The start...

It’s happening! So here it is - the first blog post of my project! To me, this marks the tangible start of the project and something very exciting! This project is built to develop my existing business and find new ways to effectively help independent musicians and those trying to ‘make it’ alone in the music industry. I plan to create a new offer for my business, something more long-term and substantial than the existing strategies. I believe that adding a new offer, instead of developing the existing ones, will increase the viability of my business and develop my skills further. I also feel that the existing offers are as developed as they can be at the moment, so I’d like to try my hand at something new and see if something else proves more popular for my business. 

I intend for this project to complement the work my business is already doing, working to help independent musicians harness the power of social media marketing to make their careers more fruitful. Currently, I am thinking this will look like a done-for-you content creation offer, or a series of mini courses that will teach musicians about different aspects of music marketing. Both of these projects stand out from the current market offers as they are uniquely targeted towards independent, startup musicians with little experience or disposable income, but are hoping to make music their full-time career. Most marketing courses or content creation packages are made for a variety of clients and fields, with very few targeting musicians, and those that do are rather expensive. I also have an advantage being a musician myself, so I have experience in the field, I understand the struggles a musician faces, and I can relate to them. 

My next step is to develop a survey to send to my target audience to gather information about what aspects of music marketing are most difficult, what sort of help would be most beneficial and what packages I can develop. I predict that lack of time and funding will be the main challenges for these respondents, given my experience in the industry and casual conversations with working musicians. 

For me, this project will be successful if I can take my market research and develop genuinely helpful, practical solutions to the struggles it brings up. I hope I will have time to test the final materials with consenting survey respondents, however, this step is not essential to the completion of this project.