Hey guys! So if you've followed my previous thread in the production section, I own a small independent record label, Aced Records. We've made some great headway since we started earlier this year and I've finally found us a great opportunity.
Where I live at (Augusta, Georgia, US) a new EDM club literally just opened this past Friday. I've got a meeting set up with the owners in about 4 days from posting this. The idea that I'm going to be pitching to them is essentially a "label takeover night". What it would consist of is solely Aced Records supported DJ's/Producers and fully promoted by us in association with the venue. So essentially the venue would become the "home" of Aced Records to really start to build our brand in our region (ideally).
I've got the idea all jumbled up in my head and I'm currently making notes on how I plan to pitch this appropriately, but I'd like some ideas on how to approach this with more experienced DJ's than myself. I'm a little old school; I've had great success in the past with just meeting people, handing out flyers and getting people to come into my gigs. I'm halfway decent at social media marketing, but I've also got a person who is a marketing wizard who might be willing to help (she's a chick I've been seeing, but we're at a rough patch right now hahaha). The problem is that I'm not familiar with the area because I don't go out much here. There has literally almost never been a previous scene here for EDM, so the impact could be huge if it's done right given that they are flexible enough to allow me the time to do so.
So here's what I've got so far - any additions or takeaways would be greatly valued:
What I know: They're strictly EDM/Top 40, primarily open Friday's and Saturday's, have two resident DJ's for each day and are interested in having special events for Thursdays. Dress code is enforced.
My plans: If they plan on opening regularly/occasionally on Thursday nights: Allow Thursday night to become Aced Records night. I would be the primary DJ for this getting started (most other local non-producer DJ's we support probably not be able to work Thursday nights). Genre's would be flexible and would reflect our current trending releases. Things like, nothing but bass, dubby wubby nights, techno nights, etc. Promotion for Thursday nights would be fairly generic to get people in the door; expenses would be light in the pocket. Maybe occasionally coming out of pocket to give incentive in the glowy form for people to come in on a Thursday night. They would pay the label their regularly DJ'ing fee if I'm the one DJ'ing to keep their costs low and give them more incentive to keep us around.
If the Thursday night can become a decent success and/or requesting a monthly bi-monthly Friday/Saturday takeover. This is where expenses would step up to include merchandise like glowsticks and glowy shit to make people happy. These would be imprinted with the label logo, things like that. They wouldn't pay us anything so that any DJ that comes is paid for by the label. In exchange for this, we would take either all or a percentage of the cover charge at the door to support our costs. Maybe even saying something like...If you can provide receipt that you've downloaded/purchased a track from the record label within the past two weeks, then you get free entry? Possibly we'd lose money there, but it'd get more people in the door.
I've got more in my head, but like I said it's all jumbled up. Thoughts or ideas from anybody with experience doing this would be greatly appreciated! As I said, this place has previously had no scene for EDM so it's gonna be rough. However the city has huge potential to make it work (according to the makeup of it's population) if it's accessed right.
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