REleasing OSANi’s First ALbum

BRANDING | MARKETING | PROJECT MANAGEMENT | GRANT WRITING

Client

OSANI

Date

June – NOv. 2025

Project Details

Album Release

1. ALL IT TAKES IS AN IDEA

OSANI wanted help releasing his first record. He had no funding, no fan base, and no brand, but he had an idea. He wanted to release an experimental hip hop record, that told his story. He wanted to share what it felt like to grow up Cree and Guyanese in the West End of Winnipeg.

This record meant a lot to OSANI, it was a love letter to his community and to all those he had lost. To pay homage, he wanted this release to be professionally executed, with:

  • Professionally mixed and mastered songs
  • A cost effective marketing plan
  • A high energy release show at West End Cultural Centre

As a recent graduate eager to help out in any way, I dove head first into this project. In a short 5-month period I helped turn his idea into a reality.

2. NO FUNDING….

We had no funding, not to mention few industry connections, we needed a plan to overcome this quickly. We had the knowledge and skills, but needed to find a way to bridge the gaps.

OUR SOLUTION

Our plan had two basic steps.

1. Apply for as many funding opportunities as we could find.

2. For all the gaps in funding, find a DIY solution. This led to a lot of learning and mistakes, but ultimately a successful project beyond what we expected, that we are both extremely proud of.

UNEXPECTED DIY TASKS
  • I created dual project visuals for each song on the album. The visuals included lyrics and on theme visual themes.
  • We created a custom stage design, where we picked wild grass to use as a stage prop. We were going to build custom rear projection screens, but found a rental solution luckily.
  • I designed the album cover and the album merch.

3. THE BRAND

We created a brand that personified the record. It was gritty, we contrasted high-fashion with poverty, nature with industrialization. Mixing things that seemingly should not fit, but making it look natural, just like OSANI’s music. This brand was bold, using Helvetica Bold, and harsh reds against black and white images.

Some recurring visual themes scattered throughout this release were an edited “Dictionary Definition” of Social Currency and fierce growling dogs. Or should I say DAWGS.

4. MArketing Strategy

Our marketing strategy needed to be simple and effective. We decided upon a 3-month “Waterfall” style release.
In simple terms, we were going to release one single each month, followed by the album.

1. NOT A TERRORIST 2. SIRENS 3. AMERICAS (and the album)

Each month of promotion would consist of:

  • One music video
  • 3-4 social media posts/week
  • Meta Ads campaign
  • An application for user curated playlists

Additionally, I build OSANI a custom website, we earned a CBC interview, and executed a live show at WECC.

A simple, but effective strategy, which gained OSANI 500 followers, over 6,000 streams, and an increase in post engagement by 75%.

5. WECC RELEASE SHOW

The final element of this release was to plan a release show at West End Cultural Centre (WECC). I think a good place to start is with this quick recap video.

As you can see it was a huge success, with 137 tickets sold, over $1,000 in profit generated, and a positive buzz generated for OSANI in the community. Importantly, OSANI now has high quality live performance footage, which can be used to apply for festivals and shows in the future.

6. THE RESULTS

This release was a massive undertaking and a great learning experience for both of us. Not everything went exactly as we originally imagined, but we quickly learned the importance of pivoting and quickly finding solutions for any problem that arose.

For instance, our videographer did not deliver our final video by our deadline, so I edited together a video out of scrap footage.

Or picking wild grass for the stage design, as the Temu grass we bought was underwhelming.

All in all, it was a success and we managed to:

  • Gain $7,600 in grant funding
  • Earn 6,000 streams
  • Gain 500 additional social media followers and increase post engagement by 75%.
  • Perform in front of a crowd of 120 at West End Cultural Centre (WECC) which earned over $1000 profit.
  • Develop a clear artist brand.
  • Gain placement for OSANI in the TD Incubator program.
  • Contribute to OSANI winning the Vince Fontaine Legacy Award.

This release helped to create a solid foundation for OSANI’s career. It has allowed OSANI to achieve the following goals to date:

  • Gain $27,300 in total grant funding
  • Release 2 records
  • Gain a distribution deal with SUPPERCONNECTED. (Provides OSANI opportunities to get played on XM radio, onto Spotify and other streaming service curated playlists, and potential sync opportunities)
  • Performance opportunities at the Breakout West Showcase (in Victoria), and at Winterruption and Maryland Street Festival (in Winnipeg).