Praxis Business School

Assignment No 1

Written analysis and communication

A report Submitted to Prof. Charanpreet Singh In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the course Managerial Communication On 07/01/2012

By Debasish Devkumar Padhy

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Musicjuice.net

07/01/2012

To Charanpreet Singh

From Debasish Devkumar Padhy Subject:

I am enclosing my report on Musicjuice.net. This report includes the following: - Executive summary - Situation analysis - Problem statement - Options - Criteria - Evaluation of options - Recommendation - Action plan

Yours sincerely Debasish Devkumar Padhy

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Executive summary It talks about the challenges of new internet ventures which provides funding for musicians to record albums by allowing listeners to preview the artists work and decide whether or not to invest. They had to go through tough times to generate any interest or even awareness amongst online musicians and fans. Their main key challenge was finding audience so they have to understand the needs and wants of audience. Therefore to be successful they must provide value to its costumer, so they must relieve pain or stress for the costumer in such a way that the costumer recognizes the relief and is willing to pay for it. (Word count - 107)

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Table of contents

SERIAL NO.

CONTENTS

PAGE NUMBER

Situation analysis

Problem statement

Options

Criteria

Evaluation of options

Recommendation

Action plan

Exhibit

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Situational analysis Business they are in MusicJuice.net provides funding for independent musicians to record albums by allowing listeners to preview the artists work and decide whether to invest or not to . In which the new artists will register themselves and will post their songs. fans and other can listen to their songs and will invest a minimum of $10 which will help the musicians to collect amount for recording their songs. Business Model The funds raised from the fans will cover the cost of making the CD, Marketing and distribution. the profit made from the sales were split in 3 ways 1/3rd to the musician, 1/3rd to the website company and 1/3rd to the investor. Total requirement for recording CD is $50000 so to fund one musician 5000 investors required as minimum they had to contribute is $10. The CD s were to be sold at the shows

organized by the musicians and online portal like Amazon.com, iTunes and Musicjuice.net. Competitors analysis Sellaband has successfully funded the recording of CDs for 18 musicians and has over 2000 musicians signed up. Slicethepie has funded 13 CDs, but its number of musicians is unknown. MusicJuice, at the time of the case, had 180 musicians signed up and was nowhere close to funding the production of a CD. So Slicethepie have been more successful than Musicjuice. Added Feature by Musicjuice Tour creation enabled musicians to raise money not only to record CDs but also to pay the expenses to fund a tour. And the fans who will invest an extra $10 they would last until the CD or tour was completed and they can even chat with the musicians and will even receive signed version of the CD that is they will become the Premium Member Pitfalls Founders were not good at finalizing the contract with website developers which ended up taking longer and costing more . Out of two founders one lacked knowledge on the coding
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aspects and other lacked the business skills which took lot of time to understand how the business model would work. The two founders became frustrated and impatient with one another and their relationship deteriorated. Consequence
In spite of differentiating their business from others ,they ultimately implemented it poorly which was not widely adopted and in turn is failed to reach its required targets.

(Word count - 385)

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Problem statement  They didn't understand the needs and wants of audience properly due to which it didn't motivate the audience to participate.  They were not having much uniqueness in their project which must provide some unique value that users cannot find elsewhere.  They couldn't attract a large user base and in turn failed to reach their targets.

 They started identifying revenue models for their service and spending money on expensive marketing campaigns and building new features for the website before determining if there was a market for their service . (Word count - 92) Options  Targeting record companies by creating value for record companies  Organizing concerts and other events for musicians.  Organizing competitions among musicians online.  Implementing 24*7 radio, online streaming videos and inserting short advertisements in every few songs. (Word count - 39) Criteria Brand Awareness The delay in the development of the website allowed an unforeseen competitor to enter the market. So it is needed to build brand awareness as In this business the main asset is their website and the business model can be easily copied. (Word count - 42)

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Evaluation of options Targeting record companies by creating value for record companies Pros  Musicians sign up will increase.  Record companies will take more interest to be first one to finalize the contract with artists. Cons  It is difficult to impress the record companies with new artists.

Organizing concerts and other events for musicians. Pros  Crowd will increase which may turn into investors.  Brand awareness and exposure to artists. Cons  Initial expenditure will increase.  Can't predict the footfall.

Organizing competitions among musicians online. Pros  Fans can understand on whom to invest in order to gain more profit.  Help record companies to identify new talent.  More interaction based website.  Musicians will get feedback on their performance Cons  Feedback of the audience may not be the right criteria to judge the artists all the time.

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Implementing 24*7 radio, online streaming videos and inserting short advertisements in every few songs Pros  Crowd will increase as well as investors.  Increased revenue and increase visibility. Cons  Initial investment will increase.

(Word count -176) Recommendation

Organizing Concerts and other events for musicians

Introduce new artists to the people and increase awareness of their brand. This will help people understand their business and benefits to investors who are investing on musicians . Word count - 36 Action Plan  They have to target the places where footfall will be more.  Should charge a minimal entry fee in order to overcome the expenses.  They have to invite influential people from record industries. (Word count - 35)

Exhibits Exhibit 1 and 2

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