We produce or license music content for the purpose of marketing and distributing it. We are innovators in the areas of producing, packaging, marketing, design, and manufacturing. We are dedicated to the new methods and the fullest applications of technology to monetize the intellectual property created by artists. We use every available distribution platform and all social networking sites for marketing purposes. We are, in the old fashioned sense, a “record company”. But we are more than that: we will create structures and easy to use methods to sell and market music in the various ways people listen to and access it:live, Internet, mobile phone, retail stores, radio, advertising, movies and television, video games, DVDs, and websites. We have sister companies available to us who we can hire for specific marketing, production, or distribution purposes, not unlike the relationships that currently exist in the entertainment businesses. For example, we may want to hire a PR firm for a particular artist we feel strongly about.

We provide artists and musicians with production, marketing, and distribution services to help them create sustainable careers while creating sustainable revenue streams for our company and providing our customers with a quality and positive experience.

• We believe that music consumers are eager to support the art of the musicians they admire and relate to; who share their “values”. 
•  We believe in the idea of creating communities of interest, defined by values and mutuality, changing and evolving as artists innovate. 
•  We believe that these “communities of interest” can create a self-sustaining economic model, allowing artists to reach consumers directly and to engage them on a personal level.
•  We believe that the production and distribution of an artist’s work is paramount to assuring that the artist will be able to create a flow of music and art that listeners will want to support. 
•  We believe in the preeminence of the artist and the creative enterprise and from this, our inspiration and profit comes.  Profit is the byproduct of what we do, not the point of it.
•  We believe in the power of music and art to affect people’s lives in a positive and profound way, if not change the world. 
•  Our guiding principles as purveyors of music and art are humility for the opportunity to affect people’s lives in a positive way, reverence for the potential of what we are bringing to people, and innovation for our approach to the challenges and opportunities we are given.
•  We believe that we are service providers to artists, and we act on the belief that it is the artist’s work that creates entertainment and media companies, of which we are one. 
•  We conduct ourselves as members of a group and as members of a community in an ethical manner.  Our business dealings and relationships with customers and artists will be defined in ethical terms first.  Our reputation for honesty, transparency, and ethical conduct is mission central to our existence.

• Name the organization, create a logo and branding of the company, and create company business cards.
• Create a clear organizational structure to deal with every aspect of our mission, that is, who is responsible for what to produce, market, and distribute our “products”?
• Create a structure for selecting what product and artists to “take on” with the idea of taking on whatever we like.  Our hearts have to be in it.
• Seek out bands, labels, and other content owners for licensing and distribution deals.
• Create a website that will provide an efficient and productive portal for our customers and our artists to interact and sell products.
• Develop the details of the operating structure.
• Provide artists and content owners with publishing and music licensing services offered by our sister publishing company.
• Create a marketing plan that is Internet-centric and dependent on social networking, using all Internet resources available.  Develop innovative approaches.
• Create a sales plan to include every revenue stream, every use for music, and every distribution channel, in the real world and in the virtual world.
• Create a sustainable, profitable company with a catalog of 1000 songs by the end of the fall semester 2008. 
• Double our growth by the end of the spring semester 2009.
• Solidify all HR, legal, marketing, distribution, plans.
• Create and integrate the national “honorary advisory council” of industry professionals.
• Develop a culture of oversight and accountability.
• Adjust, amend, or change this strategic plan and to adopt it by popular vote as the guiding document of the enterprise.
• Create Action Plans for all goals
• Develop the legal documents and agreements to obtain the rights we seek to exploit.
• Create a mechanism for measuring our progress and success.
• Write a code of ethics for our relationship to our artists, our customers, our co-workers, and our broader community.
• We want to apply the theoretical knowledge gained from the classroom environment to the actual experience of “doing it” and to perfect our understanding of the process through focused and informed experience.  

• Loyola University will own 100% of the Media Company but will not receive any salary for doing such. The profits made by the company’s efforts will be used to pay the employees (70% of income) and the remaining profits (30% of income) will be used to fund the growing business as necessary, increasing the quality of available products. Due to the fact that the Media Company will not need any outside money to start the company, there are no other investors involved in the Media Company.

• Key Management of the Media Company

• The faculty/staff advisor to this EU is George Howard.  The Louisiana Small Business Development Center will assign a local business person as a consultant to this EU.  Members of our Advisory Councils who are in the live sound industries will act as an Advisory sub-committee for this EU, making themselves available for questions, internship, and placement opportunities.

• The student governance and HR structure will be determined by the character of the services to be rendered, what processes are involved, what equipment will be required, etc.  The services of this particular EU imply the following responsibilities:  manager, equipment manager, booking & logistics, financial/business affairs, and marketing.  All functions need to be listed, described in detail, and delegated to group/company members.

• Members of the student entertainment and sports law club at the College of Law have agreed to act as legal counsel for the company.  We hope to involve an MBA student from either Tulane or Loyola as a peer mentor/consultant to the company.

• These students will be trained on the job, as well as through their courses provided at Loyola University. The functions to be staffed include:
• Producing and/or licensing music content for the purpose of marketing and distributing it
• Financial accounting and billing
• Payroll

• Professional Advisors
• The Media Company will use Loyola University’s accountant and attorney if it becomes necessary. The Media Company will not be required to pay for these services due to the fact that they are covered in the financial obligations of Loyola University to the student-run company.

WHAT IS A MARKTING PLAN? One definition of a marketing plan states that, “A marketing plan is a written document containing the guidelines for the business unit’s marketing programs and allocations over the planning period.” (Lehman and Winer 2002) The marketing plan can and should be an essential document for organizational success. A well thought out marketing plan should:
• act as a road map.
• assist in management control and implementation of strategy.
• inform new participants of their roles in implementing the plan and reaching objectives.
• assist in helping to obtain resources for implementation.
• stimulate thinking and better use of limited resources.
• help in the organization and assignment of responsibilities, tasks, and timing.
• help you become aware of problems, opportunities, and threats in the future
-(Cohen 2001)

The marketing plan is an operational document that is created at the business level of the organization. The plan may address a multiple year time horizon but it should be reviewed and updated on an annual basis. Plans tend to fall into one of two categories: a new product/service introduction plan or an annual marketing plan that addresses products and/or services that are already in your company portfolio.
View the complete document

Faculty/Staff Advisor: (name, email, profile)

State Small Business Development Corporation Advisor:

MBA Advisor:

Law School Advisor:

Local Executive Mentor:

Student Management:
President:
Vice President:
Secretary:
Business Affairs:
Marketing/Sales:
Operations:
Technology:

Honorary Advisory Board:

Parental Advisors:

We created business plans for each of the entrepreneurial units but they are not complete in several respects. There's no marketing plan, for example, but there is an outline of what is generally in a marketing plan. Other aspects of the plan will have to be developed by the EU's themselves. The plan we have created is to give everyone in the EU a general idea of how to structure a company, what we think this company does, what it believes in, what its mission is, what its goals are, some personnel considerations, and some general information about financial plans, marketing plans, and compensation questions. The EU should use this plan as a guide to creating a detailed and inclusive plan of their own.

The reality is, the EU's have a very large, funded client from whom they can make a steady income for the next 2 years. That client is The Center for Music and Arts Entrepreneurship. The Center actually houses the EU program and is responsible for its operation and results. The Center is also responsible for creating multi-media content (seminars, clinics, forums, lectures, events, performances, documentaries, television programming, etc.) that will aid the local music, music education, and music entrepreneurship communities, as well as the member schools of the New Orleans Music, Entertainment, and Education Consortium (Dillard, Delgado, UNO, and Loyola).

The EU's will be doing the work of producing, video taping, recording, marketing, broadcasting, advertising, selling, distributing, and otherwise involved with the production and distribution of the content. All of these activities are budgeted and the EU's will be offered the opportunity of providing the services needed, and they will be compensated.

Download the Business Plan HERE