sentric dj promo service report

Sentric Digital

White Label DJ promotional Service

Comparison and Analysis Report

+ Sentric Digital White Label DJ promotional Service

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Table of Contents

1.0 The Idea………………………………………………………………… p.3 2.0 The Options……………………………………………………………...p.4 3.0 Direct Competition……………………………………………………..p.5 3.1 Sticky Toffee Promotions………………………………………..p.6 3.2 Concrete Promotions…………………………………………….p.7 3.3 Your Army Promotions…………………………………………..p.8 3.4 Kaufe Musik………………………………………………………..p.9 3.5 Euro Propaganda………………………………………………….p.10 4.0 Promotions software…………………………………………………………..p.11 4.1 Promo-Cloud…………………………………………………………….p.11 4.2 Promo Push………………………………………………………………p.12 4.3 Fat Drop…………………………………………………………………..p.13 4.4 VIP Ultima………………………………………………………………...p.13 5.0 Conclusion and Points to note……………………………………..…………p.14


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* The information in this report is duplicated in the Excel report that is attached to the email; please only refer to excel report for extra notes when stated or for further information on packages. There are other

companies in the excel document which have not been included as they were deemed not direct competition.

1.0 The Idea

The basic premise of this idea is simple, in the sense that Sentric will act as a ‘middle man’ between an artist and their track and the DJ’s and tastemakers who will play and promote that track. The model below explains in brief detail the idea and function of the model.

As the model above shows, the idea is a simple one, where as the artist will upload a track for a fee (dependent on the package required), Sentric will mail out that track to a list of selective DJ’s in the same market as the track, the DJ’s will listen and send feedback, back to Sentric, who will build a report of analytics and send back to artist.

Sentric promo service

Artist

DJ's

Artist will upload track to Sentric’s platform

with all necessary information.

Sentric will gather all information and send out the track in a ‘mail out’ service to all DJ’s, bloggers etc. in their

contacts.

DJ’s will download the tracks from the mail out email, listen and send

feedback to Sentric

Public hear the track, want to hear more and

download.

Feedback from DJ gets sent back to artist a

weekly report.


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2.0 The Options

The options available to Sentric in terms of how they offer this service are limited to only two:

A promo pool: where the promotion company (Sentric) holds a massive list of DJs, and accepts new DJ’s onto their lists via an application form. When a label or artist sends a track it gets issued to the pools of DJ’s for download and feedback.

Use an existing platform: A platform is a system that would allow Sentric to import their own contacts and issue promotional campaigns in a targeted way; the platform provider holds no contact lists directly on their system.

Either option in this case is viable, what needs to be considered is the promotional tools available to Sentric to decide whether it is worth building a bespoke platform or whether it is worth utilising an existing platform. Below are a few pros and cons on each of the options to show the differences and help formulate an opinion on the subject. The pros and cons of using a platform tool: Pros:

• No building costs • No maintenance costs • No need to hire a team of staff to work on it (Can be run by one or two people) • You receive weekly reports updating you on your promotional campaigns progress

Cons:

• Not your own service (no control over features on platform) • Pricing is not always cheap (may workout cheaper in the long run to build a service) • Have to import own contacts onto platform (May be limit to number of contacts you can use) • If service crashes or goes down, Sentric has no service and looks unprofessional to its’ clients

Whilst there are no of few building costs required to use an existing platform, the prices charged by companies for the bandwidth and storage space needed by Sentric may exceed the amount it would cost to build a bespoke service. Not needing to hire a team to run the service could certainly encourage the use of this option, however the fact that Sentric would not have control over the service, how it looks or whether or not it crashes or goes offline is a problem that Sentric could do without, inputting contacts is not a major issue as I imagine with either option this would be the case, but with more people available to complete the task.


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The pros and cons of building a bespoke service: Pros :

• It’s your own service (You control what happens and when) • DJ’s and producers come to you to upload tracks, download tracks • Can be linked to the Sentric website for easier access for artists

Cons:

• May be expensive to build and maintain • Competition with other services for entry to market is high

After researching companies that will appear as threats to the start up of this service I have analysed findings of how they will impact on our start up. 3.0 Direct Competitors: There is plenty of competitors in the same market space as Sentric would be trying to break into, the idea I have come up with is to enter the market by analysing their products and services and coming up with a better way of offering them products or to undercut the competition on price (which may not be possible). The competitors in this market place range from different sizes; there are small companies that offer small amounts of radio plugging and PR services, whilst there are also huge companies that offer large PR packages. Below is the information put together after having analysed these companies. Direct competition: Our direct competitors are going to be companies that can offer the same as what we can and can do it on a larger scale, these companies are:

• Sticky Toffee PR

• Concrete Promotions

• Your Army Promotions

• Kaufe Musik


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3.1 Sticky Toffee PR: Prices from Sticky Toffee depend on the type of package that you take out with them, I have outlined the prices below; to view what is included in the price package, please refer to the comparison table in the Microsoft Excel document that is attached.

• SINGLE PACKAGE | £1499

• BLOG PACKAGE | £199

• PRESS PACKAGE| £349

• RADIO PACKAGE | £499

• CLUB PACKAGE | £499

• TV PACKAGE | £499

Sticky Toffee do not stick to one genre of music, instead they offer services for all types of genres, this gives them an extra string to their bow and essentially gives them a wider market reach, however with working with so many genres, the capability to look after all in the same manner and consistency may be low, where as Sentric will only be looking at house music, giving us a more concentrated focus on our clients and the people who would be receiving the music. Sticky Toffee has worked with artists such as LL Cool J, Wiz Khalifa, Fat Man Scoop, The Game, Ludacris, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Maybach Music Group, DJ Khaled, Ray J, Tinchy Stryder, Fat Joe, Lily Allen / ITNO Records, Ace Hood, Masspike Miles, DJ Absolut, Sony Columbia, Cherri V, Crazy Cousinz, Bow Wow, Nathaniel, Noelia, DJ Kay Slay, Pusha T, DJ Drama, Belle Amie, Cashis, Lyrican, Charlie Sloth, Water Media, Benny Banks, French Montana, Sizzla, JMC. Sticky Toffee run each package very differently dependant on the package chosen, e.g. a radio promotion package will be ran a lot differently than a TV package as a radio package will be focused on getting the artists track more radio plays, whilst the TV package will be focused on getting an artists video to TV stations and selling a different side of the artist. Sticky Toffee, are in my opinion a high threat to the market we are researching. Sticky Toffee has a lot of bases covered with their packages and with the past clients they have worked for I would imagine they run a good service for the artist. However by using Sentrics already massive base of clients, we could always undercut their prices by using a service such as Fat Drop or Promo-Cloud meaning that we could offer a lower price and still offer most of the same services as Sticky Toffee.


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3.2 Concrete Promotions: Packages for Concrete Promotions start at £275 for the basic service, and go all the way up to platinum prices (would not give full price list over email) Concrete Promotions has a few different packages for clients to choose from, most of which get the artists track out to DJ’s of all kinds, I am choosing to focus on these packages as it is exactly what Sentric is looking into for their services. Concrete are probably the most similar to Sentric in terms of their services because of the publishing and licensing campaigns they offer which Sentric also offer and do well on their own.

• Tastemaker DJ Campaigns • Resident DJ Campaigns • Balearic DJ Campaigns • A&R Licensing Campaigns • Album Sampler Campaigns • Radio Campaigns • Publishing

Concrete Promotions offer services through their own private channels, this gives them the opportunity to do things a lot differently than a company that is using a promotional platform and is forced to use the tools given to them by that platform. However packages of what they offer are on their website and it is rather easy to work out how they work each package for the client. Concrete Promotions pose a large threat in my opinion; with a lot of their campaigns strictly for DJ's they are directly in the same market as Sentrics white label project would be. They also offer a remix service in which their 'in house' DJ’s remix a track for a disclosed fee. This part is not a major threat as I imagine Sentric Digital could offer a similar service to rival Concrete Promotions. However they also offer a host of other services (See 'Services they offer'). By offering a Balearic DJ package giving the tracks out to Ibiza specific DJ's means that they have captured a market which will live on for a long time, Sentric could look at this model and adapt it to fit their service to produce a much better working model by focusing on a certain geographical area or a specific area of the market in which to capitalise and build upon.


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3.3 Your Army Promotions: Your Army is a large promotions company based in the UK, the prices they offer are below along with their services outlining what they offer for the client.

• Boutique Club Promotion (£350 + VAT) Stripped back and strictly club only, tastemaker DJ focussed promotion. (4 weeks and 2 reports)

• Full Club Promotion (£550 + VAT)

Full UK & International headliner, tastemaker and resident club promotion. Includes dance charts and press reviews, plus Internet, mix tape and podcast radio as well as intensive DJ interaction too. (6 weeks, 4 reports)

• Full Dance Promotion (£650 + VAT)

Same as above but we'll send out to our full UK & international radio lists via our digi system (this is basic mail out - not a plugging service).

• Full Dance Promotion + Key UK Dance Radio (£850 + VAT)

This will see us also individually service / plug key DJs / producers at R1, 1Xtra, 6Music, XFM, Capital, Kiss and Rinse via email with detailed pitches including club, online, press and social stats / support to date.

• Specialist Radio Promotion (£1k - **totally separate from the club service** + VAT)

Fully comprehensive UK and international specialist radio service Inc. pitching for exclusives, new music playlists etc. Intensive plugging from our radio plugged, Alex Burgess, with general strategy / project overseeing from our head of National radio - Christian Nockall.

Your Army also manages artists such as:

• Arches - DJ, Producer, Remixers • Herve - DJ, Producer • Jonas Rathsman - DJ, Producer, Remixer • Just Kiddin - DJ, Producer, Remixers • Niki & the Dove - Band • OlugBenga - DJ, Producer, Remixers, vocalist • Youan - Producer, DJ

Managing these artists gives the company an extra advantage to getting music out into the public domain by giving them an in house army to spread to fellow DJ’s and producers worldwide. I imagine clients would pay for these services, which for Sentric is a valuable point to know, because of the contact with DJ’s and producers Sentric Digital has currently, meaning that we can match them fro having an army of ready DJ’s to play the new music that would be getting sent in to us.


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3.4 Kaufe Musik Kaufe Musik is a German promotions company, they specialise mainly in mail out services, and their service includes a mail out to their list of contacts. The company from some of the emails that I have been sent seem to go for quantity over quality and do not seem to filter tracks to the correct DJ’s that would make the most of them, instead they send one large email blast out with the tracks that they have been sent that day/week. This strategy seems to work, however I think with Sentric having a reputable reputation for looking after its clients, I think quantity over quality will not work as well in the house market with DJ’s only wanting the best music possible. Kaufe Musik’s prices are below and do not seem too expensive, which may be the reason for their quantity over quality email blasts. In my opinion and from looking at other companies who offer the same service but much more filtered and direct, customers do not seem to mind paying the extra for a mil out servicer that will put their music in the hands of the best possible DJ’s and producers.

• 1 – 2 tracks 50 Euro + tax • 3 tracks 70 Euro + tax • 4 tracks 90 Euro + tax • 5 tracks 100 Euro + tax

• Info Sheet 50 Euro + Tax • Press Text English 50 Euro + Tax

They have a large list of DJ’s with some examples being: Richie Hawtin Luciano Slam Dubfire Kaiserdisco Whilst the direct competition has been listed, there are still other companies that could pose threats to the set up of the service. They may not pose a direct threat because of their position in the market whether that geographically or based on their services, but it will help Sentric on a whole to be able to see where they are in the market and what they are offering as to match it and better our idea.


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3.5 Euro Propaganda Euro Propaganda are a promotions company that act as a record pool for DJ’s over in Ibiza during the summer season. As well as the record pool they also offer a CD distribution service on the island. They offer their service directly to the DJ's on the island of Ibiza, living over on the island gives them a big advantage in the fact they can meet the DJ's they are supplying to and get real time feedback from them for the artist they are working on behalf of. Euro Propaganda, also offer the pool service where they will send your track out to all the DJ's they work with on the island and many more of the islands in the Spanish resort. They have prices for their CD distribution service, however I have not focused on that service, as it is not going to effect what Sentric are trying to do at the moment. (Please see excel document that is attached) Their USP with their CD distribution is that they are based on the island of Ibiza during the summer with their reps all over the island meaning that they will have a lot of control over getting their clients music out to specific DJ’s by physically handing them the CD and getting feedback from them quicker than maybe another promotional company would. Their price packages for the record pool are slightly different:

• Ibiza Massive Pool:

If you make it in Ibiza, you make it everywhere… Catch the Ibiza resident and the important flying’ in and flying’ out-VIP-DJs, the GLOBAL PLAYERS! 1000 € for a personal promotion of your tune in Ibiza with 85 CDs plus a VIP digital promotion mail out to the Ibiza Global Players mentioned above. The selection is adapted to the sound of your production. • Balearic Pool

1.400 € for personal promotion of your tune all across the club scene of Ibiza & Majorca – all styles, all areas – with 170 CDs. • Full Service Pool 3.700 € (instead of 4.100 € in total) for a personal promotion of your tune to all resident DJs of Ibiza, Majorca, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Benidorm, the Greek Islands and the Croatian Adriatic Coast with 425 CDs. In addition, an advertisement of your track by a digital promotion mail out (including the main mix) is sent out to all DJs of the resorts and some dozen of pinpointed DJs in Rimini/Riccione, Black Sea Coast and the Costa del Sol.


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4.0 Promotions software As mentioned earlier there is plenty of promotional software available to use for a certain price, these pieces of software allow the user to create promotional campaigns and deliver them to their contacts. However the software does come with limitations (each with their own). The promo software does allow the user to easily create a campaign and share it with thousands of contacts, however some companies limit the amount of contacts you can send to, some limit the amount of campaigns you can send and with all of them, the user needs to add all of their desired contacts into the system first before sending out the campaigns. Below is a price comparison of the promotional companies that offer this platform tool and which could all be used effectively instead of creating a platform from scratch. Platform Price per year Website Promo-Cloud £416 www.promo-cloud.com Promo Push £750 www promopush.com Fat Drop £758 www.fatdrop.com VIP Ultima £952 www.vipultima.com *All prices are dependent on choice of package, packages have been chosen by me for suitability for the companies needs and can be re looked at. 4.1 Promo-Cloud Promo-Cloud has three prices available for users to choose from, the prices are below with the package contents: Below are the packages for Promo-Cloud, to view what is included in each package, please refer to the excel document provided.

Light

£3.50 p/month

Per promotion campaign Best for young labels

Premium

£4.99

Per promotion campaign Best for established labels

Volume senders

Call for pricing

Best for large labels / promo providers


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Promo-Cloud allows a maximum of 4000 receiver’s per promotion campaign. Promo-Cloud allow a promotion campaign to run up to a maximum of 90 days, each campaign can last less if chosen by the user. Promo-Cloud send out a weekly report and one final report at the end of the campaign, report consists of:

• Summary metrics - Total receivers, total opened, total supported, total feedback • Track summary – What tracks are most popular / highest rated • Full rating break down summary’s (aggregated) • Finally we have full reactions data, who they receiver is, what they said, how they rated it

4.2 Promo Push Promo Push offers a great way to start sending out promotional campaigns, it provides a cheap service of £15 per campaign and allows the user to download and stream as much as they like, the £15 fee must be paid in advance of your campaign being sent out. Audio lock is available for your campaigns for an additional £5. Audio lock protects your mixes against illegal downloading and file sharing websites.

Features included in your dashboard on Promo Push are:

• Streamlined Interface

• Detailed Reporting

• Audio Lock Certified

• Rating System

• Secure & Robust System

• Completely Customisable


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4.3 Fat Drop Fat Drop is a promotional platform service that allows users to promote pre release music to a specific group of people through a mailing list, it enables record labels, and PR agencies and other music industry professionals to send branded, watermarked promos quickly and securely. The service also provides clients with informative feedback and statistics from their dedicated mailing lists of DJs, journalists, and tastemakers. On the comparison price table above I have chosen the ‘Premiere’ package to compare with the rest because that is similar to Sentric, however looking at the bandwidth of the packages, it may work out that Sentric would need to choose from either the ‘Deluxe’ or ‘Ultimate’ package.

Standard Premiere Deluxe Ultimate

Suggested Usage

Perfect for independent

labels

Larger labels with busy release schedules /

sub-imprints

Label groups with multiple imprints,

boutique PR agencies

Multiple imprints, PR agencies & distribution

companies

Setup Fee £50 £50 £50 £50 Monthly Fee £35 £59 £149 £500

Inclusive Bandwidth

5GB 25GB 75GB Unlimited

Extra Bandwidth*

£5 per GB £3 per GB £2 per GB Free

4.4 VIP Ultima VIP Ultima is based in Vancouver, Canada, they are a promotional platform meaning the user using the campaign must import their contact list to the platform and VIP Ultima do not have contact with any of the DJ's.


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5.0 Conclusion and Points to note

In conclusion, it is very easy to see that from the sources I have compared and researched that there is room for Sentric to exist in this market, however the main point of topic becomes whether it is feasible to spend the time and money building a service or simply use a platform tool to produce the service.

I think one of the main concerns is that there are quite a few companies providing this service currently, however they all seem to coexist, whether this be through genre specifics or sharing the market, from my research on the companies, it seems as though a few companies are genre specific i.e. Kaufe Musik and Dispersion PR, however the bigger companies are not as specialised and adopt to quantity over quality, this could be due to the time it takes to specifically select each track to fit with a certain DJ, producer or blogger. However there is a chance that this could be done and would work in Sentrics favour, Sentric could look at the possibility of grouping contacts on their mailing lists into genres, sub genres etc., this way instead of matching a track to a certain DJ, they could match it to a certain group of contacts all with the same interest in genre, this would mean that artists would get value for money by their track being delivered to DJ’s who are interested in that genre and contacts on the mailing list would not be getting sent music which is all in all no use to them and feedback is then forced back and not real for the client, but I do believe that dealing with just house music makes it a lot easier to make sure that DJ’s and clients are all happy.

I think if Sentric are going to proceed with this service, they need to look at the platform tools available in this report and discuss which would work best for their needs. From what I have looked at, Fat Drop is a great service that works well for users, sends out great looking emails that includes a music player for the user to listen to from the email, however Fat Drop can be expensive for a big package, which Sentric would need. As well as this most of the platform tools have limits on them whether that is contact lists limits or bandwidth or storage, if Sentric are looking at this from a large scale then they would have to look at producing their own service where limits will not be a problem and they can continue to give excellent service to their clients.

As well as the options discussed there is an opportunity for this service to be a part of the existing services that Sentric offers to clients. As Sentric would be mainly looking at house music for this service, there is a real opportunity to boost their catalogue of house music for Sentrics other services i.e. publishing and Sync’ing. Bringing it in to use as an additional service to the already existing services will not only bring in more catalogue for Sentric, that extra catalogue will be house music which at present Sentric does not seem to attract much house music.

All in all, I believe that there is room for Sentric to run this service and make it a profitable part of the business, I think Sentric should compare what prices they would be looking to charge for the service and then decide whether or not they wish to build a bespoke service to run or to use a promotional platform tool. There is a lot of companies in the market using platform tools such as Fat Drop and Promo Push, but in the same stance there are companies who are running their own services i.e. Your Army with NuMu and are a successful promotions company.

sentric dj promo service report

Documents

sentric public

promotion company sentric

new djs

pools of djs

existing platform

excel report

sentrics platform

platform provider