Chosen Unsigned Artist Preparation

Lyrics - AbbieSinger - Abbie Sing

Video Ideas and To-Do list in regard to my unsigned artist - AbbieSinger

First draft of CD COVER

I conducted a brainstorm of all the ideas I have for my unsigned artist 'Abbie'. It mapped out all the things I need to do and how it can be done. For example, ideas on her image, her genre of music and how the album cover can reflect this, her ideal brand name, music video ideas etc. This is just the start of my project and the aim is to negotiate with my artist on the best way to market her.
I listened to some of Abbie's tracks with my group and we decided on the song that we would make a music video for. Part of the lyrics are located on the right.

I also drafted a quick CD cover with ideas for Abbie's album. After looking into Abbie as an artist, she is based around the genre of 'Neo-Soul' which is a fusion of contemporary R&B and Soul with incorporated elements of Jazz, Funk, Pop, African music etc and came around in the late 1990's. I wanted to portray quite a relaxed and peaceful environment hence the sun, sea and sand which colours I could emphasise by making them bolder and brighter and more saturated in order to make it stand out from other album covers.
The white rectangle is where I will place an image of Abbie, my unsigned artist.
The Guitar is a main instrument Abbie uses within her music so I felt this should have significance in the cover. I chose to make it cover the sunset because not all of Abbie's songs are positive and calm, some of them are quite informative and attack people's stereotypical perceptions of a particular type of person. Rene Magritte is a surrealist artist who became well known for his witty and thought-provoking imahges. He has inspired the idea of guitar floating in the air (infront of the sun) creating quite a surreal atmosphere and still making the guitar have significant value by having the audience questioning what it must mean. The draft cover gives the audience a window into Abbie's life as this is what she enjoys singing about, and aims her music at people who enjoy and appreciate the not so obvious meaning behind her songs.

Audience Feedback
I carried out audience research on what people think of my CD cover, how it can be improved, anything they don'tunerstand about it and essentially whether or not they would buy it.
I found that audiences usually go for albums that stand out, something which isn't dull otherwise they assume that the music will be dull also. Audiences enjoy covers with bright colours that go together and seeing the artists face clearly is important and more preferred than seeing the whole body of the artist.
Some of the people who took part in my audience research said that if they genuinly listen to the music and like it, then the cover is not so important, but obviously in most cases, it is the front cover of an album which is what draws someone into buying the album itself. The audience seemed to like albums such as 'Rihanna - Loud' because of the colour scheme which is quite toned down and calm apart from the red which is loud itself and stands out. Also, the font and title of an album cover is important too and shouldnt be so small as this is one of the main features of the album.
All this feedback has been very helpful because I know specifically what the audience expect and like a CD cover to look like so that it would appeal to them and there would be a bigger likelihood of them buying the CD.
The aspects stated about the colour scheme of an album and the importance of seeing the artists face clearly has influenced me on maybe changing the colour scheme of my album cover and toning it down. Also making sure the Abbie is the main subject of the cover and she is what you look at first instead of other aspects of the album cover. The name of the album "AbbieSinger" needs to be very visual and eye catching to the audience too.
After gathering feedback from Abbie herself, she said my ideas for her album cover were very creative and she liked how everything linked into eachother somehow symbolising aspects of her life. The only improvement Abbie advised was to make the title of her album to be more obvious so that the title and the image of herself is the first thing the audience look at when they see the album cover.