons -

https://soundcloud.com/samuellouis/demons/s-9yjq1

Retweet -

Before I finished the EP I decided to use my first completed track ‘Lazy Boy’ as an experiment into how I could potentially market the EP. After showing the demo to many people I asked what platforms they would likely access my track on. From this I learned a few valuable things:

Spotify vs Soundcloud

I found that the majority of people I spoke to would be more inclined to listen to a track that was on Spotify or Apple Music rather than a platform like Soundcloud despite the site having more active listeners than Spotify, a difference of 100 million monthly active listeners as of 2016 according to TechCrunch. This is something worth considering although personally I wouldn’t intend to release this EP on Spotify for several reasons. Firstly, I wrote Lazy Boy using samples from James Ray’s “I’ve Got My Mind Set On You” which I have looked into and due to the fame and ownership of the copyright are seemingly impossible to get cleared, so monetising could end up being more trouble than it is worth. From an exposure point of view as well it seems that based on the algorithms of both the platforms, - due to the nature of Spotify’s “lean back mechanism” in which recommendations are based on over 50 (not necessarily specific) parameters - Soundcloud appears to be more advantageous to independent artists without a pre-existing online presence. However on the contrary, Soundcloud can’t compete with Spotify in certain areas such as the integration with tools that allow an artist to promote concert tickets and merchandise sales, as well as the revolutionary Spotify codes which makes sharing your music considerably easier. However in an online back to back comparison, Mariko (2017) concluded that “an up-and-coming artist has better chances of being discovered on SoundCloud compared to Spotify”.

Visual Aid

Something else useful I discovered from feedback was that people would be much more inclined to click a link where something visual was present as opposed to just audio. In anticipation of the EP, immediately after producing ‘Lazy Boy’ I began shooting a music video for the track. Having created no prior artist-based social media for myself, I thought this would be an opportunity for a pre-release to generate hype before I would release the full EP.

The results of this experiment were astounding. Despite on equally promoting links for my track on Soundcloud and the link to the video on Youtube in the same post, the response from social media ie. Facebook and Instagram clearly proved the visual theory to be a success. Within the first two days I already had a couple hundred views on Youtube in comparison to one view on my Soundcloud regardless of the fact that I had tried to glamourise my advertisement for the track on the platform by making it a free download. Now just over three weeks later my Youtube video stands at 612 views, 20 likes and 5 comments in comparison to my Soundcloud track with 15 views, 4 likes and 1 download. This proves that the assistance of a visual aid will drastically increase engagement when it comes to links on social media. This would be something worth considering and would tie in with the view in my last post that I would release each track individually. To get the most online engagement I think my best approach would be to shoot music videos for the other two tracks and then to later release them alongside their videos a week apart from one another, as based on my experience with my ‘Lazy Boy’ post engagement, this seems like the optimum length of time in which the engagement can reach a peak and then would slowly decline just as the next video was released. Similar to how Justin Bieber released his Purpose album one track at a time in a series of graffiti shots posted to his instagram (Kickham, 2015), this way allows me to prolong the length of time that the EP would generate hype and engagement as opposed to releasing it all at once, risking the success of the EP as a whole and particularly the less favourable tracks by the majority to be overlooked.

Kickham, D (2015) Justin Bieber releases 'Purpose' track titles through worldwide graffiti, Entertainment Weekly, 28 October

Mariko (2017) SOUNDCLOUD VS SPOTIFY: WHICH IS BETTER FOR ARTISTS?, 11 July, available at https://soundcloudreviews.org/soundcloud-vs-spotify-better-for-artists/

Combining my original influences such as Rage Against The Machine and Jamie T with a whole range of various artists I have since listened to like Earl Sweatshirt, Slaves and Jam Baxter, I have created a Spotify playlist of which I have drawn ideas or inspiration from, particularly the tone and mood of the atmosphere over the lyrical content. Its given me the view that the words in a song are only as powerful as the way they are conveyed through the music which is something which I will aim to achieve in my EP.

https://open.spotify.com/user/sammyb_03/playlist/5PcUFqubqFCXOqCFFbiT54?si=q2b_FfJpQvO0LKx7Omq2Sg

CASisDEAD is probably one of the most intriguing artists on the list to observe from an influential and marketing standpoint. His track “All Hallows” is one of the darkest things I have ever heard both in lyrical content and composition and is a big influence on my track ‘Demons’. He manages to conjure up cold, harsh ideas in your head whilst presenting it in a tone thats so equally menacing and playful that it can pass as dark humour. What really inspires me about the artist in creating this EP is how CASisDEAD’s music doesn’t seem to follow any particular pattern or genre. Its not as if he has a “signature” sound as with many other artists. In an interview with I-D Vice, when asked to describe his music he stated “I don't have a genre. If I like a beat, I'll spit on it. It could be classical, jungle, rap, or pop - I don't care. It's easier if you don't restrict yourself or assign yourself to one genre, you can just do what you want” (Collins, 2014). This is very similar to how I would regard my music. All three tracks in my EP fit into certain categories ie. they all include rap, but I wouldn’t identify my music as a particular genre, or at least one that I am aware of.

CASISDEAD - All Hallows' (Prod. By Skywlkr)

Obviously I have envisioned that from one perspective this lack of categorising may create issues when trying to establish a clear target demographic. But on the other hand, being my first release to the public this reduces the immediate limitation of my audience and allows an organic following to build up, hopefully establishing an initial fanbase that isn’t restricted to a specific genre or subculture. For this reason I would promote each song individually as if they were three unrelated singles that collectively represent my musical self-expression without the need to confine myself to one sound or style. Having said this I can anticipate based on the fanbases of my influences that the average listener would be a young male somewhere between adolescence and mid-20’s which reflects the demographic I originally had in mind during composition. This means I have at least a vague target audience without too much restriction.  

I see this EP as almost a development from the days when I first began writing lyrics, which just so happened to be a time when I was particularly caught up in blind rage and angsty teenage rebellion. Full of contradiction, poorly educated understanding and indiscriminate animosity, the lyrical content wasn’t the strongest and I learnt that perhaps writing on political issues and alike when young and ill-informed wouldn’t have much impact for either the audience or indeed myself as the passion behind it was insincere. However that passion and emotion I felt at the time is undoubtedly a vigorous source of creativity and I intend to carry it through in my EP.

Specialist record shops -

Red House Records RPM Records Ltd BAILA Coffee & Vinyl

Other -

Supermarkets ie. Sainsburys/Tesco/Asda HMV That’s Entertainment Charity Shops ie. British Heart Foundation Holmes Music Kempster & Son

My Band - Indigo Haze (Indie rock) Comparisons:

Arctic Monkeys - Music available on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, CD and Vinyl format Label: Domino Records Distributor: The label has it’s own distribution company Ltd Edition ‘Live at the Apollo Boxset’ / 24kt Gold CD display

Foals - Music available on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, CD and Vinyl format Label: SubPop (Warner Bros. Records), formerly with Transgressive Records Distributor: Likely distributed by Alternative Distribution Alliance Ltd Edition postcard box set / Holy Fire box set