Here is an example of an email I sent to various radio stations on May 8th

Here is an example of an email I sent when contacting various blogs on March 4th

Yesterday, on 8^th May, I took on the informational role, from Henry Mintzberg, of acting as the spokesperson for Raul. This was because I sent Raul’s music on his behalf to different radio stations , such as Rock Radio UK, 102 Touch FM, and RockFM. Throughout this process, I had to create a brief introductory bio, for Raul and his group, that would clearly explain the style of music he makes and attempt to promote him in the best possible light for the person on the receiving end of my emails and give him the best chance possible to be selected for airplay. Radio X is still a station that I’d like to contact, but I have to plan that with Raul as they only accept submissions in physical format (CD or Vinyl).

Additionally, I included the MP3s within the emails instead of website links, as that was the preferred format that stations wanted them sent in from the research I did into the various stations’ websites.

On Thursday 25^th April, Raul and I met up to discuss exactly what direction and steps we are planning on taking in the preparation for his joint tour in late May. After weighing up the pros and cons, we decided that it would be best for Raul to not go ahead with the initial plan of releasing a 2-part single prior to the tour. This was mainly due to Raul’s suggestion that he would like to put those songs on his next EP, which I respected fully. I suggested that he could potentially still go ahead with the vinyl idea as a special merchandise item at a later stage once the EP is released if he wished. We also felt that if we went ahead with recording the new single and trying to get it out before tour, it could be at the expense of the song’s quality, even though initially we felt it would be good to give tour attendees a new song to create more buzz to see him live. We concluded that the quality of the content and getting the release right was more important than getting a song out before tour.

During our meeting, we also discussed my suggestion of a potential tour trailer to create more excitement, awareness and ticket sales for the tour. However, it came to light that it is a good idea that is unlikely to be achieved prior to the tour, due to the other bands extremely busy schedules. That being said we are still going to do our all to spread as much awareness as possible for the tour, through social media posts advertising each date.

Finally, we took care of some other outstanding matters, such as the official signing of the management contract, which went very well as there were no queries or adjustments that needed making.

On the week of April 1^st, Raul and I discussed that he has just written 2 songs that he would like to record and release before he goes on tour in Late May. Throughout this discussion, Raul played me both of the songs and gave me a summary of what they are about. The 2 songs are centred around the same story/subject matter and they are a part one and part two to each other.

Taking this into account, we immediately got down to looking at the planning and organising side of Henry Fayol’s elements of management. As a result we began to strategise ideas of the format for the release, which we decided would be releasing the singles on vinyl (with part 1 on side A and part 2 on side B), as well as releasing the tracks on all streaming platforms. We felt that the vinyl would act as a nice piece of merchandise to sell over the tour and gives the supporters some new content prior to the tour to create some excitement for people to see him live. in addition, over the coming days we shall organise the booking of a studio to record the tracks in. We will also have a meeting over the next week to discuss our release strategy as well as artwork concepts, although we do have one vague idea that is centred around the theme of Repunzel, as that could have a clever correlation to the songs’ themes.

Between the week of March 11^th and March 25^th, there was a one-week hiatus due to Raul’s university assignments being due in, as well as myself having to do some work in preparation for some of my upcoming university assignments. However, some work was still able to be carried out throughout this period. At the beginning of the management process, Raul mentioned that contacting BBC Introducing was a key aim of his. As a result, I contacted Sam Bonham from BBC Introducing South West via e-mail to send in Raul’s music for consideration. Unfortunately, Sam was unable to take his music on board due to the fact that Raul is not an artist from the South West. That being said, we have not lost hope as we have submitted his music into the BBC Introducing uploader, and I assured Raul that I would do some research to see if I could find the right contacts for his areas (West Midlands and Surrey).

On Monday 4^th March, my main focus was targeting niche blogs that post music within the same sub-genre that my artist is in. I researched these blogs online, paying attention to what music they like to post and what their reach is. I wanted to make sure that I was approaching a mixture of blogs, some with large levels of engagement and some with lower engagement. Once I had a list, I proceeded to take on the spokesperson role from Mintzberg, making a rough email template to send to each blog, ensuring that each email clearly explained what type of artist Raul is and included links to Raul’s Spotify, Apple Music, Live Performance on YouTube, and Instagram, to provide the email recipient with ease-of-access links. Some of the blogs/sites that were targeted include: Kerrang, Alexrainbirdmusic, DIY Conspiracy, The Alternative, Primal Music, Ultimate Classic Rock, Kerrang and Rock Sound.

Over the weekend, a core focus was promoting upcoming UK Tour for Raul Lai and The Rockets (in conjunction with 2 other acts), as well as promoting the band’s involvement in The Isle of Wight Festival’s New Blood competition. We mainly spread the word through social media, making sure we took full advantage of the features they provide, such as Instagram stories and posts, Facebook posts, etc. So far, we’ve been able to achieve 129 votes for the band to perform at the festival. I am planning to suggest other ways to promote the UK Tour on a wider scale, such as a tour trailer for social media advertisements. This idea came to me when I was thinking about Scooter Braun’s interview with Complex’s Blueprint segment, where he talks about identifying gaps in the market. Therefore, I suggested the tour trailer, with inspiration coming from hip-hop artists’ tour trailers, such as G-Eazy’s Endless Summer Tour. These types of trailers are something you don’t tend to see from rock bands so I felt it could be something effective and different to everyone else. However, whether we go through with these ads is very dependent on what Raul’s budget is.

On Wednesday 27^th February, I had a very productive conversation with Raul Lai, a rock artist, who I know personally and have agreed to manage over the course of this module.

I explained my interest in managing him, as well as the requirements I need in order to complete the module assignment. In addition, I asked if he had any additional management tasks that he would like me to carry out during our time working together. Raul replied with a keen interest in being managed by myself and from there we had a phone call conversation, in which he explained to me that he would additionally like me to focus on the areas of: Tour Promotion, Festival Promotion and Social Media Promotion. Throughout this discussion, I also enquired with Raul what his plans were over the next few months with his music, so that we can begin to create an overall strategy and start to compile our SMART goals.

After this conversation, we both understood each other’s requirements and desires, and now feel that we can move forward with organising the management contract signing.