Professional musicians in the UK earn far less than the national average wage, recent figures reveal – with most sitting below the official poverty line. According to the music licensing agency PPL; nearly all musicians make less than £16,000 a year, which is extremely low compared to the 2010 national average salary of £25,500 across all types of employment in the UK. With this being said, it's important for musicians to go back to the drawing board and re-asses their career plans so they can look at their faults and look for opportunities for improvement.
I'll be posting sections of a band career plan so you can use it as an example to improve your bands plan. Sections will include budgeting, marketing plan, about the artists, experience, Evaluation of the artists (SWAT) etc. The first section I'll be posting will include the marketing plan, as always I'll use the band I'm managing;
Ashtray Electric.
Development of a marketing plan
A. State of the Industry
Indie Rock takes its name from independent Rock. It is a do it yourself attitude; artist do not change their music style to sound like popular music trends. Indie Rock refers to a category of music were artist are unsigned or are in an independent record label. With the Internet and the file-sharing cutting into major labels, Indie Rock is better than ever. Indie Rock offers something different to the youth of America and that has quickly shot up the charts as a favorite of the next generation. We were unable to find information regarding the album sales of Indie Rock in general but we were able to find the album sales in the Alternative genre, which is basically another sub-genre Ashtray Electric will fall under. In 2009, 68,195 (million) Alternative Rock albums were sold. This is 15% less than in 2008. Sales are going down because of piracy and file-sharing.
No Indie Rock ticket sale numbers were available. Comparing Ashtray Electric to The Killers, since they fall in the same genre, The Killers concert tickets went on sale in September 2008 and sold out in 5 minutes. The same thing with Kings Of Leon, same genre, and their concerts sold out almost immediately. This proves that there is definitely a demand for this type/genre of music out there. Looking at Ashtray Electrics’ 2009 tour, the tour went of without a hitch and pretty much sold out wherever they went.
Opportunities for new artists within the genre
Ashtray Electric has a great future ahead of them and many opportunities exist for them to gain efficient exposure all over the world. They currently reside in South Africa and have had vast success in their country, booking tours in the US and well as the UK could begin their process of dominating other countries where their genre is embraced.
Each year South Africa films many big budget Hollywood movies, Ashtray Electric could submit songs to the movies with hopes of getting their song featured. This could create a larger fan base and expose them to other countries and genres as well.
Ashtray Electric is currently signed to a distribution deal with Rhythm Records, which is located in South Africa. If they were to reach out to a bigger label that focuses on international exposure they could have the potential to reach a larger demographic all over the world.
Who are the competing artists?
aKing is a South African band who often tour with Ashtray Electric. Both bands have a similar genre and share a coinciding fan base. Modest Mouse, Vampire Weekend, and The Bravery are currently extremely popular in the US, therefore Ashtray Electric would have very difficult competitors to live up to if future tours in the US are applicable. However touring with them as an opener band would be a great way to gain exposure from the US bands audiences and make them theirs as well. Indie music such as Ashtray Electric is becoming more and more popular in the US with bands such as Modest Mouse, which is why touring now is a great time to create more fans and establish efficient relationships.
How is the radio format for this genre doing in audience ratings?
Indie music is currently doing very well in audience ratings. Last month Vampire Weekend held the number one spot in the Soundscan sales chart. Genres similar to Ashtray Electric are played on the radio all the time from big-time city stations to your local college station.
According to Everhype a website dedicated to determining the ratings of popular songs around the country. The Killers, The Tings Tings, and the Kaiser Chiefs are all bands that share the same genre and audience and are all listed in the top 10. Therefore Indie music will soon be dominating radio and television everywhere, which gives Ashtray Electric a great opportunity to act now.
What international opportunities are there for the genre?
International opportunities exist everywhere for Ashtray Electric as stated before. Ashtray Electric has the potential to tour with larger bands such as Modest Mouse and Vampire Weekend in attempts to dominate the UK and US fan base, being that they are already very popular in South Africa.
Also featuring songs in movies is a great way to gain exposure overseas for the band and establish new markets and areas where their music is demanded. Signing onto a larger international label with the hopes of a 360 deal will be very efficient for the band in order to establish a larger audience in various countries and create worldwide success.
References: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/most_musicians_are_on_poverty_line.html
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