Hi Frequency Marketing
Music Marketing: Hi Frequency Concepts In today's business world, everyone
knows that the hardest industry to break into is the music industry. The music
industry has evolved from being made up of many independent labels to being run
by major corporations such as Warner Brothers and Universal Music Group. Music
marketing is the one aspect of the industry that has not gone corporate. While
record label marketing departments are running out of ideas, independent
marketing firms are taking over their business. Music marketing differs from
most other fields in marketing because it does not have one orientation but
still uses the fundamentals like conception, pricing, promotion, and
distribution (Lamb 6). I was researching the music industry online when I ran
into a company called Hi Frequency started by a young entrepreneur named Ron Vos.
Hi Frequency is an independent music-marketing firm that promotes for labels,
concert halls, and distributors. Hi Frequency uses their financial status to
help young musical entrepreneurs like Vos break into the music industry. The
company has over 60 field representatives that are unpaid and doing quality
promoting in 50 markets across the country. Vos educates his reps so that they
will have not only use the position as a resume builder but as a solid
background in music to help further their careers. The first thing that Vos
realized about the music industry is that although being very corporate, a
grassroots marketing campaign is the largest step towards success.
Promotions
mean more to music than any other aspect of marketing. The record label’s fight
against the technological advancements such as mp3s gets harder every day. The
only thing that can influence people more than computers is other people (Kashif
176). Vos has recruited people all across the country to embrace other people
and get the word out on up-and-coming bands and concerts. The different types of
promotions by Hi Frequency reps are handouts, poster placement at local music
stores, and the always-effective word of mouth. As you can see the music
industry is much different from other industries when it comes to promotions.
Distribution on the other hand is done in a very similar fashion. The
distribution begins with the label recording the tracks of music then making a
full CD. After the CD is created it is sent to the middleman, in this case, the
labels all have their own manufacturing plants where the CDs are mass-produced.
After these CDs are manufactured, they are split up by the middlemen and shipped
to record stores. The record store receives them and sells them with the help of
people like Hi Frequency field reps. As the number of CDs in distribution
increases, so does the price. The record labels spend as low as $.12 for a CD to
be made. The middleman, who most of the time is owned by the label, will hike
the price up to $3-5.00 for the most popular CDs. Once the retailer receives
these, they will raise the price to as much as $17-20.00.
