Portfolio (SHR6E018F~002)

FINAL PROJECT PORTFOLIO Alexy Cuni

Concept justification

For this project I wanted to focus on crafting a sound in my music that I was happy to release and push forward with for my career. For the period of this project, that consisted of releasing an EP and promoting it on various social medias. I wanted to do this because my music is something I am extremely passionate about. This meant I had a drive to constantly work on the progress of this project throughout this whole time period.

What is INUCA.?

INUCA. Is a side project that I have been working on for quite some time. I used this project as an opportunity to do my first official release on all streaming services. This EP would consist of dance music tracks (predominantly garage), which I intended to play out in a live set later that year. Alongside this I would also send my tracks to other DJs to get some outside opinions as well as crowd reactions. This was all in the aim of building a community that would consistently engage with the music, to potentially allow me to move into playing at live events where the project becomes much more financially viable.

Where I started

This EP would launch alongside my own label Lostinu. records which I would then evolve into a specifically curated sound that I will be releasing my music on. I will also try to get other artists involved and potentially sign one of their tracks, building the audience of the label, as well as developing connections with upcoming artists in the scene.

Launching a label is an extremely common thing that dance music artists do. This ensures that they are able to maintain as much of the royalties as possible, which is essential as an independent artist.

My goals

my main goal for this project is mainly to build a community that will engage with my posts as well as anything I may release in the future.

To do this I released a 6 track EP that would be available on all platforms. I had never released any music before this so I felt that this would be a challenging, yet still achievable goal. Prior to the release of this EP I planned to release two singles. These tracks would showcase the sound of the album whilst also giving me material to promote on social medias.

Business model analysis

My main focus for this business model was on utilising social media in order to promote my music. Since the product of this ‘business’ is myself, it meant that my method of promoting would be slightly different to a standard business. This is because there is no set product, meaning I will continuously be posting about new music in the long term. I will do this whilst also continuing to promote my EP after its release.

I decided to research other prominent artists within a similar sphere, who also independently released their music to see what they were doing and why it was successful.

The main artists I looked at were Interplanetary Criminal, NOTION and MPH. these artists are all UK based and have had exponential growth in their careers over the past 2 years. By analysing their marketing tactics, it would help me to get a better understanding of how to be successful.

I found that these artists would use TikTok as a way to get consistent engagement, often posting clips from live shows, as well as any unreleased materials. This contrasted to Instagram which had a much more professional look, acting as a portfolio with a mix of lifestyle. Compared to TikTok these pages often showed a clear identity and direction, showcasing a clear timeline through the artists career compared to the randomness of TikTok.

I wanted to try and replicate this, with more professional posts dedicate to each release as well as a more highly produced short form video that would accompany it. Alongside this I would post simple short clips of me ‘reacting’ to the track in order to see the engagement and how people respond to it.

Why does this work?

With the way the algorithm works, it encourages speed, giving the user mass amounts of information in a short amount of time. By creating engaging short form content, it encourages these users into a cycle of instant feedback. This keeps users engaged whilst also driving more exposure and brand recognition.

Marketing strategy

My marketing strategy for this project is to centralise my focus around social media promotion. I will post A variety of content, ranging from high quality produced videos and standard content that doesn’t take very long to film. This ensures that I am able to consistently post whilst also having some substance in the videos. Elaborating on this further, by developing an audience on my social media accounts, this will help build a community of users that are willingly engaging with my music. This is great to find early on since I will be able to target my focus towards these people, focusing on a niche instead of a wider perspective (Gomez, 2023). This information earned from analytics on these accounts would also be essential to the growth of my pages, showing me the exact demographics of who my content was being showed to such as age gender and location.

There are 4 key reasons why I decided to use analytics to my advantage:

Trendspotting: Identify emerging conversations and content opportunities before they peak
Brand sentiment: Understand how your audience feels about your brand in real time
Goal setting: Use performance data to set realistic, evidence-based targets
Proving ROI: Connect social activity to measurable business outcomes for executive reporting

(Sprout Social, 2026).

This information was extremely useful for me since it meant I knew where the majority of my audience would be located, allowing me to adjust posting schedules t a prime time for that location. In this instance, almost the entirety of my audience was based in the UK (specifically Leeds) with other listeners based around London/Manchester and the odd viewer in another country. This was valuable information to have since it meant that I was using the right content pillars to reach my target audience.

Why did I choose this over other marketing strategies?

I decided to opt for a more online strategy for various reasons. Social business practices provide formal, visible and transparent that link the customers and the business. This gives the consumer a primary role as an ‘innovator’, getting useful information from them to use in future business practices. (Evans and McKee, 2021)

the majority of my target audience (18 to 25 dance event goers) would be active on these platforms. After doing some research into the kind of interaction that other artists on their posts, I discovered that most of the interaction comes from active listeners or people who go to events, as well as other collaborators. This is the exact kind of interaction that I am after so I knew that this would be the right decision. Furthermore, promoting on social media would prevent the need for any financial investment, unless you do paid ads which I chose not to do for this as I wanted to see how the project would grow organically at first, and then use paid ads once more of an audience is developed.

The platforms that I will mainly target are TikTok and Instagram. I will use TikTok for more short form content, aiming to push as much as I can in order to try and embed myself into the algorithm. I decided that it was best to stick with these two social media platforms. Since they are the most active short form content platforms. Furthermore, by dedicating my time to a specific niche, it will allow me to create a strong brand identity whilst also creating a more streamlined operation with less direct competition. This allows me to dedicate more time to other aspects such as content creation or audience targeting strategy. (David, 2024).

I decided to use TikTok as it is currently the top platform for musical discovery, allowing me to reach new audiences much quicker. (SAE, 2026).

To me this was essential since building an engaged audience was my main goal. By using TikTok as a way of developing this audience, I will then be able to funnel these users through to their aspects of my campaign such as any digital releases or potentially event physical releases in the future. It is also extremely important that I build a community on TikTok that regularly engages across multiple platforms. This will help me out in the future since labels will look to sign music from artists that already have a small following behind them. This pushes both audiences together to build much more excitement for the track. (Nichols, 2024).

In contrast to this, I decided to use Instagram as a portfolio, showcasing a clear timeline of what was happening in the build-up to the EP release. This will allow me to engage more with existing fans who are already aware of the brand, allowing me to strengthen my relationship with these people through story posts, as well as general grid posts.

What I’ve discovered so far

Through posting a variety of content I’ve discovered what gives me more views and which platforms I should target.

I found that Instagram would get much more traffic whilst receiving less interaction from accounts that were not following me, whereas TikTok had less traffic but more interaction from non-followers.

Higher quality more produced content received more traffic whilst low effort content would often only receive 200 views with no comments.

These findings meant that the obvious thing to do was create a constant stream of high quality content. The issue with this was that there was a long production time that would stop me from having a constant stream of content. In order to mitigate this in the future, I can make a structured content plan so I am aware of what needs to be posted much more in advance, ensuring I can enough time to create and edit the videos.

Growth

31,727% growth in views

71% views from non-followers

73 followers

Initially I thought that I was not seeing much growth, however seeing percentage changes made me realise that my account was reaching significantly more people. Despite many still not interacting, it means that my content is still being pushed into the algorithm.

In order to ensure that I keep this steady growth I need to ensure that I am constantly releasing music, as well as posting short form content on TikTok and Instagram. Even if there is not much interaction, it ensures that my accounts are still active and not getting pushed out of the algorithm.

I aim to release at least a single every 2-3 months. I found that releasing the singles within a week of each other for this EP release meant that I ended up being quite restricted in the amount I could promote each track. By massively prolonging the promotion stage it will ensure that I can maximise the outreach possible.

Professional and legal processes

Since this was an independently released project, it meant that I was able to get away with many liberties that a standard label would not be able to get away with. Firstly, there was no contractual obligations that I had to fulfil regarding release schedule or social media promotion. I wanted to do this in order to get an organic perspective on the growth of my music.

In order to distribute my music I used Distrokid. Distrokid is one of the leading music distributors, with many labels having direct partnerships with the brand to release music with them. Because of this, I figured it would be a smart idea to use this platform as well. This made the distribution aspect of the project extremely easy, with me only needing to upload an audio file and select when I wanted to be released and what platforms. This meant that I was able to dedicate my time to other aspects of the project whilst being assured that the distribution of my music was being handled appropriately

I also applied for a PRS and MCPS license. this is essential as I develop my career in the dance music sphere since there is always possibility of a track being played out at a live show or even on the radio. By applying for a PRS license it meant that I would be getting paid for my music even if I was unaware of this fact. This would probably not be beneficial to me at this exact moment, but I figured that it would be smart to have in advance just in case a track randomly gains extreme popularity out of nowhere.

By having an MCPS license it ensures that I will get paid for any physical releases associated with my music. As I continue with my career, I want to look into releasing physical media such as vinyl’s and CD’s meaning that this was a necessary step to ensure I get paid fairly for my music.

Analysis and self reflection

I NEED YOU

I NEED YOU is the 6 track EP that I would be releasing on all platforms as way to get closer to my goal of developing an interactive community. Since this was my first release, it meant that I would have to start completely from scratch, beginning with almost entirely inactive accounts (a few occasional Instagram story posts showcasing music that I had been working on or were planning on releasing at some point in the near future.

Furthermore, since this was my first release, I wanted to look into marketing techniques that would not have to require much financial investment since there was a high chance that I would not see great returns. Because of this, I decided to go with social media marketing being my main focus, with an emphasis on short form content. This was an extremely common practice for artists in my desired position that operate within a similar sphere to me such as Interplanetary Criminal, NOTION and MPH. these are all artists that built their audience through independent releases and eventually expanded to either launch their own record labels or license their tracks to substantial labels within the scene. Because of this, I knew it would be a great business model to go off.

My release strategy for this EP was to do two single releases before eventually releasing the full EP. This would give me time before the release too promote my music on social medias and eventually develop an audience to actually present the release to. These releases would also showcase what was to be expected from the EP, encouraging listeners that enjoyed the singles to come back and listen to the full release at a later date. Indeed up deciding to make the release date for the EP the 27^th March 2026. This would give me a suitable amount of time to prepare any promotional materials, as well as get photos for any artwork that I wanted to use. I chose this date because it was on the last Friday of march. Releasing on a Friday is an extremely common practice within dance music, since it allows the track to be played out in sets that weekend. Although I wasn’t certain that people would be waiting to play out my music, I decided that it would be a good idea to make it a practice ahead of any future releases.

In order to announce the album, I figured the best plan of action would be to promote a more produced teaser video, this would give listeners a sneak peek into the first release of the album, whilst still not showing too much, encouraging people to come back instead of simply listening to the clip. I decided to post this video on both Instagram and TikTok. I decided to do this since these were the two platforms that I most wanted to develop, since they will be most beneficial to me regarding fan engagement, being the most active platforms.

IS IT REAL?

This was the first release leading up to the eventual EP. I decided to release this track 2 weeks before the ep. This would give me enough time to promote the song and generate interaction whilst also sticking within a time frame to where the project still maintains relevancy. This is important with a small audience since there is currently no incentive to engage, meaning I had to maintain a regular posting schedule in order to ensure that engagement stayed consistent. Since this track had already been shown in the teaser, I figured a good idea would be to release a behind the scenes of how I made the track, showing each of the layers individually and then eventually the full track at the end of the video, encouraging viewers to stay for the whole video if they want to hear the song.

Despite this being a good content idea, the execution was not as great. Due to a lack of experience in video editing, I found that the quality of the video was not quite up to a standard that I would have liked. This is something that I expected to happen and could be easily fixed in the future by hiring a freelance video editor. Because of the lower content quality on this post, it resulted in less views and engagement due to the algorithm not pushing it as much. Despite this, it still generated much more traffic to my account than I initially had, with an increase in followers as well as likes from non-followers.

I GET IT

The second single to be released on the EP was ‘I GET IT’. I decided to target the same platforms, for the same reason as the previous release. I planned this track to be posted a week after the first single release and a week before the full EP release. This gives kept the posting schedule of the campaign consistent whilst also giving me time to test various streams of content in order to see what works.

Regarding the content for this release, I decided to go with a video format that required a bit less effort to do. I wanted to try this to see if I would have to consistently put effort into editing videos to a high quality or if I would be able to get away with posting occasional lower effort content. This would make it much easier to keep a consistent posting schedule since the time dedicated to editing videos will be significantly lower.

This video ended up receiving a similar number of views to the previous video, with a very small amount of interaction from non-following users. This was quite frustrating since it meant that I was not able to get any good data regarding which content performed better. Despite this, I used this as an opportunity to think of other potential content avenues that I could target. I also made a post about this song on Instagram. This post was to showcase the album art as well as get any opinions on the track from listeners and followers.

EP Release

March 27^th marked the official release of the EP. This was a week after the second single release and came out when activity on my accounts was at an all-time high. This meant that I was able to reach a significantly larger number of non-listeners compared to if I had simply released the ep without any lead up.

Unfortunately, I had to push back the release by a few hours due to distribution issues. I had noticed after listening to the uploaded tracks that there was an issue that needed to be fixed urgently. Because of this, it meant that I had to take down the release and repost it. This caused issues since Distrokid (the distributor I used for this release) needs to scan the audio files before submitting them. This process takes time which resulted in the release happening a few hours behind schedule. Despite this, there were not any issues that arose from this delay. I made a story post addressing this issue in order to let my followers know, in case anybody had presaved the release. My following post discussing the EP proved this through its analytics.

For content regarding this release, I decided to go with a more formal post on my Instagram. This post discussed my thoughts and feelings on the album as well as asking for opinions and general interaction with any commenters. I decided to do this to maintain a professional look on my page whilst still prioritising consumer opinions so I know what areas I would need to improve for future releases. Contrasting this, on TikTok I decided to go for a much more informal post focused on using humour to get people to interact with the post. This was shown with the caption making light of the fact that my EP had been released whilst I was at work. This content used relatability as a way to get interaction from users, aiming to reach. People in similar situations. By providing relevant content in encourages people to interact with my posts much more regularly. This is because the viewer feels a connection with the subject matter of my post, making them feel seen and understood, enticing them to interact with the post .

Linkedin.com. (2025).

This was my most well received post, accumulating more likes, comments and shares than any other post I had done previously. This generated massive traffic towards my account, as evident with my Instagram reaching over 7k viewers. Although these viewers did not interact, these figures meant that my content was reaching other peoples feeds. With this knowledge it meant that I would simply have to fine tune my content to find an audience that appreciates it.

After the release

Following the release of the EP, it was crucial that I maintained a consistent posting routine in order to prevent my accounts from losing any momentum they had gained. Through the promotion of the EP it meant that I now had a more developed audience that I could interact with.

Firstly, I focused on further promoting the EP. I created short and simple reaction videos to the tracks that were not yet shown in any promo in order to ensure that they also got showcased on my account. I decided to do this since there was a possibility that one of the tracks that weren’t yet promoted could be more well received.

After this, I figured that the best plan of action was to start moving forward with plans for another project. I decided for this one that I would rather do a single release. This would allow me to dedicate much more time and resources into a single product instead of having to wear myself thin planning promotion for various releases. To do this I created an Instagram post showing the audience 5 unreleased tracks that I wanted to put out in the future. By doing this it let me get an understanding of which tracks would be a more successful release, as well as helping me realise what styles of music my audience enjoyed more, meaning that I could target this further. Unfortunately, this post did not do as well as I wanted, with a majority of my followers not even seeing the post on their feed. There are various reasons why this may have happened. The first is that there could have been an issue with the timing of the post. By posting at different times in the day, it greatly affects the success of the post. By finding an optimal time to post such as when a target audience is most active, it ensures that every post will receive that maximum amount of engagement possible.

I decided to keep posting short form videos to see if could build some engagement for the release. These videos had varying ranges of success but again, did not do as well as I liked. From this I found that I would have to post much more regularly (multiple times a week) in order to ensure that my content is being pushed onto the algorithm

Overall, I am very proud with how this project went. I was able to get good interaction on both platform that I was targeting, as well as have a successful launch of my EP. By identifying my target audience as 18-25 dance event goers/dance music enjoyers, it made it much easier to create a suitable marketing plan that would provide the most benefits to my release. I decided to use short form content as my main social media strategy.

Despite this, there are still various things that I would change if I were to do this again. Firstly, I would give much more time between each release (upwards of two weeks). Doing this will allow mee to have enough time to really push the tracks with a variety of content that multiple audiences will be able to engage with. Throughout the time period of releasing the EP I often found myself struggling to find the time to create the content alongside editing as well as general final touches on the music. By uploading the finalised tracks much further in advance will prevent this from happening in the future and make the promo run go much more smoothly, whilst also being at a much higher quality.

Another thing that I will look into doing in the future is looking to outboard designers or video editors. By minimising time needed on parts of the project that I am not as proficient in, it allows me to dedicate as much time possible to the areas that I will be to work more efficiently.

Examples of things that I would outsource would be:

Cover art

Getting a designated graphic designer to do the artwork for any releases will not only save time but also greatly increase the quality of the artwork. This will make the overall project look more professional, encouraging people to engage more. This will also look better for any labels that I may want to show my music to in the future.

Photography

Although I am very happy with the photos that I used for my EP, I still would have liked to have had more pictures that I could have used in the lead up to the release. Since I had to take the photos myself or get a friend to do it, it meant that the timeline of the project was very reliant on schedules that I had no control over. By getting a professional photographer to take pictures for me, it will give me much more material to work with, overall giving the project much more substance.

Videographer

In the future I would like to get some promo videos for any releases. By hiring a designated videographer.

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