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This Professional CV is relevant for both S1 AND S2.

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This Professional CV is relevant for both S1 AND S2.

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This timeline is the plans we had made based on the timeframe we had left. Due to the fact that we were unable to create 'enough' music to create an EP we decided to downsize our project so we could focus on something in more detail. However, as time went on and we were stuck in a creative rut, we realised that given we only had a small amount of time left, we should focus solely on a single release as we were at a point where we knew what kind of sound we wanted to have, and I was also a lot more confident with writing original music.

Sept-December: EP release consisting of 4-5 songs + a create cover.

Jan-Feb: Single Release + B side creative cover (Dead Poet Society).

Feb-April: Single release.

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This release plan was created on the 25th of January, this plan wasn't possible due to our confusion with our band identity. Below is another timeline I created towards the end of the academic year to help us better understand what we had to do given the limited  time frame we had left.

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This release plan was created on the 25th of January, this plan wasn't possible due to our confusion with our band identity. Below is another timeline I created towards the end of the academic year to help us better understand what we had to do given the limited  time frame we had left.

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Previous Plan (Sept 2022 to December 2022)-

EP release scheduled for April.

Current plan (25/01/23)-

Single release- including bonus track cover- Release April Friday 7th.

EPK- James creating next week.

Social Media announcement-

* late Feb (25-26th) Instagram post- create interest.

*Between initial first post, maintain interest- posting photos each week, rehearsal videos- snippets of bonus track.

* early-mid (20th) March chorus teaser on insta.

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Scan from 2023-04-05 11_04_57 AM.pdf

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Upon reflection I have realised that time management is the main priority to improve on. As a result of this poor time management I now have to ensure this module is kept up to date with documenting everything within this process of creating a band from scratch and eventually releasing music, whether it be an EP or simply a single.

I Was happy with the progress us as a band made as we were able to effectively communicate the wants and ideas we each had in order to create music that reflected us as individuals as well as a collective. Towards the end of the last term, we established that we wanted to sound similar to that of Paramore with regards to vocals, and Dead Poet Society, taking inspiration from both the vocals and the instrumentation.

As it is the beginning of the term, we have said we need to create a conscious effort to maintain this progress we have made prior to the holidays, and we need to keep on top with regular rehearsals and documenting this process through videos, regular messaging and phone calls as well as photos of lyrics, instrumentation etc.

Furthermore, one of our main priorities is to create a brand for ourselves. We spend far too much time trying to come up with a name for ourselves back in the previous term and we are yet to make a decision. We have spoken to tutors about this as we feel that the need for identity has hindered our progress as we have focused so much on this, however they have told us not to focus on this too much and continue trying to create music that feels right for us, so we are actively trying to do this, whilst also keeping the name in the forefront of our minds, and hoping that eventually we will find inspiration from either one of our songs or something that we all relate to.

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As previously mentioned, as a band we had decided to create an EP as our final major project. However, due to our limited timeframe, we have decided that it would be better for us as a group to focus on a single release. This would give us enough time to put a lot of energy into a single project instead of rushing multiple projects which I know we wouldn't be as proud of.
We have decided on our band name 'Forget Simplicity' as of February this year, however we aren't completely happy with it, so whilst we continue working on our music and finding our sound we are going to continue workshopping the name.

We are aiming to create a track that incorporates the styles of Paramore (vocals that are clean, dynamic and have a wide range of sounds) and Dead Poet Society (instrumentation that feature heavy bass and guitar lines and dramatic breakdowns).

The track we want to complete will feature an intense breakdown which will be a surprise to our audience. We want to create music both now and in the future that will shock our audience with dramatic shifts in our style and tone as well as changes to the structure of songs.

We are going to be creating a platform for ourselves including and Instagram page, which will be our main platform for promotion, as well as a Youtube Channel, then when we eventually finish our single, we will publish it on Streaming services such as Spotify.

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Each Band member will be responsible for a variety of roles within the band. As well as our instruments we want to cover a variety of necessary jobs that will ultimately improve our chances of succeeding and achieving both our individual and collective goals that will help to push our music out into the industry.

Kitty-
* Lead Vocalist/ Branding and Creative e.g Logos.
James-
*Guitarist/ Social Media Management.
Adam-
*Bassist/ Treasurer.
Jack-
*Drummer/ Booking agent/ sound engineer.

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Demos -LINK
This folder contains all of our demos which include potential single releases. We have since decided on our single 'Burning out', and this folder contains the demo we recorded for that song.

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Images - LINK
Here we have created a folder containing all our current band photos and logos that we have used so far. We are planning to do another photoshoot as we have decided that our impromptu shoot which his featured on our socials, isn't cohesive to our brand that we want to create, which is more grunge/moody aesthetic as opposed to our colourful and cheery poses we had in our first photos.

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Recent Stuff -LINK
This folder contains audio workshopping our potential second track. We have written Our definite single, however, after we recorded this track in the studio, we decided we wanted to continue the writing process as we found that we were able to come up with a lot of new ideas after we successfully wrote our first track. This folder also contains a project we were working on as part of a promotion with the band 'Queen', which was a reason why we are unable to release our single in time.

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Runthroughs -LINK
Here are runthrough videos and audios of our original track, worshopping our second potential single and any other covers we wanted to try out back at the beginning of 2023.

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Writing -LINK
This folder contains lots of videos documenting our writing process since the beginning of the academic year. There is clear change in our attitude and mindsets with regards to writing our song.

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LOGO-
I created a series of logos that I shared with the Band. We had discussed in person that we wanted our logo to represent our sound and the aesthetic of our music, whilst also not giving too much away. Therefore I created 8 different variations of logos and posted them in our group chat to see what the rest of the band members thought. We have currently chosen and orange 'liquid smoke' background with a white 'swirl' and our names in a bold font. I am very a happy with the logo and am glad to boys like it also. In order are the different variations I came up with, followed by a screen recording of the conversation in the chat about the bands opinions on the logo.

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I created this one as we were initially unsure about the format of the logo that we wanted. The simplicity of the colour palette was initially what drew me to this style. Upon reflection, we decided that it wasn't the style we wanted our audience to see as we felt it could be made more memorable and exciting.

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With this logo, I felt it captured the essence of our band a lot stronger. This background was much more suitable for our band as we enjoy the pop of colour whilst still having areas of obscurity, which I feel resonates with the image we are trying to portray.

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This is the logo we have currently settled on. I believe that the background is a perfect representation of us as a band and it holds personal meaning (Jacks favourite colour!). My favourite thing about this logo is that the bold lettering doesn't get lost in the logo even though the background is rather busy. Its a strong balance between simplicity and creativity which I believe perfectly encapsulates our band and the message we want to portray to our audience.

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This is a video uploaded to Youtube of a screen recording documenting our conversation as a collective about our logo.

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Photo of our Official Instagram page for our band. I currently manage the page and keep posting stories regularly to keep our followers up to date with our projects. We have an introductory post for our band so everyone knows each member.

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Photo of our Official Instagram page for our band. I currently manage the page and keep posting stories regularly to keep our followers up to date with our projects. We have an introductory post for our band so everyone knows each member.

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Introductory post for people to familiarise themselves with the Band members.

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Introductory post for people to familiarise themselves with the Band members.

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Personal Instagram promoting the Band Account to my followers and others that may view my account. 

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Personal Instagram promoting the Band Account to my followers and others that may view my account. 

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Throughout this process, myself and the band have found it extremely difficult to completely portray what we want our music to represent and sound like. From September to mid February, we struggled with confidence as none of us had written music in this particular style, and I have also never written music before so was especially doubtful. However, over the next few weeks, we had many discussions with our tutors and it created a new sense of confidence and I especially was braver in trying new things, such as improvising in front of my band. Once we had made the decision to release just a single I felt a lot more confident in my ability as by that point I had began to experiment with melodies and vocals in front of other people which is a huge milestone for me within my songwriting process. This experience has really helped shape me as a more confident singer, and whilst I am still learning, I am a lot more comfortable with songwriting, which is a dramatic change from previous years/ projects.

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The Logos above were for our previous band name, however, we were never happy with this name, therefore we didn't think it was sensible spend a lot of Time creating this logo wither by ourselves, or by an external graphic designer. The Logo's below are of our new band Name which we are very happy with. We worked with an artist/Friend named Dani who used the mood boards I created (also below), to come up with this unique design that I believe perfectly encapsulates our style as a band.

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The Logos above were for our previous band name, however, we were never happy with this name, therefore we didn't think it was sensible spend a lot of Time creating this logo wither by ourselves, or by an external graphic designer. The Logo's below are of our new band Name which we are very happy with. We worked with an artist/Friend named Dani who used the mood boards I created (also below), to come up with this unique design that I believe perfectly encapsulates our style as a band.

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This is our new Logo with our new band name. This is featured on our social medias to promote our band.

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This is our new Logo with our new band name. This is featured on our social medias to promote our band.

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We also have the logo in white which we feel would be a good option for potential merchandise in the future e.g stickers. 

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We also have the logo in white which we feel would be a good option for potential merchandise in the future e.g stickers. 

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Table analysing package deals from Distributors.

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Table analysing package deals from Distributors.

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Table from -(WesTheTechProductions, 2021)
Within this comparison, these two distributors aren't too dissimilar, the only reason why many people choose Ditto over Distrokid, is due to the Youtube Content ID, which in essence means that if you choose to distribute through Ditto as opposed to Distrokid, it means that you get 100% of all royalties when a video contains your song. If you were to go through Distrokid then that means they would take $5 per single annually from your income, $15 per album annually and 20% of all royalties on YouTube, so in turn whilst these two distributors contain the same basic foundations, the small matter of Youtube which is currently such a huge streaming platform, this makes all the difference to independent artists when Distrokid takes even a small percentage of their earnings.

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Distrokid-
Distrokid is a reputable distributor and many artists utilise its assets, however, upon researching artists that use and used to use this service, many have released content explaining that Distrokid doesn't pay its artists on time which can become a huge issue for struggling artists that are trying to create an income from this service. 'Zillamode' on Youtube created a video stating that he has earned around $37,000 on the website, yet has never received payment on time for this which has caused huge issues with regards to paying out other sources of promotion such as merchandise companies etc.  (ZillaMode, n.d.). Furthermore, another issue with Distrokid is that if an artist doesn't pay its subscription fee on time, even if they choose not to upload again, the distributor will take down all previous content that the artist has published through them, even if they are actively not utilising their company anymore. (Ferecco Production studios, 2021). Therefore, whilst I do appreciate the fact that Distrokid is an affordable Distributor with reasonable perks, the ways in which they create loopholes to mistreat their clients is the main factor why I don't want to use them for my music.

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(Anon, 2019)
Using Ditto has both pros and cons. For example pros- you keep all of your commissions and you get paid very quickly as opposed to Distrokid. A major positive asset to Ditto is that it has over 200 music outlets and streaming services, therefore, your music can reach to a much larger audience unlike various other distributors. (Gateway, 2019) As a result of this you are much more likely to be featured on popular music services and popular playlists on those services such as Spotify, Youtube etc.
However, there are some downsides to Ditto that may make the decision difficult when it comes to choosing which distributor to go with. There are a few hidden fees throughout depending on how 'premium' you wish to go with your package, and whilst $19 annually doesn't seem like a bad price, the hidden extras that you may want to use in order to promote your music as far as you can may set you back a lot of money which in turn can end up costing the artist more than they have to begin with.
Anon, 2019)

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After discussing it with the band and weighing up our options, we have decided to use Ditto as our Distributor, primarily because other members have experience using this site, but also we believe that the fact that Distrokid make it so difficult to claim back the artists income, it simply is feasible for us to chose this service. We believe that even though there are some hidden fees with Ditto, we are able to utilise their features that come with the cheapest plan better than worrying if Distrokid would take our royalties and other sources of income.

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Anon, (2019). Ditto Music Distribution Review: The Honest Truth. [online] Available at: https://musicwithflavor.com/ditto-music-distribution-review/.

DistroKid. (n.d.). DistroKid is the easiest way for musicians to get their music into Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, TikTok, Google Play, and more. [online] Available at: https://distrokid.com/plan/.

Dittomusic.com. (2021). Pricing | Ditto Music. [online] Available at: https://dittomusic.com/en/pricing/.

Gateway, M. (2019). Ditto Music Review: Is Ditto Music Any Good? [online] Music Gateway. Available at: https://www.musicgateway.com/blog/music-distribution/ditto-music-distribution-review [Accessed 5 May 2023].

Productions, W. (2021). DITTO IS BETTER THAN DISTROKID | MUSIC INDUSTRY TIPS | TECHTIPS | WESTHETECH PRODUCTIONS. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkRJlLZPQA4 [Accessed 5 May 2023].

ZillaMode (n.d.). DISTROKID DOESN’T PAY ARTISTS. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://youtube.com/shorts/m53bxX-gw3Y?feature=share [Accessed 5 May 2023].

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Due to our timing issues with writing, recording, mixing and mastering, we have been unable to mix and master our single and as a result we have instead decided to complete a detailed release plan for our single ensuring our track isn't rushed, however is clearly shown through my work how we plan to release the single with the extra time we have set aside for ourselves.

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With all things considering, I believe that the main thing we have to worry about is our time management. Now we have safely identified the issues that were hindering our progression e.g time management, we are making a conscious effort to stay on top of that, through regular video evidencing and frequent if not weekly rehearsals.
For this project, the main reason we struggled with releasing our track on time was due to an external music opportunity that we as a band were unable to pass on where we could recreate the song 'cool cat' by Queen as potentially have the opportunity to be promoted through their socials, as a result of this we felt it was best for our band as a collective to take this chance and put the single release on hold .
linked below is our video for this project. We have discussed that we need to work on our organisational skills better as we found ti very difficult to manage writing our own material whilst working on other projects and as a result of this, our single release was inevitably pushed back.
I understand that the shouldn't have happened, however, I have learned a very valuable lesson from this experience, and know understand the importance of effective communication, professionalism and self discipline.
I allowed myself to slack with regards to making decisions and as a result of that I believe the track release date was pushed back.
I found myself to be a very nervous writer and lacking in confidence in my own abilities as I had never written my own original music before, however, through this experience, and seeing the video evidence of my progression with both my band and within my self belief as an artist, it has made this time so valuable to me, therefore I am happy that we didn't rush into releasing the track before we were all happy with it, as I feel that giving ourselves extra time, will really showcase our development as a band through the song.
Furthermore I believe that the amount of documentation we all did as part of this project has really helped me with my written work. Prior to this project, I struggled with completely tasks each week as I lacked evidence to support what I was writing about, however, due to the fact that we have all as a group been. so motivated to complete this track to the best of our abilities, we have come out the other side of this module with so much video, photographic and text evidence to support our music.
This I feel demonstrates a new found maturity in all of us as it shows how dedicated we are to this band as we don't want to risk anything being forgotten, and as a result of this we are currently in the process of writing another song due to the recordings we have in a rehearsal towards the end of the term.

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Store photos and docs online. Access them from any PC, Mac or phone. Create and work together on Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents.

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As we are unsure when we are releasing the track, we will be uploading our single to our distributor 5-6 weeks before our release date. We will be using Ditto and we plan on releasing the track on a Friday (First one of the month) as we will also be able to release the single on Bandcamp which in turn gives us better opportunities to earn money from this project. With regards to completing the actual track, This process will not affect the 5-6 week plan as it should hopefully be completed, however, as we are using an external sound engineer (Our Drummer) we feel that there could be some potential changes made to the track, if that is the case then there is a chance we could push the date back slightly, however, this wouldn't affect our followers as we wouldn't have announced the release date yet.

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With this deadline we will be looking into our target audience. We have identified the style and genre of music we want to show to the public and we feel that given the demographic of our instagram followers, our target audience will be young adults and around that age. I believe that adults similar to our band members ages will be a fan our music due to the creative ways in which we are mixing genres in order to create a new sound. Many young people are now experimenting with the ways in which we create music, therefore we believe they would be more open to listening to our music.

We will also create a brief video for all of our social media accounts promoting the song.

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Ideally we would like to have had a photoshoot in order to promote ourselves, however, we are currently focusing on the completion of the track, so when this draws to a close, we are going to talk to a videographer and photographer who helped us with our external Queen project and ask if he's available to help us with it. We have already had a mini impromptu photo shoot back at the end of last year, which are include in the 'images' link in my evidencing column, however as mentioned before they didn't fit the aesthetic of our new name and identity, therefore we will be completing this when the song is completed as we will know exactly what we want the photos to represent.

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For this week leading up to our release, we will be creating a lot of content to put on all of our social media's as well as contacting external sources that could potentially share our music, e.g radio stations (We are currently looking at BBC introducing Sussex). Furthermore, we will be looking into our internal promoters e.g Waterbear to help us share word of the release. In order to keep our audience interested we will be releasing small clips of different parts of the song, not to give too much away but to entice them more into what genres we are incorporating in the track. Furthermore, we will be creating Spotify playlists and sharing them on our socials to promote our style of music to prepare our audience. We will create these with the idea of putting our song within this playlist so it will be a cohesive piece that we can keep putting our songs into, as we feel that storytelling is an important part in our personal journey with the music.

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Today will be the day we release our artwork for the single. We have already spoken to an artist who helped us create our logo (photos included in Images folder) and with the mood board I created she will produce artwork. We have given her total creative freedom with this as believe she will do an incredible job with it, and as we are not rushing with the release, it gives her more time to create which we are all very happy with.

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Here we will begin a countdown on socials and encourage everyone to share it, we have considered a live stream to promote ourselves but that is to be confirmed at a later date. We will double check that everything has been uploaded correctly and is ready to share as we are doing a midnight release. Here we will also promote the snippets of the track one last time with potential bonus footage of studio recordings and outtakes of filming just to give it a more personal touch.

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Today we will put out banners stating that the track is out, and encourage everyone to promote the track. We will be discussing peoples ideas for a music video as we want that to be our next step, as well as sharing reposts on all socials to show how much we appreciate their support. Hopefully we will have had a radio play if all goes to plan so we will be promoting that. We will also be promoting merchandise that we intend to sell and make that available for pre order e.g stickers and printed tote bags.

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We have also created a TIKTOK page in order to attract a young adult audience with our music by creating videos following trends featuring our music.

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We have also created a TIKTOK page in order to attract a young adult audience with our music by creating videos following trends featuring our music.

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This project has meant that we as a band have had to become a lot more diligent with our time management. Because of this we booked a lot of extra rehearsals to ensure this was maintained.
As well as additional rehearsals, we also booked studio time and had a lot of phone calls to keep everyone up to date with what was going on. As our drummer was our sound engineer and producer, we had to ensure we were all aware with what was going on at all times.  I feel that the only thing we could've done to better ourselves as professionals was to attend all lessons, however, this wasn't always possible due to external circumstances (LO1).

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Due to train strikes, James (Our Guitarist) was often unable to make lessons, therefore we had to resort to using the online DAW Bandlab to create music. Here is a screenshot of the demo we created for our single 'Burning out'.

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Once our single has been promoted and shared, we will continue to write more music with the intentions of gigging over the coming months. We intend to create enough music to eventually put out the EP that we originally wanted to release at the start of this project.
Once we are happy with this EP then we will continue to play gigs and eventually create another release plan for the EP essentially doing what we have done with this project. As a result of this we hope to build up our following and gain supporters that will continue to promote our music and share our messages and ethos to others.