Indy Music Unite!

LOCAL MUSICProduction &

Marketing inINDIANAPOLIS

Studybook by Hillary Celebi

table of contents

INTRODUCTION

ANALYSIS

interview trends expert interview audience survey guided tour touchstone tour supplemental interviews data map thematic networking design principle generation

SYNTHESIS

brainwalking brainstorming cardsorting graffiti wall connect the dots

EVALUATION

AEIOU framework Prezi interview

FINAL PROTOTYPE

SUMMARY

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The AssignmentUsing a series of design research methods, we were prompted to discover a certain context and identify the problem spaces, construct and facilitate creative ideas, and implement solutions based on feedback and interviews of stakeholders and partici-pants. The main artifacts were visual representations of mostly qualitative data, which were to highlight the key findings in order for us to understand the next step. The students participating in the group were:

Hillary Celebi Kaela Mahoney Michelle Kwolek Arie Gatewood Ashley Ghearing

THE CONTEXTOur chosen context was the Indianapolis Music Scene and Community. We chose this because we wanted to work within an experience. There was also an understanding among our group that the Indy music scene is lacking in making them-selves known. Indianapolis is a fast growing city, and their are multiple musicians, shows, producers, promoters, and records labels popping up. However, even though they are there, it is hard for the community to find them or even know where to go for new local music. What makes the music scene so difficult to identify? Why does it seem that venues host mostly non-local bands? What is the Indianapolis music scene in need of?

INTR

ODUC

TION

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1: AN

ALYS

IS5

the role of music in Indianapolis

culturE

To gain some basic knowledge of what the

music culture is like in Indianapolis, and to

get personal perspectives, we approached

two local musicians from different genres and

backgrounds to have them answer a set of

questions.

The interviews were done individually, but used

the same questions in order for us to compare

and contrast the two musician’s answers. This

helped give us a sense of what their values

are and the challenges/benefits of being an

Indianapolis musician.

interview

question sheet, recording device, notebook

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tools:

participants: Diop - local hip hop musician, collaborates with others outside his own genre

Owen Yonce - local folk musician, doesn’t like to collaborate with musicians outside his genre

THE FINDINGSLocal independent artists find it difficult to market themselves on a budget, especially with the online world being so saturated. They are also finding it difficult to find industry connections, even though building a music community is important. So how could local musicians gain more exposure?

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the role of industry pros in the Success of

local artists

TRENDS EXPERT interview

The trends expert interview’s intention was

to learn more about a specific aspect of the

Indianapolis music scene from someone other

than a musician. We decided to interview

a music writer given that they are consistantly

exposed to and analyize new bands, musicians,

and concerts.

The interview was meant to be structured,

using a question list that was constructed to

aide the participant in opening up and being

more candid as the questions progress.

However, during the interview the conversation

became more organic and less structured. This

allowed the participant to talk at his own pace,

which provided unexpected ideas and details.

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question sheet, recording device, camera, notebooktools:

participants: Justin Wesley - writer for Nuvo, interviews local and national bands and writes reviews of new music

THE FINDINGSMarketing is an important aspect of spreading your music and it seems to be a trend that those artists who are successful at it are going national. Even though some are leaving, the local music community is still growing and becoming more defined. What is an effective marketing process and how does the audience react to different methods?

Organization:

INTERVIEW NOTESNote Taker:

Date:

Contact Info:

Question:

Answer:

Quick Notes:

Question:

Answer:

Quick Notes:

Question:

Answer:

Quick Notes:

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MUSICIANS ARE COMPLETELY capable of publishing

their own music now but are people buying?

MUSICIANS ARE COMPLETELY capable of publishing

their own music now but are people buying?

— Justin wesley, Nuvo

the LOCAL music Marketing Process &

AUDIENCE

AUDIENCE SURVEY

& GUIDED TOUR

To discover more about marketing and how

it works, we started by going straight to the

consumers. Our group created a survey that

prompted the user to answer questions about

how they hear about music and how they

would WANT to hear about music. Taking

that information, we were able to determine

a basic idea of what marketing techniques are

the most effective.

To gather a more intimate perspective of mar-

keting we did a guided tour with Joyful Noise,

a local record label. Our tour guide was the

PR manager, Daniel, and he discussed the pro-

cess of finding artists, signing them, creating

a product, and promoting it. He also talked

about the importance of producing quality

artifacts and the art form of creating records.

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1) question list, surveymonkey.com, facebook

2) field note template, recording device,

camera, questions

tools:

participants: Daniel Coles - manager at Joyful Noise General Public - music consumers & enthusiasts

THE FINDINGSThe audience gets most of their information about local mu-sic happenings from social media. Record labels, specifically, take advantage of this by consistently keeping their posts current and constant. Local record labels are also supportive of each other and promote each other’s work. Now that we have understood more about local music marketing, what are the production elements?

I AM AFRAID I WILL spend what little money I have on a

band i dont like

I AM AFRAID I WILL spend what little money I have on a

band i dont like— anonymous, survey participant

the LOCAL MUSICIAN’S

Production

Process

Touchstone tour

& interviews

Our touchstone tour provided us with an

intimate and first-hand experience of how

musicians produce their music and work

together on a project. We observed and

asked impromptu questions as our previous

participant, Diop, and his producer, Man Dog,

recorded and mixed a verse in their new song

they were making. Man Dog also explained

the different tools used and their functions and

walked us through how he creates a beat.

We also had the opportunity to perform some

supplemental interviews, one with a local

musician and one with a national musician. We

learned about the importance of establishing a

stronger music community and having a more

distinct source for Indianapolis to learn more

about what is happening in the music scene.

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field note template, camera, notebooktools:

participants: Diop & Mandog - Mandog and Diop work collaboratively to make an album together Eli Crow - local musician that has a difficult time sharing his music

Jordan Smith - frontman of nationally known band, Diarrhea Planet, from Nashville, TN

THE FINDINGSTouchstone tour

& interviews Producers and musicians work collaboratively on songs and depend on each other’s feedback, making each session unique. Also, a trend is that producers are using samples from old records or songs to create a beat to work off of. What major opportunity was found within our research of the local Indianapolis music scene?

developing a

Challenge

statement

data map

thematic networking

design principles generation

After multiple weeks of research, we had

collected an extensive amount of information

about musicians in Indianapolis. Learning how

they network, collaborate, produce, and market

themselves, the group decided it was time to

converge and identify what musicians need

most in the within the community.

To organize and analyze our data we created

a visual map and began making connections

between the key insights. The major idea we

found was the musician relationship between

other musicians is what is most important and

needed.

After creating multiple challenge statements

involving how to build relationships, we settled

on one defining what Indianapolis musicians

would benefit most from.

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notes, post-its, markers, paper, dry erase boardtools:

participants: Our Group - we needed to work together in order to analyze all of the data we had collected `

THE FINDINGSMusician relationships are critical to helping the local music community grow. Through networking, collabo-ration, and connecting with each other they would be able to share resources and grow as musicians. What could be developed to aide in building musician relationships?

design principles

generation

data map

thematic

networking

HOW MIGHT WE HELP INDIANAPOLIS musicians develop relationships

in order to collaborate &

network easier?

HOW MIGHT WE HELP INDIANAPOLIS musicians develop relationships

in order to collaborate &

network easier?

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2: SY

NTHE

SIS

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generating Solution Ideas for our

challenge statement

Brainwalking

Now that we knew what local musicians need-

ed, we wanted to find out what the best way

would be to provide that. In order to diverge

on ideas on how to network and collaborate

easier, we utilized the method brainwalking.

Creating a paper with a question to prompt

ideas, one participant would answer the ques-

tion and the next participant would build off

of the answer the first participant provided.

This method really allowed us to build unique

ideas which we could elaborate more on during

further synthesis.

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question template, markers, camera, timertools:

participants: Diop - familiar with the context and works well with our group Seany D - local DJ provided a different perspective

Group members - to be examples and aide in branching out ideas

THE FINDINGSIdeas produced seemed to fall into three main categories, which were events, products, and services. A central space for musician information and connect-ing was the most focused and repeated idea. How can we elaborate more on generated ideas?

BEING WILLING TO CROSS GENRES & COLLABORATE IN AN ENVIRONMENT that is untraditional makes our network much larger

BEING WILLING TO CROSS GENRES & COLLABORATE IN AN ENVIRONMENT that is untraditional makes our network much larger

— DIOP, MUSICIAN

utilizing Diverse Perspectives

to diverge

brainstorming

During the Brainstorming method, participants

were prompted with a question and were asked

to provide as many answers and ideas possible.

The participants came up with ideas on how

musicians can connect with one another, how

they can make themselves stand out, and ways

to encourage local musicians to do live shows.

The process of brainstorming easily allowed for

any idea to be expressed, which provided us

with a lot of options to work with. The discus-

sions after each question also helped to

develop stronger concepts and suggestions.

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post-its, questions, large paper, camera, timer, foodtools:

participants: Yasmine, Eli, Owen - students that are also musicians, used to thinking creatively Nicky & Rob - VC grad students that are accustomed to doing ideation sessions

Group members - to help get our personal ideas out

THE FINDINGSBrainstorming allowed us to group similar ideas and highlight the ones that are more interesting and feasible for musicians. Now that there are multiple ideas generated, how can we organize them into a system?

converge on ideas Creating a cohesive system

cardsorting &

Graffiti wall

To converge on the multiple ideas generated

during brainstorming, we invited two musicians

that have collaborated together to do

Cardsorting. With each main idea written down

on a card, the participants chose cards that they

felt would make up a system and discussed how

it would flow. This allowed our group to really

understand what musicians really value and what

they need the most. Both of the participants,

although working separately, both deduced

that an organization was the most appealing

to them.

After the Cardsorting session, we made a poster

presenting the different options as to what the

organization would offer musicians and hung

it on the wall during an art and music night. By

marking tallies, participants helped us under-

stand what pieces would be most beneficial for

our system.

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custom cards, camera, music, paper, markerstools:

participants: Diop & Sphie - have worked outside of their own genres and are open to new ideas and concepts First Friday attendees - music and art enthusiasts, informed about local happenings within the scene

THE FINDINGSMost of the marketing, spaces, and services for musicians exist in Indianapolis, but the musicians have to do everything themselves. There is not a central space for musicians to gather resources and to make their networking and marketing easier. Who would be a part of a musician organization and is it something the music community wants?

Musician

ORGANIZATION

Musician

ORGANIZATION

people involved in Organization

components

connect the dots

Using dots that defined all of the chosen

elements for the organization, we utilized

participants from the local record labels to

identify who would be involved within each of

the main areas of funding, marketing, spaces,

and resources. The participants would talk

about different elements and who specifically

would be interested in being a part of it, which

allowed us to have an idea as to what that

person or business’ role would be.

The participants also elaborated on the fact

that most of this exists, it is just not being

implemented well and is fragmented across

the city. They also pushed the fact that it

couldn’t be bureaucratic and it would better

appeal to musicians if it seemed less like

an establishment.

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info dots, camera, paper, post-its, markerstools:

participants: John Beeler - has pitched concepts for a musician gath-ering space, manages local label, Asthmatic Kitty Joyful Noise - knowledgeable about the music business, how it runs, who is involved, and what the community needs

THE FINDINGSA music organization or a centralized space for artists to go for recourses and networking is already in con-sideration among the music community. But, a major part of how it is run is that it would be by musicians, for musicians, in order to alleviate any sense of “establishment”. Also, the musician’s role in the organization could not be defined since it would depend on the individual’s talents. How would a musician organization work?

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3: EV

ALUA

TION

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creating a

Prototype for

the expert

AEIOu FRamework

The AEIOU framework basically helps us de-

fine the activities, environments, interactions,

objects, and users of a space or context. We

used this framework to structure our concept

map and made sure to include a mission/vision,

system map, a user journey, and a description

of who those users might be.

Not quite sure of how John Beeler’s office was,

we decided to keep the prototype small and

tangible so that it could easily be transported

and shown to the participant. After presenting

it, we received a lot of feedback about fund-

ing and comments as to how to improve it,

such as, how we need to consider the outside

perspective of th organization as well and how

non-members interact with it.

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concept map, cameratools:

participants: John Beeler - has pitched ideas to the community for a musician gathering space, so understands what it entails and the dos and don’ts

THE FINDINGSIt is important to have labels and descriptions for the elements and connections so that it is easy for the viewer to understand. We should also consider more of the “outer” incoming and outgoing transactions. And it would make more sense for the musician data-base to be a blog because users are drawn more to a visual space where they can make their own opinions on the content. What is a more business minded opinion of our concept?

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revising the Prototype for the outsider

prezi interview

To bring the prototype in a different direction,

we gave a presentation to Derrick Feldmann.

Knowing he usually sees presentations in a

digital format, our group refined and reorga-

nized our map into an on screen Prezi. This

also allowed us to provide more of a narrative

view since we were able to walk through the

different components one-by-one individually,

instead of only as a whole as in our previous

method.

After doing the Prezi walk through, Derrick

offered feedback as to how funding would

realistically work and where we needed to

put our focus.

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Prezi, revised map, camera, notebooktools:

participants: Derrick Feldmann - began his career starting a non-profit, now continues to work with non-profit organiza-tions and frequently obtains sponsorships and partnerships

THE FINDINGSFunding a non-profit is not an easy task, and even though it is something the community wants, that doesn’t mean they are willing to pay for it. Also, volunteers are key in the foundation years of an organization. Depending on their willingness to help will cut a lot of costs, but not passion. What does the organization look like after receiving feedback?

A NON PROFIT SHOULD BE CYCLICAL not constantly providing

but working with the community

A NON PROFIT SHOULD BE CYCLICAL not constantly providing

but working with the community

— Derrick Feldmann, Achieve

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FINAL

MAP

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MISSION & VISIONStrengthen the local music community by helping musicians

develop relationships so they can collaborate and network easier.

To make Indianapolis a place where local music thrives and

musicians are successfully doing what they love most.

The musician organization would be comprised of multiple musi-

cians, industry pros, fans, etc. It would be mostly funded through

sponsorships and would partner with multiple businesses and

non-profits in the community.

The resources that the organization would offer are:

• local music blog

• musician mentors

• musician hubs

• musical rec center

• music quest

These services would give the Indianapolis musician a place to

collaborate and network with other musicians and professionals.

Musician Org. system

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user journeyAs a musician who is looking for more opportunities to get

involved in the community, they find out about the Indy

Music Unite! Organization. They research more about it

and find that it offers workshops, events, and mentoring,

so they sign up for a month to test it out. After going to an

event and being able to connect with others like them, the

musician is impressed with what they had already learned

and decides to sign up for a year membership. Any one who

wants to join could also provide a service, such as guitar

lessons, to receive a free membership. This is ideal for

artists, since they are usually low on funds.

BenefitsNot only would an organization for musicians benefit the

artists themselves, but it would benefit the community as a

whole. A way to bring the fragmented and cliqued genres

together in order to learn from each other and unite as a

whole would help the music scene strengthen and grow.

With music and the musicians becoming more defined,

Indianapolis would become a city where people look to for

new music. And that, in turn, would help the community get

the recognition it needs to thrive.

SUMM

ARY

THAN

K YO

U