A production company located in South Florida, that records, mixes, and masters local musician's music, as well as sells instrumentals and music video shoots.
The who: Any musician in South Florida that needs to record any type of music or visual.
The what: The technical skills necessary to create a quality song or music video.
The why: There are many musicians that do not have experience in recording, creating instrumentals, or shooting music videos.
Testing the who: There are people outside of South Florida that could also use this production company for mixing and mastering, since you can do that without being in the same location.
Testing the what: The boundaries of the need revolve around the skillset our production team encompasses. It is one thing to create a music video, but it is another thing to get drone footage over an abandoned island. Also, it is one thing to create an instrumental, but it is another thing to create a symphony.
Testing the why: The people who would use our production company and skills would do so because they most likely lack the experience and/or equipment required to do so. Our company would have all the recording mics, DAW's, software, and video cameras needed to complete each individualized task for our customer.
The first person I interviewed was my friend Nico. He is a sound engineer in South Florida and went to Full Sail University for music production. When I pitched the idea to him, he knew immediately it was needed. There are a lot of starting musicians in South Florida and a lot of them do not have any skills in terms of production is a summary of what he said. He also told me that the biggest need would be that of selling beats, recording, mixing, and mastering. He said that music videos are important, but they are probably the last needed on the list. Lastly, he said I should go for it, but I need to create an experienced and passionate team.
The second person I interviewed was my friend Matt. He is a film major right now at the University of Florida, and he also took a liking to the idea. He said that he is busy with school right now, but he definitely wants to help out as soon as he gets out of college or during breaks. Matt studies music videos and short films, so he knew that there was a demand for the skills necessary to make a real music video. He then told me that he wanted to create a similar production company for just film, and that's when I offered him to merge his company with mine.
The third person I interviewed was my friend Nick. Nick has been my friend since high school, and he recently just switched his major to English. He is getting into writing music and I contacted him because I knew this would be an opportunity he might be interested in. After telling him the idea, he agreed that it was needed. He actually said he knew a lot people who were looking for a local producer. A producer is just someone who makes and records music for other people. He also said he would use the service provided if we had good deals. This brought me to the next stop of brainstorming on prices and deals.
The fourth person I interviewed was my friend Theo. He has been freestyling and writing music with me since high school and I knew he would give me the honest truth. He told me that I needed to have professional branding. I asked what he meant and he told me that I had to look as if I knew what I was doing. That means having a logo, having a whole team, and having all the info we ever need on a brochure or website. This gave me the idea to create stickers and brochures that I would strategically place around South Florida. Every time someone would look at the sticker, they would see the opportunity. The sticker would have the logo, name, and services provided, as well as contact information.
The fifth person was my dad. He is very business and entrepreneurship oriented so I knew he would give good advice. First he told me that I needed to make sure I got an LLC to ensure that I would be doing it legally, in case it really blows up. Next he said that I had to get trademarks on my name and slogan. At this point, I didn't even think of a slogan yet, let alone a name. He then told me that the marketing is also very important, since just because there's a demand, that doesn't mean they will know I exist. Lastly he gave me good luck and support and that's all I really needed. He doesn't know much about music, but I showed him this YouTube account called Lyrical Lemonade and he saw that other people are doing this and making successful wages. I told him that South Florida needed it next, because there is no one doing all in one.
Overall, all of the feedback was very helpful. Each person gave a different perspective and that diversity was very helpful in terms of coming up with new ideas. I definitely need to create a name, logo, company, website, and then team. I think the team is going to be the most important though, because they are the foundation of the entire company itself. I need two great people who are experienced in audio engineering and at least one who has skills in filming and videography as well as editing. All in all, this assignment was a success.
