Marketing Justification

Why is an e portfolio important?

An e portfolio is important for a Freelance musician as it enables you to promote yourself in a way that you do not have to do too much work. An e portfolio allows you to link all of your promotional tools into one big

promotional tool

saving you time and effort when trying to spread the word around about your music. For example; on an e portfolio you could include a widget which links to your Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud and YouTube pages- so that anyone who enters your page can immediately access your social networking sites and your music rather than relying on a search engine to do this. An e portfolio could also be used as a CV as it will usually include all of your gig information and gives the person the chance to really look into your work and talent.

One example of a good e portfolio is; http://www.jessiejofficial.com/ Jessie J’s official website. The reason why this more than fits the criteria for being a good e portfolio is because it has the following features;

·         Jessie J’s logo is clearly visible on the website so that her fans are able to immediately recognise it and know that this is her website.

·         She has clear links to her tour dates, biography, music, videos, recent news and a direct link to buying her music- so that people are informed of her story, where she is going to be next and any trends she is keeping up. This keeps people interested.

·         As you enter the site she immediately advertises her new album ‘Sweet Talker’ by having the album cover as her background. The album is the first thing you see which encouragers her fans or anyone entering the site to have a listen and buy.

·         The image you encounter when you first enter the site is appealing and demonstrated what sort of an artist she is by what she is wearing, her facial expressions and the clarity of the image.

·         The layout of the site is simple and easy to get around as when you click on a link it doesn’t direct you to a new page it just scrolls down to the section you are looking for- saving time for the person browsing the site as they do not have to wait for a new page to load.

·         There is also a direct link to her YouTube VEVO account which is in the same format as her website so that you know that this is her YouTube account and no one else’s. 

Jessie J’s blog has inspired me to alter the appearance of my own blog as it is clear, concise, appealing to the eye and does what it is intended to do- inform her fans. The theme of her blog matches the theme for her new album and includes links to her other social networking sites- which makes it easier for her fans to find her on places like Twitter and Facebook. Therefore, I decided to change the theme of my blog to match the colour theme for my E.P ready for when I release it, I also added widgets linking to my Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud and YouTube accounts. These are just the small changes that I can make to the blog now however, I plan to have a logo made so that I can feature this on my blog and I hope to advertise my E.P by having the cover as my background when I release it. I’ve found that this has made my blog more informative and my social networking sites more accessible.

Some of the content featured on my blog helps to promote me as an artist as it draws other musicians to the blog. This is because I have included examples of what a session musician’s CV should look like, health and safety tips for musicians and I have also posted up a vocal warm up video for other singers to use as guidance. Other artists may use my blog posts as a guideline and consequently be attracted to my music links. A lot of the time people’s music is discovered because other people will accidently come across them when looking for something related but correspondingly dissimilar. In my case I have offered guidance for other musicians when writing up the posts on my blog which will then lead to them witnessing the links to my social networking sites and YouTube and SoundCloud channels. However, one problem that I may encounter when attempting to gain views and interest on my music is lack of interest in my tutorial video featured on the blog. This is because the quality of my tutorial video isn’t to a standard that other people’s tutorial videos are at. Some things that I could improve when looking at gaining more interest in the video are; improving the visual quality by using a better recording device, improving the sound quality using a microphone and improving the overall rating of the video by using better examples of vocal warm ups and spending longer demonstrating them.

The CV I have included on my page is predominantly suitable for Session Musicians as this is the path I would like to take when looking for a career in music. Features of my CV that stand out and make my CV suitable for Session Musicians are; the Recordings section and the picture of myself in the top right hand corner. Including recordings in your

CV

is vital for a session musician as employers often want to see some of your work (much like a portfolio) as they will want to know how you sound regardless of how many qualifications you have in music. The picture is also a good thing to include as employers may want to know that you are appealing to a particular audience. However, this all depends on the job you are going for as not all jobs require you to look a certain way. Including a picture of yourself could also backfire on you as the employer may already decide that you are not right for the job before witnessing some of your work and seeing how talented you are.

One other thing that I include in my blog is an acoustic cover of a song. This is a great marketing tool as it enables me to show my viewers what sort of an artist I am, how I can cope in an environment without microphones and how I sound. It allows the viewers to make a decision about whether or not they like my music, this means that the people who actually search for my music are likely to be people who will watch it the whole way through rather than brush it off without having properly listened to it. This helps me with my YouTube membership as I am more likely to hold a featured slot if people are actually engaged in my channel. My acoustic cover video could be improved by using a better recording device to make the visual and sound quality better and by colour coordinating with the people performing with me so that we look like we are putting on a performance as a group and aren’t just play as individuals.