Monday 5th February
Week 1 - Press release and Biography
I found the class on press releases and Biography terrifying as it meant that it was real. This was something I had always avoided and it was very hard to write positive things about myself. After asking trusted friends for some words and looking at some of my favourite artists Bio's on Spotify I started to develop my Bio. I found it difficult so a friend suggested trying to get Chat GPT to help me look at it from an outsider's perspective. I had a real moral dilemma with this as it felt like I should be able to do this myself but the more stressed I got about it the more I felt I had to give it a try. I put in some of my achievements and what came out was effortless. I then edited and changed it until I got the final draft. I then sent it to Jayne for feedback. I found it so empowering to understand how other people see me, even if I am only beginning to see it myself.
In terms of the press release, I found it interesting to look at the different styles of press releases and realised that it is all about communicating who you are as an artist after a few examples on Canva I then developed my final draft for the EPK.
Monday 12th February
Week 2 - Social media identity & Strategy
After the lecture on Social media and branding and watching the video with Jayne and Lovisa my first bjective was to streamline my social media platforms as my branding up until this point was confusing and scattered. I had four Facebook pages and two Instagram pages, an old website that I created for my Masters professional practice module which I never share as it has so much information about all the community music, facilitation, art and photography that I do. This mens that the most important part - my songs are lost. I needed a clear message and simplified branding. I had previously used Wordpress and Elementor for previous websites, however, it had been a few years since I had worked with these platforms. A huge part of the learning process was decidign whether to continue with these or change. I decided to change to Wix platform as I had to design a website for my podcst Beyond the Chord' which discusses creativity in Menopause, and for my husband's picture framing business 'Strange Frames' so I knew I needed something easy and quick to understand. In creating the malba website, I already had the domain name, however, this brought on a crisis of confidence in the name Malba worrying whether it was the right name. I quickly chatted with Susie from Dot and Del and she reassured me of the reasons why I had chosen that name. This left me free to start the website development and my experience with the more complex Wordpress stood me in good stead.
With some help from my eldest daughter I unravelled the different names on Facebook and Instagram and changed my instagram to i_am_malba as previously it had been malbamusic. All of these small steps took much longer than I thought as I was letting go of the many incarnations that I had in terms of my businesses. This was so liberating after Jaynes postive feedback on the website.
I had achieved my intention of a clean, clear website.
We met the producers today and they talked us through the pre-production template and how important it was to consider reference tracks and arrangement before going in to the studio.
Monday 19th February
Week 3 - Campaign strategy, EPK and Distribution
Lecture 3 allowed me to examine not only my own communities of practice, but also recognise my place in other communities, e.g Songseeds (where No More Rain was initially written), Radical Songwriting Academy, Female DIY Musician, along with my participation in communities such as Nourished by Nature.
All of these would help me in planning and designing my campaign strategy.
In terms of distribution, I had previously used Ditto for the release of my EP in 2016 and after some research (e.g. Ari's take) I decided to resubscribe to Ditto as I was conscious of the many new platforms I was already trying to learn and navigate.
As part of the development of the website I drafted an EPK which would be later developed.
I acknowledged that SMART Goals in terms of the release plan weren't my strong point and it was clear that I needed to be more realistic in what time I would be able to devote to the release campaign whilst juggling working full time in Community Music, as a Sound Therapist and mother of three.
I started developing a quotes document with feedback from previous collaborators as I didn't have a list of songwriting achievements, as well as the fact that I had changed my artist name (previously Maumamo) and that I would be starting to build my profile from scratch.
Tuesday 19th March
Website creation
Over the weekend I worked on my new website using Wix and sent Jayne a draft for feedback. This was a massive step forward in the process.
Music Business summary
I have learned so much from this part of the course, however, I feel I didn't have the time to devote to any in-depth learning and I will definitely revisit this after the module is finished.
The creation of a consistent brand and new website is a massive step forward for me which I wouldn't have done without the support from Jayne and Becci.