Author: Malvey

Malvey – Prototype 2

I presented a new demo in class. It did not go as well as I had hoped.

I made some last minute changes in the mix. This muddied the production and made the vocals unable to be understood. I was hoping that this would be a more “mainstream” sounding mix and I did not achieve what I aimed for. I know if I put more time into it I will be able to achieve it.

There was some criticism for the guitar riff, I think I’m going to change it.

Having a good sound is very important to me. Good sounding music will make it easier for the next stage of the project, the promotion.

Ultimately I learned that I need to spend more time on my mixes and take them seriously. I also learned the importance of listening on different speaker systems before presenting.

Malvey – Prototype 1 Feedback Report

My first prototype was a demo I recorded and mixed. I will go over some of the feedback I received and how I am reacting to it.

  • To much distortion on the vocals. They don’t sound human.
    • I need to consider how accessible I want the project to sound. Making the vocals sound more clear could make it sound better to a larger audience. I need to consider and balance how I want the project will sound with “pop” production. I don’t want this to be inaccessible to the average music listener. I lowered the made the vocals more clean in the newest mix.
  • Make the vocal passages closer together to make the song more engaging.
    • I don’t think I’ll change the structure of this song, but this is a good thing to keep in mind as I continue writing songs.
  • The drums sound distant.
    • Right now the drums are electronic, I will have a real drummer rerecord it next month. There is reverb on the drums which gives them a distant feel.
  • There isn’t enough low end (bass).
    • I was not happy with the bass tone. I was having a lot of trouble getting it to sound right. I checked out some books about mixing from the library and tried different approaches to mixing the bass. I highly compressed the low end of the bass to reduce some of the problems I was having with it.

Research Update 2

This week I focused on researching strategies for running effective ads through the Facebook ads manager. It was hard to find any up to date academic sources on the subject. I watched videos on YouTube, but the most useful sources I found was talking to 2 people I met who run digital ads as a side business.

One person I interviewed has a digital marketing consulting company that he runs while in school. The other freelance manages ads for independent artists. They were both able to give me solid advice for running ad campaigns.

  1. Make many variations of a single ad and test them. This means for each ad I make, I’ll create 5-10 different versions with slightly different messages or creative. then I’ll run them all with low budgets. This will give me data to see what is the most effective variation of the ad, and I can put a bigger budget into that.
  2. Instagram stories are the most effective platform for my target market. Instagram stories engage the user because it fills the screen 100% and the user is guarenteed to view the content.
  3. Targeting. Know your audience. Adjust the targeting if things aren’t working. Am I trying to reach people in a specific part of the world? Or do I want to target the cheapest markets for lower CPM.
    1. Experience is the best way to learn. Doing research will only take you so far. In my last campaign I had CPC of $.40 in the United States. I want to try to lower it to .20 by testing the ads and having better targeting.

I’m running an ad campaign in November to get more experience before next semester. I will report the results of that campaign tip make sure I’m on the right track.

3 Prototypes

At my projects core, there are 3 different processes that I will need to become proficient at in order to be successful. I need to 1) be consistently writing fully structured songs. After I have a large collection of song, I’ll need to choose which ones I want to take to the next phase. 2) Recording/Mixing/Audio Production. Do I have the equipment and skills required to make a professional sounding record in my room? After I have a collection of songs I want to release, I need to 3) develop and manage ad campaigns through Facebook ads manager.

Prototype 1

My first prototype is developing a songwriting process that will help me consistently create material that I could potentially use on my project. This is the part of my project that I am struggling with most at this point of the year. I spoke to James McDermott, lead singer/songwriter for the band Bay Faction, about his songwriting process, and used this to create my own routine that fits in my schedule.

I have 3 methods of writing songs that I rotate through during my time songwriting. These are:

  • Melody first songwriting
  • Chords first songwriting
  • Free recording/experimentation

If I’m feeling uninspired with one method I try another until something sticks. My goal is to create 2 “rough ideas/song concepts” and one structured song ever 2 days. This will give me a library of material to work with over winter break while I record. A deliverable for this could be rough demos I’ve recorded or the notebook of songs I have written.

Prototype 2

Now that songs are written, will I be able to execute my project and create good sounding recordings? What will the sonic style and aesthetic of my project be? This prototype will answer that.

I have two songs fully recorded. Right now they are demos but I think they will end up on the final project after being polished. I’ve been working with Mark in the IMM department to improve my mixes.

Prototype 3

My third prototype is to help me with the digital marketing campaign I run to promote the release. After talking to my friend who does freelance digital marketing solutions, experience is the most important thing to do to get good at this. I will be running a campaign in late November for another project I’m working on.

Malvey – Research Update 1

This week I read How To Make It in the New Music Business by Ari Herstand. Ari is a musician who is popular for his music as well as his music marketing blog. For this project I will only be looking at the first couple chapters that cover starting a music career and managing a first release.

This book came out in 2016, so some of the advice could be dated, but I think it’s a good guide for navigating the current landscape of music streaming and social media.

The book describes that musicians need to develop discipline and routine in order to be successful. I’ve started to spend more time during my day writing and recording. I want to schedule this semester as an incubation period, a time where I focus on writing and developing musical skills. Winter break will be reserved for recording my final ideas and next semester will be a full release.

Next week I will research managing digital ads. This will help me with a test campaign I’m running next month, and the lessons I learn from that will be applied to the actual campaign next semester.

Jonah Malvey – Finalized Concept

My senior thesis project will be to create an album and to run a full digital marketing campaign around it. It will incorporate skills i learn in IMM, on my own, and also things I learned at my internship over the summer.

This idea inspires me because making music is the one activity that motivates me them most. While I enjoy the writing and recording process, marketing is a part of the music industry that most artists hate doing (for good reasons). In today’s environment it is more important than ever for small artists to handle their own marketing because bigger record deals are only offered to artists with a substantial fanbase.

If my project is successful, it could act as a guideline for future creators to promote their own projects. I am also very excited to dedicate 2 semesters to writing and producing an album. I’m trying to create something that takes influence from newer artists and I don’t want it to feel like something that could have come out 5+ years ago.

I plan to dedicate time to research and practice audio engineering, with the help of IMM faculty. I have a small recording setup at my house and I also have access to the IMM recording studio.
I’ve recorded multiple demos and I’m working on a test marketing campaign for the release of another project I’m working outside of school. I will use what I learn from my first campaign to use on the bigger campaign I’ll do for my thesis.

Research Proposal

Topics to Research

  • History of Music Production
  • Modern Music Production
  • Digital Advertising (can I find up to date scholarly research?)
  • Ad creation, how to create compelling messages

Resources

  • The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook – Bobby Osinski
  • How To Make It in the New Music Business – Ari Herstand
  • library materials?
    • The art of mixing : a visual guide to recording, engineering, and production – Gibson; Davis

Experience

  • Talk to IMM faculty member Mark Kalinowski
    • Get feedback for mixes
  • Run ad campaign in November for another project. Keep track of my process/results/lessons.

Relevant People

  • Find relevant people to follow?
  • Can I create a daily routine to help me achieve my goals?

Deliverables

  • Fully self produced EP or album
  • Marketing campaign plan
  • Marketing campaign recap
  • Marketing Materials (videos, images, full media kit)

Personal Goals/Ideas

  • Develop a weekly routine/schedule to help me achieve my goals
  • Could I make this project more about the creative process? Could I make turn this project into a guide for how to create/promote a musical project?
  • Can I do a live promotional event to get peoples attention? Research guerrilla marketing.

Revised Concept – Jonah

I am pretty sure I am going to go through my first idea. I think it will fulfill me creatively and will also be something I want to put on my resume.

I am going to write and record an album and do a full marketing campaign. The marketing campaign deliverables will consist of a Market Overview and Vendor Options Report as well as a Post Campaign Effectiveness Report. The majority of advertisements will be run through Facebook ads manager but I will also try to get other forms of media into the mix.

Research

I am currently working with Mark, my boss at the AIMM recording studio, to get feedback on my recordings and mixes to see how I can improve. Professional sounding recordings are essential to this project.

I am going to work this semester with Facebook ads manager to get a feel for it and figure out how to create effective digital advertisements. I can do more research online but the best way to get good at this is to get experience running campaigns.

Initial Concepts – Jonah Malvey

Idea 1

Currently I am hoping to get a job in advertising/media planning after I graduate. I had an internship doing this over the summer and I want to use this project as a way to show off some of the skills I learned. This project will combine my multimedia content creation skills with digital marketing campaign management.

In this idea I would be creating an album and running a full multimedia marketing campaign around it. The “IMM” part of this project would be recording and producing music, videos, and digital advertisements.

The marketing side of this project would include creating a media mix and full campaign analytics reports. I would be running and optimizing digital ads with Facebook ads manager and also looking into other forms of digital media. I would plan every ad placement in a calendar and write two reports. One outlining all of the proposed media outlets and one summarizing the results of the campaign.

Idea 2

Have you ever driven a car while listening to music? Have you ever wanted the music to be an interactive experience directly linked to your driving? This project idea could potentially be a solution to this problem.

My second idea is a music streaming application that syncs the bpm of your music to the speed at which you are driving. There would have to be some conversion rate from mph to the bpm of the music. As you accelerate, the tempo of the song will increase and it will do the opposite if you slow down. Other possible features could be changing the pitch as you turn.

Some problems I would have creating this would be learning how to create the application itself. I would also need to learn how to program the software to make the adjustments to the music. This would be very difficult but could be a great learning experience for me.

Idea 3

Another idea that I was thinking about was to make an interactive art exhibit. I wanted to make a giant sculpture that would interact with the viewer.

The exhibit could use arduino to interact with the viewers. I think creating a fully interactive haunted house could be a fun project, because it gives the interaction between the user and the exhibit a purpose… to scare the user.

Obviously this is a drastically different idea from my other two ideas. Maybe I could incorporate the idea of creating an art exhibit with one of the other projects.