Berklee College of Music

Reflection Paper
Marketing and Communications Manager
for the 2019 European DIY Musician
Conference

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts in Global Entertainment and
Music Business (Live Events Concentration)

Supervisor: Alexandre Perrin

by Stephanie Piedrahita

Valencia Campus, Spain
July 2019

Table of Contents
Event & Position Summary

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About The Position

3

About The Event

4

Objectives

6

Full Attendance/Ticket Sales

6

Customer Satisfaction

6

Brand Recognition: Berklee Valencia and CD Baby

6

Risks

9

Results

7

Sold Out Event

7

Customer Satisfaction/Demographics

8

The Process

10

Initial Tasks

10

Digital

10

Offline

11

Next Steps

11

Professional Contribution

12

Professional Impact

13

2

Event & Position Summary
About The Position
When I got accepted to Berklee College of Music, I made it my top priority to make the
most of my time in Valencia by refining my current skill set while taking on projects that would
challenge me to learn something new. The opportunity to do exactly that came up when open
positions for the CD Baby DIY Conference were emailed out to my class. I initially applied for
the Project Manager position but proudly accepted the Marketing and Communications Manager
role, which is what I ultimately picked to be my Culminating Experience here at Berklee. Some
of my responsibilities listed in the job description sent out included the following:
● produce creative communication materials (videos, website, program…)
● manage the website of the conference
● prepare the marketing campaign in relationship with CD Baby and Berklee teams
● manage the social media accounts of the conference (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
● evaluate the satisfaction of the attendees and the speakers
● create a community and maintain the contact with attendants of the conference
The Marketing & Communication Manager’s role is to design and implement the
communication strategy before, during and after the event and this year managed all ticket sales,
distribution and credentialing. This was a big aspect of my work for the European DIY Musician
Conference, which will be explained in further detail in the following pages. The Marketing and
Communications Manager position was a relatively new one, in response to the feedback given
by students who built the first DIY Conference last year and deemed necessary by both the CD
Baby team and Berklee Valencia for a successful event.

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I worked very closely with Danielle King, CD Baby’s Marketing director, and Kevin
Breuner, CD Baby’s Marketing Director, the rest of their marketing team, and Berklee’s
communications team to create “the story”. It was vital that we delivered the value of
participating in the DIY Conference to potential attendees because it would also serve as an
opportunity to gain new customers or students for the respective parties.
About The Event
The European DIY Musician Conference to Europe is first and foremost an opportunity
for aspiring artists and music professionals to learn from industry experts, get one-on-one
mentoring from Berklee faculty and CD Baby staff, and meet a pool of talented musicians from
all over the world who are make living in music without the help of big labels or managers. By
providing this space and access to certain people for our attendees, we help nurture lasting
professional relationships, can help give them more revenue stream options and learn how to
better network or perform all in the span of three days.

After hosting many successful DIY Musician Conferences in the United States, CD
Baby was proud to announce the first ever European DIY Musician Conference in 2018. CD
Baby continued collaborating with the Berklee College of Music’s Valencia campus in Spain and
presented their second edition on April 5th, 6th and 7th 2019. The conference is to be
spearheaded by a team of students from the Global Entertainment and Music Business masters
program, completing the Culminating Experience requirement if selected and successful in their
position. There are dozens of music industry conferences, but most offer very little takeaway
value to independent artists. The DIY Musician Conference is the antidote to all of that. The

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programming, speaker selection and networking events are geared towards independent
musicians hoping to have their music reach a global scale.

Why Attend the DIY Musicians Conference?
The DIY Musician Conference provides independent artists with the knowledge,
encouragement, and guidance needed to set aspiring artists apart in the international music
market. The conference covered a variety of topics like branding, contract management,
bookings, self-releasing your work and more. Attendees also spoke directly to industry experts
during general sessions and received one-on-one mentoring from the CD Baby and Berklee staff,
providing valuable insight for all those who attended. The CD Baby conferences have been a
massive success in the United States, completely selling out event passes and receiving rave
reviews from both upcoming and veteran industry professionals. Attendees reap the benefits of
both the strategies presented by CD Baby and the educational influence from Berklee’s faculty
and students. In a world selling you the same path and stories to success, The DIY Musicians
Conference truly stands out and works to do the same for your music and career as an artist.

Important Details
The European DIY Musicians Conference is hosted inside of Aula Magistral of the prestigious
Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Spain and on the campus grounds of Berklee College
of Music in the heart of Valencia, Spain. The weekend is full of workshops, networking
opportunities and more, passes were sold at affordable rates so aspiring musicians felt the
conference would be accessible to them. The DIY Musician Conference was hosted from April
6th to April 7th, with early attendee registration on Friday, April 5th, and produced a program in

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which the majority of workshops and speeches were in English but made sure to include a room
for sessions in Spanish only. I suggest maintaining this format due to over half of this year’s
attendees being from Spain, so it complements the audience of the DIY Conference perfectly.

Objectives
Full Attendance/Ticket Sales
The main objective of the 2019 team was to once again sell all tickets and possibly surpass our
goal and last year’s sales. Having a high attendance rate was also vital to us, even if all tickets
were sold, because it meant that we were able to deliver the value of the conference to our
attendees enough to compel them to travel to Valencia, Spain.
Customer Satisfaction
We were conscious that over 200 individuals would take time off, have expenses for travel and
accommodations and were eager to learn something new, so customer satisfaction was an
important factor in our process. Within our early meetings, we brainstormed programming and
potential speakers with one question in mind: would this be interesting to informative to our
audience? It was essential to understand their expectations along with our own if we wanted to
succeed.
Brand Recognition: Berklee Valencia and CD Baby
The DIY Musician Conference is ideally hosted on both the Berklee Valencia Campus and
within the Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia auditorium. It was important to guarantee all speakers,
attendees and staff felt comfortable within these spaces but also aware of the beautiful, inspiring
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environment they were hosted in. If attendees and speakers had a positive or negative experience,
it would reflect and possibly affect CD Baby and Berklee’s brand itself. We wanted to ensure
that everyone had a great experience so they would either return next year, consider using CD
Baby’s services or begin looking into applying to Berklee College of Music.
Results
Sold Out Event
We were proud to report that the 2019 European DIY Musician Conference sold out on
all ticketing tiers and surpassed last year’s sales, due to the addition of tickets sold at the door
and the price increase. The Eventbrite platform made ticket purchasing easy, generated data and
sales reports that were extremely useful, and has a mobile application designated to make
attendee check-in efficient by either scanning a QR code or crossing them off the guest list.
Ticket Tier
Loyalty Early Bird
Early Bird
General Admission
Berklee Student Discount
Berklee Summit Make Up
Berklee Student Discount 2
Door Sales Walk Up

Ticket Price
39,00 €
49,00 €
59,00 €
10,00 €
10,00 €
20,00 €
69,00 €

Total Ticket Sales

Tix Sold
19/ 30
121/ 160
57/ 136
30/ 30
2/ 2
26/26
6/10

Total Revenue
741,00 €
5929,00 €
3363,00 €
300,00 €
20,00 €
520,00 €
414,00 €

261/394

11287,00 €

The final gross sales amount was 11.334,24 € for 261 passes sold. The ticket prices included all
taxes and service fees, admission into both the conference and concerts, free merchandise
provided by Berklee and CD Baby and the opportunity to grow musical careers. I am glad we
met this specific expectation and were able to cover our costs, now it’s a matter of improving and

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growing further! I would consider a price increase and making a sort of VIP tier where you can
schedule a practice room and have a Berklee professor teach a private lesson.
Customer Satisfaction/Demographics
Unfortunately, last year’s Marketing and Communications Manager did not leave behind
data that would’ve been useful for me at the beginning like all the passwords, audience
demographics, attendee feedback, and the master document for the program. However, this year
I made it my priority and was able to include final numbers within my Outcome Paper section. I
measured customer satisfaction through a SurveyMonkey form and received useful comments
even if only a small portion responded, either due to sending it out so late or the length. Next
year, the form should be made weeks in advance and have ready to be used during and after the
event.

Social Media was our sole way of getting an idea of what our target audience may look like as
the Eventbrite purchase form does not require attendees to state their gender. We also had no
firm idea of the median age as it was an option field as well. These two pieces of information
should be made a priority and should be acquired when a purchase was made. Still, we were able
to conclude that our target audience would be men who are 25 to 34 years old, this demographic
takes up 24 percent of our total Facebook Page Followers. We were also able to determine the
top five countries when it came to who purchased tickets; People from Spain, the United
Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Austria purchased the majority of tickets sold.

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Reflections
Internal Disorganization People you work with will have their own way or organizing
information, so looking for compromise is key to effective communication. I wish I had working
documents we shared earlier on and more communication when speakers were confirmed or
artists were being contacted, it would’ve helped me market and promote the value of the
conference earlier and better. I practically knew nothing about the majority of speakers for up
until three weeks out, didn’t have names of the selected artists and felt like CD Baby just
checked in and didn’t offer many dedicated resources. I felt pressured to put out a conference
schedule and content, compiling text, graphics, and printed materials on my own knowing that it
would take me longer to piece together information last minute. I think my team members
could’ve been more aware of the workload I had to take on, collaborated with me closer or
maybe started earlier as I had suggested internally. I would’ve felt better about this project had I
felt like they took more initiative in communicating with me.

Programming/Venue Issues From personal experience, conferences announce their speakers,
artists and event program at minimum three months before the official start date. We had unique
circumstances that led us to reveal the “finalized” program a mere three weeks before. The team
had the same concern most professional event planners must keep in mind: things will not
always go according to plan. So, my expectations of last-minute changes came to be, and I was
able to tackle this issue as the information came in.

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The Process
Initial Tasks
The main focus of my position is to get the value of the DIY Musicians Conference across on all
platforms and convert that interest into ticket sales. The biggest takeaway from last year’s
conference was the need for a consistent marketing plan that both developed the event’s brand
identity while pushing for profits. This resulted in me creating graphics assets, organizing last
year’s photos, and actively posting onto Facebook, Instagram and Twitter along with sending
informative emails to confirmed attendees.
Digital
I assisted with CD Baby with updating the website by creating our account to Eventbrite and
passing them the live link, re-wrote last year’s press release, researched accommodation and
food options, and provided whatever text they requested. As a graphic designer, I was more than
happy to help create assets if needed. However, I didn't expect the amount of work I’d need to do
myself and it may have impacted my quality of work and possibly my studies negatively. If I was
able to access CD Baby’s graphic designer directly, instead of waiting for them to look at a
Trello card, important information would’ve been sent out quicker since it didn’t require
approvals from the Marketing Director.
We wanted to develop an engaging social media presence on all social media channels, so I was
asked to create weekly social media plans. However, I did not think it was necessary or effective
because, between time zone differences, more urgent meetings or a lack of response from CD
Baby pushed back the approval time for my requests. I had an original goal to reach 10,000
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people total at the end of our promotional campaign, but it did not happen due to not having a
dedicated budget for online promotion. We realized within the first month of sales that we had a
steady revenue coming in so we could possibly retain more of our earnings to let it sell itself
organically. I was skeptical but sure enough, we were able to sell all the tickets with only
reaching around 3,000 people. It’s up to the next person in my position to decide if they’d like to
do ads but would suggest that CD Baby handle this aspect since they’re the ones sending out the
larger email newsletters and have the in-house graphic design team on call.
Offline
Next Steps
Organize For Next Year I will make sure to leave behind all the files I wished I had at the
beginning of this culminating experience
Facebook Group/Testimonials Some attendees had taken the initiative to create a Facebook
group where they could stay in contact with one another, share what they’ve worked on after the
conference or support projects that are posted. Berklee nor CD Baby had no direct access to it, so
I contacted the admin of the group who added myself and my advisor. Alexandre Perrin, our
advisor, now had admin permissions so he’ll be able to add the next Marketing Manager in there,
which would be a fantastic tool to communicate with over 300 previous attendees. If I had access
earlier, it would’ve greatly impacted early promotional strategies. We did have testimonials
posted onto our website but I personally found the posts made by the attendees themselves on
Facebook. They were organic, honest, and positive reviews which definitely helped make the
conference’s brand more visible to our target audience. I would recommend following up with
attendees and speakers and ask if they could be quoted officially on the 2020 website

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Professional Impact
The first professional contribution I saw immediately after the conclusion of the event
was that problem solving is vital in any job or industry. It made me come to terms that not
everyone works or thinks the same way I do, but that there is no true wrong and right method.
Marketing and promoting a music business conference was extremely different than presenting a
concert, and this one happened to be a combination of both. This also meant that I
underestimated the number of responsibilities I’d have to juggle, so I had to be flexible with my
time, patience and abilities in order to get the job done.
The second biggest professional contribution would be having a deeper understanding of
working with a client instead of yourself. I had to adhere to their aesthetic, deadlines and
workplace procedures, even if I disagreed with their decisions. We needed to maintain good
communication with them due to their brand being directly affected whenever we made
decisions about the conference. Differences of opinion and frustrations will arise but this
experience taught me to be more patient and mindful on how my actions or inaction would
reflect onto Berklee and CD Baby’s name. I definitely respect the “corporate” manner of
thinking a bit more, because of these rules, standards and workflow kept us on track and in the
end helped us build a strong structure for next year’s students.
Finally, this culminating experience challenged me to be more accountable. It’s easy to
reflect on what a fellow team member did or didn’t do, but much more difficult when it comes to
evaluating yourself. I put pressure on myself to excel so I would take it particularly hard when a
deadline wasn’t met or when someone didn’t meet my expectation to deliver the same amount of

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effort. I realized this negative narrative in my head was playing in my head so I changed my
perspective and gave more importance to my reactions instead.
Do your absolute best but don’t forget to support one another without being asked is the
best advice I could give to next year’s students. In summary, these are the professional impacts
my culminating experience gave me:
● Became a professional problem solver
● A deeper understanding of developing new projects or working with big clients
● A greater sense of accountability and empathy towards colleagues during overwhelming
moments.
Professional Contribution
I am proud to have been the Marketing and Communications Manager for the 2019 European
DIY Musician Conference because it allowed me to show my skill set, creativity, and
adaptability outside of the electronic dance music scene. I would enjoy taking on a similar
project, probably more than a concert or night club event, after graduation in July. I noticed that I
like focusing on organizational structure, brand identity and building professional relationships,
all concepts that aren’t as highlighted within nightlife. This experience opened up more career
options as well and has given me the confidence to tackle event types I do not have experience
in, maybe special corporate getaways or private events like weddings or retreats. If I was able to
juggle the DIY Conference and Musaico Music Festival, then I can really accomplish anything I
set my mind to, that realization was invaluable.

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