Project Propsal

Project Proposal

http://louis123.byethost3.com/Research%20Website/Research.html





Idea For Product

A 6 track visual EP in a DVD and CD format with track stems included for fans and artists to remix.

The EP will come in a DVD and CD format and will consist of 6 midi synced videos which fans can watch and get the real feel for the oscar later project.
There will also be details in the box on how to upload your own remix and have it listened to by others, users will also be able to take the individual instruments and manipulate them in external music programs, then upload them to the Oscar Later website.

As well as the DVD and CD pack there will be an official Oscar Later website consisting of an artists Bio, gig dates and any other material that will help generate a fan base and following.



My Target Market

In order to find my niche market and my target audience I will have to break down exactly what my product is, from an industry point of view and not an artist perspective.

Oscar Later is the title for my current music productions and the sound I'm aiming for and trying to push is dance music with an avant-garde and improvised element, fundamentally dance music but less popularize. I would be aiming my music at an audience that has already been established in the last 30 years, the electronic music community, but to more specifically the french house genre fans.
Fans of bands such as Daft Punk, Busy P, Soulwax, Justice, Mr Oizo, Sebastian, Bloody Beetroots, Symbol One and fans of the whole image that follows the House and Techno art form.

The record label I previously ran and will be releasing my music with will sum up my productions perfectly and help to make it clearer to my target market audience exactly what it is. Club Goers, Ravers and people with a passion for electronic dance music will all be my target audience. What would make this project unique is the fact I would be promoting the visual art just as much as the music.
I will try not to limit myself to a target age audience and I will slowly get an idea for age group as my project continues.

How I Will Push And Promote This Product

The DVD itself will be used to generate and promote the Oscar Later image.
Venues, promoters and agents will all be given the package for free, so they can see what my live shows would consist of and to see if I'm an artist worth booking.Once a promoter has contacted me I will charge a set fee for a live show with music and visuals and make sure I perform every show to the best of my abillity. Any future events that I play ill make sure i've brought along copy's of my DVD to be sold to anyone that takes an interest.

The project will have an offical website as well as being avaiabile on most commerical network platforms. The site will be the bridge between the seller and buyer it wall also be a hub where the fan will find all information on the Oscar Later project. On the website there will also be a function for the user to upload their own personal remixes to the website,this will also mean more fans and artists will use the site and this can then become another form of income from the interest generated on the innerwebsite advertisement.

I will target Radio DJ's locally and nationally who specifically play my genre of music, I have already done this my contacted the radio 1 Beth Eylwn show and getting my first play. I later spoke to the producer of the show and made sure if I sumbit a new track I can make it a prioritised to be lsitend to.

I will also target blogs and magazines locally and nationally for publciity and to gather interest in future bookings.

Blogs will also be targeted as they seem to have exploded along with the electro scene, website like hypemachine gather all the tracks uploaded my blogs and put them into a chart. Artists can become famous from a good remix over night espicially if a track gets high on the Hypemachine list.

Vennues with projectors and screens will be scouted and if simliar bands are being played there ill send them my visual EP or a mini mix of my own music.

I will start to speak to other artists and DJ's asking them where they are getting booked and if they can get me booked.

How And Where My Product Will Be Sold

The CD and DVD will be sold as a package on the official Oscar Later website.
The customer/fan can make the order through Paypal, this will cut out the middle man and get rid of any other expenses.

The MP3's for the EP will also be put up for digital download on various digital music stores. They will be released under my own net label SexySynth Records, it will be the second catalog release on the label and it will suit the genre of music perfectly.

Online Distribution

7digital
Armada
Audio Dolly
Beatport
Beatsdigital
Bubblebeat
Clear 365
Click Groove
Dance Music Hub
Dance Tunes
Digital tunes
DJ
DJtunes
DJMR
Emusic
Etopia
HB
HardStyle
HMV digital
IMESH
Itunes
Juno Records
Masterbeat
Medianet
Napster
Nokia Music Store
Nowdio
Reasontvbes
Rhapsody
Synacor
Tesco Digital
Tidy Digital
Track It Down
Trax Source
Tune tribe
Web-Records
Zune

Streaming

Last.fm
Spotify.com
grooveshark.com

I will also find as many different platforms I can to put the individual music videos on.

How The Product Will Be Manufactured

The best solution to the manufacture of the DVD would be to contact a CD and DVD duplication company and have them give me a quote on 100 units. For this I emailed various companies trying to achieve the cheapest quote for my money.
In the ideal world I would rather print and manufacture the DVD's and CD's myself but it would be less time consuming to have an external company take care of it.

Question
How much would it be for DVD and CD in 1 case with full color prints on all items, per 100 units?

Research

UK Chart Dominance

Its obvious when looking over the top 100 UK single charts for the last year that electronic music has a more dominant role in the charts. Nearly 3 quarters of the chart has an electronic aesthetic of some form. Indie, RnB and Hip Hop seem to have all took onboard, subconsciously and consciously, a dance influence. It seems the guitar has been replaced with the synthesizer.
Although the chart is full with dance and electronic influences it seems that it is at its peek, popularity-wise. The european electronic music wave has already engulfed the music domain, and its starting to become saturated.

In order for my EP to be successful I will have take onboard the current demand for music but remember to stay true to my roots and my overall goals.

Schedule for 3rd Year

June - September

Over the summer holidays I will be spending my time finding venues to play my live set, ill do this by using the contacts I have already made within the past 6 months.
I've already arranged playing a big electro house night in London at Catch and I'm also currently putting plans together to put on a night with a friend who DJ's music around my genre.
I've also arranged doing VJing at a night in Rugby town put on by a friend for a dubstep DJ.
I will try and play and VJ as much as possible over the summer holiday to get me ready for September.

September – October

Once the first term arrives I will I get straight into production I have over an hours worth of audio material ready but its not finished, structured or mastered. I will also have to start building up an archive of video footage using a HD camera.

October – December

After christmas I will make sure my 6 tracks are finished and perfected and start putting together the visuals and artwork to get the EP ready for distribution. I will also start to my promotional campaign.

January – February

The last term I hope to have my whole product ready for distribution and the rest of the time will be spent playing and trying to build a following.

Influence- Soulwax

Nite Versions still proves to be the most inspirational album to me and the way these guys performed it is even more inspirational, electronic improvisation at its finest.

Influence- Bloody Beetroots

The filter house masters 'Bloody Beetroots' a duo that showed the world how the sidechain compression can be fully utilized.

Profits for 2010- Lastfm

Not that I have been pushing my music as a product as of yet but Lastfm has failed to earn me substantial interest. 58p is what I have manged to accumulate over a period of a year, I could of froze and rationed out a singular tin of economy beans but I think even then I would have starved to death as the minimum amount of money you can withdraw from lastfm is £5.00.

Promotion- Magazine

Newport is where I live and Newport is where I should be finding places to play to build a following, for this reason I contacted the owner of Border magazine a wonderful free mag that is currently on its second issue and is distributed throughout Newport.
After speaking to the owner I have hopefully secured a article about my project in the 3rd issue fingers crossed this will all go through.

Promotion- Facebook

We all know Facebook has pretty much taken over the network avenue so it was time for the Oscar Later project to hit it.



This page has proved itself useful for keeping people I know in touch with my music but its lacks an ability to branch out to potential fans unlike Myspace once did.

Contracts- Booking Yourself

The vain of every artists life but nerveless something that is there to protect the producers and consumers.
In order to put on our event on the 2nd Of June we are required to fill in contracts making us liable for damages and any other constraints the club owner wishes to include.

Influnece - Visual Influences

Moody contrasts, Hitchcok and Kubrick stylized shots and the unsettling feeling of a David Lynch movie is what I want with my visuals.

Romain Garvas a director of music videos has all of this he is a director I have been interested in for the last 3 years and has recently got into the limelight with his video for the song 'Born Free' by Mia

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

Some more of his work that originally interested me.

Influence- My Musical Influences

I've has a passion for electronic music from a young age so where to begin ?


Add N to X
Air
Aphex Twin
Bassment Jaxx
Blackalicious
Blondie
Boards Of Canada
Bonobo
Calvin Harris
Cassette Boy
Chemical Brothers
Chicks On Speed
Cold Cut
CSS
Cut Chemist
Daftpunk
Darkel
David Holmes
DJ A Skillz
DJ Format
DJ Hype
DJ Krush
DJ Mehdi
DJ Shadow
DJ Yoda
DrumAttic Twins
Erol Alkan
Fat Boy Slim
FC Kahuna
Felix Da Housecat
Finch
Fischerspooner
Glass Jaw
Godspeed
Gravy train!!!!
Groove Armada
Kraft Werk
Krafty Kuts
Ladytron
LCD soundsystem
Le Tigre
Mylo
Mr OIZO
MSTRKRFT
MUM
Panda Kopanda
Patrick Wolf
plump DJ's
Radiohead
Sabre Pulse
Scratch Perverts
Sebastian
Shitdisco
Surkin
The Autobots
The Avalnches
The Chalets
The Knife
Uffie
Visage

But the artists that influence the Oscar Later project the most are Justice, Daft Punk, Sebatian, Mr Oizo, DeadMau5e, Claude Von Stroke.
This is in terms of there image, the electronic movement they have represented and there music on a whole.
These artists as well as the orginal Techno and IDM founders are the Van Gogh's of music in my eyes.

Practice- The Video

For my 6 Track EP ill have to make at least 25 minuets of visuals so ill keep experimenting with shots until I find a style I can combine with my music.

Garden Mapping from Louis Derry on Vimeo.

Untitled from Louis Derry on Vimeo.

Practice- The Music

Ill keep posting these video they make a pretty good promo promoters like to see as well as hear.

Record Release- The Label That Should Of Been

SexySynthRecords

Sexysynth Records was my first attempt at global musical domination its rooster included-

Databas (http://www.myspace.com/databasmusic)
Chic And The Tramp (http://www.myspace.com/chicandthetramp)
Mistinguett (http://www.myspace.com/jomistinguett)
Intergalatic Bastard (http://www.myspace.com/intergalacticb)
Lazerbitch (http://www.myspace.com/computersex)
P4KO (http://www.myspace.com/p4ko)
Stay Ali (http://www.myspace.com/stayali)

The label was born in 2008 and it was piggybacked from the new wave Europian Electro movement. The label began as a collective buidling up a following for a year where it finally had its first 3 releases set, Databas 'Arcadia', Mistinguett 'Will You Stay Here?' and Stay Ali 'Music For Men'.
The label worked well as a net label and collective and many of the artists began to collaborate and organize events in Sweden and Switzerland but when it came to the release of the records there was no funds available for mastering and promotion, something I had obviously over looked. After much time the Album 'Music For Men' by Stay Ali was ready for release but our independent digital distributor failed to get us on the major stores.
All in all a lack of money caused a lack of interest which caused the collapse of the label late 2009. I've always said to myself if I ever make it as independent artists I will revamp the label and bring the artists that I failed with me so I plan to release my 6 track EP under the label as a good omen and maybe some success will arise.

Promotion- Facebook Killed The Myspace Store.

Facebook is most defiantly becoming the first port of call for an artists repertoire and event advertisement. For the last 5 years Myspace has dominated the market because of its ability to combine social networking with platform for artists and capitalist company's to feed the consumers.
But it was Myspace's ability to network with anyone in vast amount that finaly caused its collapse. Artits could use auto-friend adders and auto-messengers to send out 100's of spam emails every day, then came the captcha code which was attempt to stop the vast amount of spam, but this still didn't work so people choose to move to a network where there wasn't any spam 'Facebook' and with a much more defined networking system.
Like Myspace there are ways to create large group followings but these have to be achichieved ethier through nostagligic refrecnes or single handly inviting personal friends.
Facebook does give you the abiility once you have a group to message and update all the users at once which is something Myspace never really had.
Facebook also allows a soundcloud player to be added to an artists page which is a full 320kbp MP3, this compared to Myspaces's low quality upload is maybe another reason for the lack of artists joining Myspace.

Inspirational

A definite inspiration for my visual EP.

Practice- VJing In A Club Atmosphere

As I'm making a 6 track visual EP for my business proposal I have had to find out what works well in a club atmosphere. For this I hooked up with some friends in my hometown and took my projector to a gig that was taking place during the Easter holidays called "Hootnanny" I arrived at the venue and helped my friend setup his VJing software. We booth sat in the back of the club and did the visuals to go along side the DJ's for the night.

Promotion- The Soundcloud Loophole

After a few months of using SoundCloud I've noticed a regular amount of spam appearing it my inbox, SoundCloud users can make a track private then invite the whole of there followers or following list to listen. Anyone who receives the message sees a link and track listing from the sender. This suddenly means on SoundCloud you can import email addresses and contacts from Gmail, Hotmail, Myspace, and many more networking sites. For someone who has over 20,000 myspace friends this means you have the capability to email anyone who uses the same email for there SoundCloud.
The only downfall is you can only privately share a track to no-more than a 100 people if you are aren't a paying user, so you buy a membership send out the spam and then cancel your membership before the 14 day trial ends to claim your money back.
An obvious abuse of a site that is doing a lot for the industry but you have to take advantage before these loopholes close.

Promotion- If You Can't Get Booked Book Yourself.

Speaking to a friend who DJ's and who also lives in London we have decided to put on our own Electro night ill be in charge of the artwork, flyers, posters , and online advertisement and he will be taking care of the actual booking, sound system and flyering.
The night will be called SPIEL and will be a mixture of House, Electro and Techno.
The contracts for the venue have already been signed and now its just the promotion left.

Promotion- London Gig

So I looked for a similar artists and and noted where they where being booked and by what promoters they where being booked. Got in touch with one promoter who books for all of the Appetite For Electro nights and have now organized playing a 30 minuet live set at Shoreditch at Catch with 2 friends supporting.
The promoter books all over London and works for a freelance DJ booking agency so this is defiantly the man to impress.

Promotion-Pokemon Masters Ball

I spoke to a friend a few months ago who had told me during the Easter holidays in Coventry he would be putting on a small night under the name "Pokemon Masters Ball".
So i organized doing a 40 minuet live set using some midi controllers and a Macbook for the performance. The night was a semi-success but wasn't the best suited venue and the night didn't pull in many punters.

Promotion- Radio Play

I Heard about the Beth Elfyn Wales Introducing BBC Radio 1 show and submitted two of my latest tracks after a few months I received an email telling me my track was going to be played on that nights show.

"Hi just to let you know, we'll be playing Want To Hear in BBC Introducing in Wales show tonight from midnight.
Listen live on Radio 1 in Wales or online and for 7 days afterwards here http://tinyurl.com/r1wales
Cheers "

After I got the good news I updated all my networking platforms myspace, facebook, soundcloud letting all of my listeners know that track was going to be played that night. I also recorderd the Beth Elfyn introduction and play to be used as a form of promotion in the fututre.

As well as the recording I made sure I emailed the producer to secure a chance of being played again the next time I have a release.


Oscar Later on BBC Radio 1 with Bethan Elfyn by OscarLater