I am a singer-songwriter who writes folk-pop music. Some of my influences include Joni Mitchell, Alanis Morissette and Lizzy McAlpine, and I am releasing my debut EP. I want to ensure that this EP has every opportunity to perform successfully, not only to gain some income from the music, but more importantly, to build a loyal fanbase who will listen to these songs way past when they are released. This is an incredibly important factor for creating a sustainable career. Further, throughout this business plan, I will refer to K. Kelly’s theory from his essay ‘1000 true Fans’ (2008), which supports the idea that 1000 interactive fans are way more important than a bigger following of casual fans.
Throughout this plan, I will delve into all the elements of releasing music, promotion, distribution, and marketing to discover how to formulate a successful release. I will also use this business plan to apply for grants to have a budget for this EP campaign for things like distributors, photoshoots, and even possibly creating a music video.
THE PRODUCT:
A four-song EP called ‘The Weathers Changing, I am not’. The aim is to release around April 2026. This EP will have two to three singles released before the EP. Alongside this EP, I aim to have a music video for the main single.
CLASS FEEDBACK:
In our WITCI seminar, we were put into groups, and in these groups, we had to discuss what we were doing for the assignment and help one another with ideas of how to improve our work. In this session, my group talked about creating a schedule and setting target dates to get the work done on time. This wasn’t something I had thought of including in this plan because I was researching about releasing, not thinking about what I had to do for my release. Especially as this is a release that is going to happen, and the whole point is that I am preparing a plan of what I’m going to do to ensure this release gets some attention. This was useful feedback because it meant I started to think about the assignment as something that directly benefits my career as an artist. This also included perhaps looking into a social media calendar, because social media promotion is essential for releasing music today. And that I should create one to follow when I start promotion. Once again, benefiting my career as I can reuse this calendar and edit it to see what is useful for me. Therefore, my class feedback was something I have implemented into the assignment, and I believe it has uplifted it completely. (Notes of this feedback are below)
SCHEDULE:
Here is a Gantt chart showing my plan for the schedule and how long each step should take.
OUT COSTS:
As much as I can do by myself, it is inevitable that I will have to pay for certain parts of this process. Jas Ratchford’s video on YouTube discusses her regrets of releasing her EP, one she made independently with “no money”, shows that if you do as much as you can yourself, for example make your own album art, you won’t have to spend lots of money- which means that you in return can spend more money on necessary things for example a better distribution company. When it comes to creating promotional content, I am going to do as much as I can by myself with the equipment I have available to me. For example, for the photo shoot promo, I have asked a friend to take some pictures. This is just one way I can save money throughout this process.
DISTRIBUTION:
The role of a digital distributor is to “Music distribution is the process of getting your songs available to stream or download on music stores and streaming platforms” (Amuse n.d). However, there are multiple distributors to choose from.
On the DITTO music website, it has a table comparing the services of five popular digital distributors (see below), which is for each website’s basic tier, meaning this is the cheapest you’ll pay on the website. There are three things that are a priority for me: I want to keep my royalties, choose my release date, and add the songs to be added to playlist submissions.
In my analysis of each distributor, I believe that for my priorities, DITTO music comes out on top. This is because there is 0% royalty commission, I can choose my release date, and on DistroKid, you would have to upgrade for this. Finally, it will submit your music to be considered for playlists. This is very important for gaining new fans because it “exposes your music to a new batch of fans. Consequently, boosting your streams” (Anara Publishing, 2019). As mentioned in my introduction, the more people driven to your music means there is a bigger likelihood of gaining loyal interactive fans- these fans are the ones who help your career remain sustainable. I have also decided to go for the more expensive tier, this is because there are extra protections for your music, and because I have saved money in other areas of this process, I feel that this is an area where spending more money will be beneficial for the music.
OWNERSHIP:
In this EP, except for one song, I am the sole songwriter. The outstanding song will be a fifty-fifty compositional split pre-agreed between me and the co-writer. With DITTO music, it automatically sorts out these splits. However, one essential part of this release schedule is uploading my music to PRS. PRS licenses members’ music and collects the royalties, then pays out these royalties. I am already a member of PRS, meaning this will be no extra cost.
TARGET MARKET:
Due to my genre and style of music, I believe the main demographic will be younger, possibly around the 16-25 mark, due to this being the age group closest to mine, therefore, this group of ages are most likely to connect to me. Using social media is possibly the most useful element for marketing this EP. Steven Barlett, social media marketing expert, says that personal brand and transparency are in the “least supply but the most demand” (Innes 2022) and that audiences are craving authentic personalities promoting their work. Therefore, creating an artist brand image that is authentic to who I am is incredibly important to getting audiences to connect with my music. This is also important because my music is about my life, and my brand is myself; therefore, authenticity is essential to staying true to my brand. An artist who has just released her second EP and blown up on TikTok is an artist called Erin LeCount; I feel she is a great person to analyse and understand how a marketing strategy can ensure a successful EP release.
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS:
From scrolling back to 2022, LeCount’s likes were stuck around the average 500 mark, which is good, but much smaller compared to her 6000 averages. This is where a typical video is received. However, now she has some videos reaching the likes of 78 K. But how does she do this? I am going to analyse three videos, one from her first EP release, one from the start of her second EP release campaign then one video post EP release.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd6qxdLE
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd6bXdwq
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd6bMvdr
In the first video it is hard to decipher a brand for this artist, we do not learn about her, though captions are telling us about the song, this is long to read, if audiences must work to find out about you, they will scroll- “Doing more with less” (The New York Times, 2024). Fast forward three years, the videos of this time have clear, precise branding, when the video appears, you know it is Erin LeCount. For example, the cross on the wall is almost always in the background, and she is typically wearing ethereal outfits that match the atmosphere created in her music. What makes the video feel authentic to the listener, however, is that she is dancing to her song, not in a rehearsed, full routine way, but as if she were listening to it in her room by enjoying herself. This feels authentic because she is moving how the music makes her feel, much like how many of us do when we hear the music we love. Not only that, but telling the viewer her music makes you want to dance in your room and that it is a full-body experience. Then the latest video continues this trend, enforcing that consistency leads to connection and distinctive branding. What is unique is the wings she starts to wear in her videos, with her music playing in the background. This continues the ethereal atmosphere, but it catches a viewer because they are something different and distinctive, making us stay to watch the video and try and understand why she is wearing the wings, what it means.
From this, I can analyse that visual branding within promotion is so important to creating interesting content, not only that, but ensuring the viewer will remember who you are next time they see you. The content Erin makes matches the music she makes and, therefore, makes it authentic. My music is mainly acoustic and tells a story, the videos must capture this, for example, locations, or even have the acoustic instruments in the videos, then videos that explain these stories. As well as this, consistency is key, even if it is the same section of the song, find what part hooks a viewer and grabs their attention. Then, continuously post this section, this will create excitement and tension for a release. Also, when the song is released, it makes the viewer go and listen to the rest of the song.
BRANDING
As mentioned in Popular music as promotion: music and branding in the digital age
By Leslie M Meier, “The most important thing for artists to understand and for everybody in the music business to understand right now is that artists, bands, musicians are a brand unto themselves”. In the age of social media, everything you post needs to align with the brand you’ve created for yourself. This even comes down to colour schemes. The album cover of BRAT, by Charlie XCX, has a bright green background with just the word BRAT in a basic font in black. This colour was then associated with this album and meant that Charlie XCX could post anything in this colour, and we instantly connected it to her album. (ViDEOGiRL 2024)
MY BRANDING:
As my last name is Greene, I have the advantage that if I use the colour in my branding, it directly relates to me, as green is a colour. So when audiences see my work, they know it relates to me. I have made a mind map showing my plan for my branding. I have decided on colour schemes, clothing style, and semiotics- due to my music being acoustic, I could use the symbol of an acoustic guitar to represent my music.
Also, here are some of the pictures I had taken me for the EP photoshoot. (seen below)
MARKETING PLAN:
As I have concluded throughout this plan, social media is the biggest element for me gaining a fanbase from scratch. Damian Keyes’s video ‘How to Release A Single In 2025 (The 25 Day Plan)’ says that “promotion should be fun” and you can “be a creative in your promoting” and in 2025 content should be “quality is over quantity”. Keyes’ video ‘How to Get 1000 Genuine Fans in 30 Days’, this video follows the idea that genuine fans are what are important to earning you money from your music. And tells you that you must create content that is directed at these fans and new fans who don’t know you. Using this video, I have created a content calendar to start anytime from now, this is to gain a fanbase, so when I start to promote music, I have a following already. (see below). The key takeaways are:
– Consistency.
– Tell them about you.
– Engage with what they already know
– Show your skills.
If I manage to consistently stick to this, it’ll mean I gain new followers whilst nurturing the loyal ones.
Bibliography
Amuse (n.d) How Music Distribution Works: Everything Artists Need to Know. https://www.amuse.io/en/content/how-music-distribution-works-everything-artists-need-to-know/ [11/05/2025]
Anara publishing (2019) All You Need to Know About Playlisting – Part 1. https://www.anarapublishing.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-playlisting-part-1-%EF%BB%BF/#:~:text=Having%20your%20track%20featured%20on,place%20to%20discover%20new%20music [11/05/2025]
Charlie XCX (2024) BRAT [Media]. Atlantic Records.
Ditto Music (2024) Pricing. https://dittomusic.com/en/pricing [11/05/2025]
Innes, M (2022) Steven Bartlett: The foundation of terrible marketing is indifference. https://www.marketingweek.com/steven-bartlett-marketing-indifference/ [11/05/2025]
Kelly, K (2008) 1,000 True Fans [Blog Post] The Technium. 04/03. https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ [11/05/2025]
Keyes, D (2023) How to Get 1000 Genuine Fans in 30 Days . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhqDERVvnU [11/05/2025]
Keyes, D (2025) How To Release A Single In 2025 (The 25 Day Plan) . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC3ef2cLDd0 [11/05/2025]
LeCount, E (2022) erin lecount [TikTok]. 26/09. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd6qxdLE/ [11/05/2025]
LeCount, E (2025) erin lecount [TikTok]. 04/01. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd6bXdwq/
[11/05/2025]
LeCount, E (2025) erin lecount [TikTok]. 23/04. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd6bMvdr/ [11/05/2025]
Meier, L M. (2016) Popular music as promotion: music and branding in the digital age. Polity Press
Ratchford, J (2025) releasing my EP independently: how I failed and what I learnt [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_HqS3DEWEI [11/05/2025]
The New York Times Licencing (2024) 10 Ways to Create Engaging Content. https://nytlicensing.com/latest/methods/create-engaging-content/ [11/05/2025]
VIDEOGIRL (2024) BRAT: A 101 IN MUSIC MARKETING (she’s genius) [VIDEO]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIO33LzJ4EU&t=36s [11/05/2025]
