Promotional Plan for Debut Album

Chris B.
Dec 9, 2020
7 min read

Updated: Jan 18, 2022

Mission

My mission is to complete an album and distribute it amongst my fans. This album, which is yet to be named, probably gonna be called "Reminiscent", is going to based on nostalgic memories or concepts of childhood memories. Since albums are for statements, my statement is that we must acknowledge our past and deem important and valid in order to look to our future. This is a great concept since in the midst of a pandemic, lots of people are finding joy in nostalgic memories. The album itself is going to be Folk, R&B, Hip Hop, Acoustic, and Pop inspired. I want the main feature of this album to be my voice since I market myself as a singer/entertainer. The great thing about this album is that I already have most of my songs recorded and written, which I did by myself. Now I just need someone to mix and master my songs.

Metrics of Success

Ideally the metrics of success that I want to achieve through this promotional plan are a bigger fanbase (3,000 more followers on either Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok), getting my music on streaming platforms (small but a big goal for me), receive press for my new music (preferably local or trade), a strong connection with my fans through my music (fan loyalty/involvement), and respect from fellow musicians in my field (recognition). Although some of these are minuscule while others are pretty big, I believe that my measure of success should not come from a place of money or fame but from a place of passion.

PMF (Product Market Fit)

The targeted audience that I am looking for are Gen Z people my age, young adults, or even some middle aged adults. One of my long terms goals is to have a fanbase that grows with me in my musical journey. At the moment, my fanbase looks like this:

My fans are meme lovers! They see meme culture as something relatable and therapeutic.
At the moment my fans are 57% women and 43% men. This means the majority are women.
At the moment the majority of my fans are between the ages of 18-24 years old. the second biggest age group of my fans are between the ages of 25-34 years old.
My fans love R&B music for the vocal complexities.
My fans love riffs and runs and smooth vocals.
My fans tend to be most active around 9:00 am because they enjoy their mornings on their phone.
My fans enjoy nostalgic music from the 2000s and 2015 eras of music.
My fans are wholesome people who do good for the world.
My fans love to travel and experience the world.
My fans support black creators.

Although I can only speak for myself, due to COVID-19 and 2020 as a whole, it feels although my childhood ever officially ended. 2020 is the year I graduated High School and started college like as if nothing happened. This makes me miss the 'good-ole-days' when my life consisted of Disney Channel and family adventures. It makes me enjoy every moment that I get to experience nostalgia.

Content and Strategies

At the moment the content that I produce are short song snippets and more recently relatable comedy snippets on TikTok/Instagram/YouTube. I also started a series on Instagram called Studio Covers where I sing into a mic and add more vocal layering to practice vocal producing. I plan to increase the quality of my content since one of the best ways to grow on social media is to be consistent with quality content. I also. plan to collab more with people on social media since I am genuine friends with other content creators.

The strategies that I use at the moment to market are Instagram and Facebook stories. On instagram, the most activity happens on stories since they are short and quick. However, on Facebook most activity is seen on actual posts. When it comes around time to release this debut album, I will be contacting promoters on instagram to pay for promotions. I will also start an ad campaign on both Instagram and Facebook to reach a further yet similar audience.

Basic Plan

In terms of planning, this promotional plan will take about 9 months to finish since it is a big project. I want to start this plan on January of 2021 so that I have a fresh new outlook and a clean slate to create. The assessments or goal marks for this plan will be Month 1, Month 3, and Month 9.

Month 1,

I would love to have contacted sound engineers who would be willing to mix and master my tracks. Since I produce, I don't necessarily need a producer, but it would be cool to have collaborated with other producers so the sound of my album won't be too repetitive while being true to me. With social media, I want to reach my 1,000 mark of fans or followers and be more comfortable with vocal producing, mixing, and mastering.

Month 3,

By this month, the album should be finished or close to being finished since there wouldn't be too many steps needed to finish it. Within these months I would have recorded more vocals and maybe allocated some live instrumentation. Depending if live performing would be back, I would need to think about filming music videos or promotional videos of me performing the song. Since people pay more attention to music or lyric videos, I would need to contact videographers who would be able to do the job. By this time, I would have broken the news with my followers about a new debut album, and I'm still debating on crowdfunding because I want to do more research on that. In terms of social media, I would love to be at 1,500-2,000 followers/fans. Again, I want to make sure the quality of content that I'm putting out is great.

Month 9,

By this month I would have everything ready for my release. I want to release a singe on Month 5 to create a buzz and test the waters. This single will kinda define a sound and will give me original content to perform with. By then, if COVID-19 is still affecting live performances, the music videos I prepared by Month 3 would come in handy for this single release. I would have registered my song with a PRO and other services to make sure that I am able to collect royalties. I will also invest in more Instagram/Facebook ads and media/press. This single will help promote the album.

By Month 7, I would start releasing some 'behind-the-scenes' content and focus on social media buzz to get people excited about what is yet to come. I still need to make sure that I am taking things one step at a time since I don't want the buzz to die down. By month 7 I would like to have around 3,000-5,000 followers/fans. I would also like to have more connections within the music industry so I'll definitely need to network.

I will spend the majority of Month 8 promoting and coming up with cool challenges. I would have collaborated with artist and of course stayed consistent with the content that I am putting out. It would be cool to have around 5,500-6,000 followers at this point who would be excited about my release. I would have registered all of my songs, have them filed/organized, copyrighted, and everything in order. I will also host challenges and then release a second single off of the album to help build more buzz and solidify my place as an artist. The content that I would be putting out would be more creative and have great quality.

Of course Month 9 will be the big release month and I will be working my hardest to promote the album as much as possible. This means contacting promoters, blogs for press/media, and of course performing songs off of the album and creating challenges to see who could come up with the best covers. In all of this, I think that it is important not to loose focus or passion and enjoy the ride. I want this promotional plan to be as professional as possible while still being transparent about who I am as a person and who I am as an artists.

Marketing Budget

I feel that the majority of my budget will be allocated towards sound engineers and promotion. I cannot stress enough how important promotional money is for a career. With what I have now, I would like to raise about $2,500 to be safe since I have most of my songs finished and would mainly need promotional money. I am a working person, so I will follow the 50/50 rule of marketing and and use half my money for music and half for the business side of it. Ideally, I would have a form of crowdfunding, I just don't feel like I have enough clout for that but I could totally be wrong. I will also need to think about money allocated for promotional shots and video. I plan to learn video editing and also reaching out to people who are good at it.

Competition

Most of my competition would be against myself and other social media musicians who may be releasing music at the same time. The 9 month plan ends in September, but it would be cool to finish it earlier since the fans I have now are eager for original music. I could solve that problem by releasing singles that are not affiliated with the album so further solidify my place as an artist. I feel that one of the biggest forms of competition I have is procrastination. If I want this plan to work, I cannot procrastinate or fall behind. Most of all, I cannot loose my focus and passion in all of this.

Responsibilities

I feel as though the responsibilities that are needed for this project are related to photography, possibly licensing, copyrighting, collecting royalties, promoting, video editing, singing, performing, and most importantly, engaging. As engaged as I want my audience to be, I need to be just as engaged times 100. Throughout all of this, I have a message to say through this album and I want it to be a tool to connect with others. I also feel that it is my responsibility to not give up on this dream. Given how close I am to doing this project, I'll be even closer once I put in the right work. As stated before, one of my fiercest competitors is myself.