In late April I began talking to Cory Hajde about doing my practicum experience at BravoArtist. I really enjoy working around the music business, so I decided BravoArtist would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn and begin my career working in the music industry. I have worked with Cory Hajde prior to my practicum experience with the band that I play in currently. They have a great reputation for what they do over social media and the shows that they put on in the state of Ohio.
I received my marketing representative manual from Dick Joseph via email. From what I read, it seemed like I would enjoy this experience a lot because I get to help run concerts and manage social media; which happens to be two of my favorite things. I also looked into my practicum manual to see what needed to be done for Practicum in Applied Communication side of it. Overall, I was pretty happy with the criteria that needed to be done for this class. I can already see what aspects can fit in each section of my portfolio. My biggest concern was the VCD aspect of the practicum because it has been over a year since I have used Photoshop, Indesign or Illustrator.
My very first task was to create a flyer for my first show that I would help run, which was the Envoi show scheduled on June 9th 2013. I kept the idea simple and used one of Envoi’s concert shots to be the background. I then applied the information for the concert and it turned out pretty well; the flyer stands out and is visually appealing.
Next I began promoting the Envoi show via BravoArtist’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I invited all of my friends to the event page we had on our Facebook and pushed this show as much as I could. I also did other social media tasks like announce the Scream The Prayer Tour.
I began working on the flyer for another show I would help run, which features my good friends in This Is A Lifetime. I kept the concept simple, but informative. Some people put too much information on flyers from what I see on social media. Since some artists put too much text on a flyer, this can cause the viewer to not see some of the basic information that is needed to know about the show. I say this from past experience and even though the information is right there, they still overlook the information. So my goal was to not have that for the flyers I make and to be very clear when it comes to the information needed to know about the show. We then announced the This Is A Lifetime and Legion headliner’s from our social media sites.
The day of the Envoi show my responsibilities for the show were to invite people to the event on Facebook and market the show via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), distributing flyer, and use word of mouth tactics. The day of the show I showed up early to help bands load-in their gear, check the bands in and account for their pre-sales. I helped Ben, co-founder of BravoArtist, with whatever he needed to be done. I also was the stage manager for this show. My duties included making sure all the bands were loaded in, helping bands set-up their equipment and taking down their equipment, making sure the next band is ready to go on next as well as their equipment, and finally making sure the show ran on time. If the bands had any questions about the show, I was prepared to answer them and help them out to the best of my abilities. At the end of the night, we handed out our BravoArtist cards that had a qr code for free music and also a list of upcoming BravoArtist shows. It was a pretty successful first show for me. Everything ran on time and we had over 200 people in attendance for a local show.
Since I started my practicum before my fall semester it was pretty easy to manage since I didn’t have to worry about balancing school work with it too. I still worked full time and my band even went on tour for a month in the summer time too. I talked with Cory about the tour so he didn’t assign me any shows till I came back. The great part was I was still able to manage the social media pages from my phone. So while I was on tour I could still get work done for them.
While on the road I created a press release for Mychildren Mybride’s upcoming tour, which BravoArtist had the Columbus date of the tour. The press release was created shortly after the dates were announced to inform our followers of their upcoming dates. The press release was shared from BravoArtist’s Tumblr account and synched to our Twitter account. I was told to keep our press release’s short and to the point, which I understood from taking the Social Media Strategies course. It was pretty cool to apply something I learned from to school to my work.
BravoArtist artist Sirens & Sailors released a new single from a very popular media outlet. I created a press release for them of the video and posted it from our Tumblr account. We are required to push all BravoArtist artists as much as possible, so I shared it from my personal accounts too. I then announced my next upcoming show with Wilson, which should be a great show.
I modified the This Is A Lifetime flyer because I was notified a band had dropped off the show and I added the replacement band, Motives. I started announcing even more shows in July. It got a little overwhelming at times considering we were announcing almost five shows this week and I wanted to keep up with BravoArtist as much as possible. Each announcement on our social media was strategically planned out. Timing is everything, as well as the day, in social media. I made sure each announcement was spaced out, so that the events didn’t clutter the page.
I began working on the Fit For A King flyer, which I just used one of their promotional shots they had taken and applied the information to it. The show was announced shortly after that. I created a press release featuring Born of Osiris’ new single. We have Born of Osiris on our upcoming shows list, so it was a good idea to have their new song reach out to our audience. I learned that creating these press releases are a great strategy to build hype for a band that we will have on our shows list soon.
I wasn’t assigned the Emmure/Born of Osiris show, but I figured Cory and Ben would need some extra help considering the show was on its way of selling out. I drove down to Columbus and was ready to help out with whatever was needed for the show. I picked up Cory to bring him to the show since he didn’t have a car at the time. On our way to the venue, we went to the store to accommodate the artists’ rider. A rider is a list of items artists ask for as part of the guarantee they receive; they can also ask for a payout instead, which would just be extra money. A rider could include cases of water, alcohol and catering; it just depends on the artists’ needs. When we got to the venue, I helped Emmure and Born of Osiris load-in their gear and merchandise. Being that this was my first national act show, there was a lot more work to be done compared to my first show, which was all local artists. After the bands were situated, I took on the role of the runner. A runner is someone who runs errands to accommodate the artists, venue, or company. For example, I took Maurice, Emmure's bus driver, to his hotel. When I got back to the venue, I assisted Cory and Ben with hanging up set times around the venue to make sure our guests knew what time the bands played throughout the night. I took on the role of runner again and ran Emmure to the laundromat, so that the artists can have clean clothes while they are on the road. Towards the end of the night, Cory and I made a bank run in order to pay the bands their set guarantee. I learned a lot from this show. I learned that there are a lot of needs when it comes to dealing with bigger artists. This was an extremely busy day for me, but I’m glad I decided to give extra help and make sure that needed to be done, got done.
The next day I helped run the This Is A Lifetime headliner. I picked up flyers with Cory for the Wilson show (my next assigned show) and I also gave the show shout outs on my band's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get some extra help for the show. I got to the show early to help bands load-in their gear, check the bands in and account for their pre-sales. Over the course of the night, I made sure all the bands had everything they needed and also kept up with photos for Bravo's Instagram. I also helped stage managed this show too to ensure that the show ran on time. I made sure that there were Wilson flyers spread along the bar and all the tables in the venue too. The show did pretty well considering This Is A Lifetime is a somewhat newer band. I was pretty happy with the attendance they brought. I’m excited for the Wilson show considering the amount of flyering we have done for this show.
I made a press release of BravoArtist artist The Ongoing Concept signing to Solid State Records. This is a big deal to any musician so we wanted this to reach our audience. The next day I ran the Legion show at The Foundry. I made sure Wilson flyer were distributed throughout the venue and made sure the show ran on time. The show didn’t do that well compared to the other shows I have done so far. I think it was just the artists playing, but I believe I could have pushed the show a little bit more.
I created a press release for BravoArtist artist, Envoi, for their new music video “Changes.” Things started to slow down in the northeast Ohio area of BravoArtist. I offered to help out with more events in Columbus that I could do online. I created the Kid Ink flyer that would be in Columbus September 23rd. I really liked how this flyer came out. I believe this is my most appealing flyer yet.
Time management for me had to be on point for me with the fall semester starting up. I was taking 16 credit hours this semester while working full time too. So to say the least, this was my most stressful semester yet. I’m so close to graduating so I knew I needed to shift it into a gear I have never been in. Overall, I think I handled all of my projects very well considered all I had on my plate.
I never realized how much planning goes into hosting shows and I have to say from observing with what Cory and Ben do, they really know their stuff and I’m excited to learn more from them. There is so much to do during the shows we run too, but I think that’s a big reason why this company is so successful.
I felt the way I market my shows improved during my practicum experience. Everything is strategy when it comes to social media. Before I would just post things and not take time or day into effect, now I take everything into consideration before posting. My Photoshop skills improved because I actually used them and I was excited about what I was creating. I believe my writing is better too with the press releases I created. They have to be short and to the point, so that you can engage your readers. Taking Multimedia Newswriting this semester helped too. I believe my communication skills are stronger too because I always consulted someone on the Bravo team before I published anything. I learned that there is always something that needs to be done. It’s a lot of work putting on X amount of shows per month, but it’s something I really enjoy doing. I pay more attention to detail now from this experience too. I think without a doubt that everything I have learned from this experience will be applied to my future career because I have never been that busy in my entire life. It was stressful, but I felt a lot of pride when a project was completed. This has been a great experience for me. I have a meeting set with Cory sometime this month about my future with the company and I think I will be learning a lot more from him this year.
I received my marketing representative manual from Dick Joseph via email. From what I read, it seemed like I would enjoy this experience a lot because I get to help run concerts and manage social media; which happens to be two of my favorite things. I also looked into my practicum manual to see what needed to be done for Practicum in Applied Communication side of it. Overall, I was pretty happy with the criteria that needed to be done for this class. I can already see what aspects can fit in each section of my portfolio. My biggest concern was the VCD aspect of the practicum because it has been over a year since I have used Photoshop, Indesign or Illustrator.
My very first task was to create a flyer for my first show that I would help run, which was the Envoi show scheduled on June 9th 2013. I kept the idea simple and used one of Envoi’s concert shots to be the background. I then applied the information for the concert and it turned out pretty well; the flyer stands out and is visually appealing.
Next I began promoting the Envoi show via BravoArtist’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I invited all of my friends to the event page we had on our Facebook and pushed this show as much as I could. I also did other social media tasks like announce the Scream The Prayer Tour.
I began working on the flyer for another show I would help run, which features my good friends in This Is A Lifetime. I kept the concept simple, but informative. Some people put too much information on flyers from what I see on social media. Since some artists put too much text on a flyer, this can cause the viewer to not see some of the basic information that is needed to know about the show. I say this from past experience and even though the information is right there, they still overlook the information. So my goal was to not have that for the flyers I make and to be very clear when it comes to the information needed to know about the show. We then announced the This Is A Lifetime and Legion headliner’s from our social media sites.
The day of the Envoi show my responsibilities for the show were to invite people to the event on Facebook and market the show via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), distributing flyer, and use word of mouth tactics. The day of the show I showed up early to help bands load-in their gear, check the bands in and account for their pre-sales. I helped Ben, co-founder of BravoArtist, with whatever he needed to be done. I also was the stage manager for this show. My duties included making sure all the bands were loaded in, helping bands set-up their equipment and taking down their equipment, making sure the next band is ready to go on next as well as their equipment, and finally making sure the show ran on time. If the bands had any questions about the show, I was prepared to answer them and help them out to the best of my abilities. At the end of the night, we handed out our BravoArtist cards that had a qr code for free music and also a list of upcoming BravoArtist shows. It was a pretty successful first show for me. Everything ran on time and we had over 200 people in attendance for a local show.
Since I started my practicum before my fall semester it was pretty easy to manage since I didn’t have to worry about balancing school work with it too. I still worked full time and my band even went on tour for a month in the summer time too. I talked with Cory about the tour so he didn’t assign me any shows till I came back. The great part was I was still able to manage the social media pages from my phone. So while I was on tour I could still get work done for them.
While on the road I created a press release for Mychildren Mybride’s upcoming tour, which BravoArtist had the Columbus date of the tour. The press release was created shortly after the dates were announced to inform our followers of their upcoming dates. The press release was shared from BravoArtist’s Tumblr account and synched to our Twitter account. I was told to keep our press release’s short and to the point, which I understood from taking the Social Media Strategies course. It was pretty cool to apply something I learned from to school to my work.
BravoArtist artist Sirens & Sailors released a new single from a very popular media outlet. I created a press release for them of the video and posted it from our Tumblr account. We are required to push all BravoArtist artists as much as possible, so I shared it from my personal accounts too. I then announced my next upcoming show with Wilson, which should be a great show.
I modified the This Is A Lifetime flyer because I was notified a band had dropped off the show and I added the replacement band, Motives. I started announcing even more shows in July. It got a little overwhelming at times considering we were announcing almost five shows this week and I wanted to keep up with BravoArtist as much as possible. Each announcement on our social media was strategically planned out. Timing is everything, as well as the day, in social media. I made sure each announcement was spaced out, so that the events didn’t clutter the page.
I began working on the Fit For A King flyer, which I just used one of their promotional shots they had taken and applied the information to it. The show was announced shortly after that. I created a press release featuring Born of Osiris’ new single. We have Born of Osiris on our upcoming shows list, so it was a good idea to have their new song reach out to our audience. I learned that creating these press releases are a great strategy to build hype for a band that we will have on our shows list soon.
I wasn’t assigned the Emmure/Born of Osiris show, but I figured Cory and Ben would need some extra help considering the show was on its way of selling out. I drove down to Columbus and was ready to help out with whatever was needed for the show. I picked up Cory to bring him to the show since he didn’t have a car at the time. On our way to the venue, we went to the store to accommodate the artists’ rider. A rider is a list of items artists ask for as part of the guarantee they receive; they can also ask for a payout instead, which would just be extra money. A rider could include cases of water, alcohol and catering; it just depends on the artists’ needs. When we got to the venue, I helped Emmure and Born of Osiris load-in their gear and merchandise. Being that this was my first national act show, there was a lot more work to be done compared to my first show, which was all local artists. After the bands were situated, I took on the role of the runner. A runner is someone who runs errands to accommodate the artists, venue, or company. For example, I took Maurice, Emmure's bus driver, to his hotel. When I got back to the venue, I assisted Cory and Ben with hanging up set times around the venue to make sure our guests knew what time the bands played throughout the night. I took on the role of runner again and ran Emmure to the laundromat, so that the artists can have clean clothes while they are on the road. Towards the end of the night, Cory and I made a bank run in order to pay the bands their set guarantee. I learned a lot from this show. I learned that there are a lot of needs when it comes to dealing with bigger artists. This was an extremely busy day for me, but I’m glad I decided to give extra help and make sure that needed to be done, got done.
The next day I helped run the This Is A Lifetime headliner. I picked up flyers with Cory for the Wilson show (my next assigned show) and I also gave the show shout outs on my band's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get some extra help for the show. I got to the show early to help bands load-in their gear, check the bands in and account for their pre-sales. Over the course of the night, I made sure all the bands had everything they needed and also kept up with photos for Bravo's Instagram. I also helped stage managed this show too to ensure that the show ran on time. I made sure that there were Wilson flyers spread along the bar and all the tables in the venue too. The show did pretty well considering This Is A Lifetime is a somewhat newer band. I was pretty happy with the attendance they brought. I’m excited for the Wilson show considering the amount of flyering we have done for this show.
I made a press release of BravoArtist artist The Ongoing Concept signing to Solid State Records. This is a big deal to any musician so we wanted this to reach our audience. The next day I ran the Legion show at The Foundry. I made sure Wilson flyer were distributed throughout the venue and made sure the show ran on time. The show didn’t do that well compared to the other shows I have done so far. I think it was just the artists playing, but I believe I could have pushed the show a little bit more.
I created a press release for BravoArtist artist, Envoi, for their new music video “Changes.” Things started to slow down in the northeast Ohio area of BravoArtist. I offered to help out with more events in Columbus that I could do online. I created the Kid Ink flyer that would be in Columbus September 23rd. I really liked how this flyer came out. I believe this is my most appealing flyer yet.
Time management for me had to be on point for me with the fall semester starting up. I was taking 16 credit hours this semester while working full time too. So to say the least, this was my most stressful semester yet. I’m so close to graduating so I knew I needed to shift it into a gear I have never been in. Overall, I think I handled all of my projects very well considered all I had on my plate.
I never realized how much planning goes into hosting shows and I have to say from observing with what Cory and Ben do, they really know their stuff and I’m excited to learn more from them. There is so much to do during the shows we run too, but I think that’s a big reason why this company is so successful.
I felt the way I market my shows improved during my practicum experience. Everything is strategy when it comes to social media. Before I would just post things and not take time or day into effect, now I take everything into consideration before posting. My Photoshop skills improved because I actually used them and I was excited about what I was creating. I believe my writing is better too with the press releases I created. They have to be short and to the point, so that you can engage your readers. Taking Multimedia Newswriting this semester helped too. I believe my communication skills are stronger too because I always consulted someone on the Bravo team before I published anything. I learned that there is always something that needs to be done. It’s a lot of work putting on X amount of shows per month, but it’s something I really enjoy doing. I pay more attention to detail now from this experience too. I think without a doubt that everything I have learned from this experience will be applied to my future career because I have never been that busy in my entire life. It was stressful, but I felt a lot of pride when a project was completed. This has been a great experience for me. I have a meeting set with Cory sometime this month about my future with the company and I think I will be learning a lot more from him this year.