01 · Production
Three production directions cut in one week; the artist chose by instinct. Live talking drum and percussion tracked at night so the record could never be mistaken for a stock beat. Vocals kept dry and forward.
All case studies
Ade Oyelaran — Lagos Gold · 2025
Turning a featured voice into a headline artist
Give an artist known only for features his own record, his own look, and enough release-week momentum to justify a festival slot already on the calendar.
My role
Producer, mixing engineer, creative director and campaign lead. Single point of accountability from first session to release week.
01 · The objective
Give an artist known only for features his own record, his own look, and enough release-week momentum to justify a festival slot already on the calendar.
02 · The challenge
No solo audience, no visual identity, no mailing list, and twenty-one days between the finished master and the festival announcement. Everything had to be built in parallel rather than in sequence.
03 · What I did
02 · Creative direction
One motif — a gold halo — carried across cover art, flyer, social cut-downs and stage backdrop, so every asset read as the same artist at a glance.
03 · Promotion
A 21-day sequence: snippet tease, pre-save with a real incentive, one intimate listening session for 40 people, release day, then the festival performance as the campaign's closing beat rather than an afterthought.
04 · Marketing
Paid spend held back until organic snippet performance identified the two cities worth targeting. Budget concentrated rather than sprayed.
04 · The result
- 128K
- Release-week streams
- 4.2K
- Pre-saves
from zero list
- 37
- Editorial playlist adds
- £0.21
- Cost per pre-save
- First solo record added to editorial playlists in two territories.
- Festival slot upgraded from opener to third on the bill.
- The gold-halo identity became the artist's permanent visual system.
- Listening-session attendees became the core of the first mailing list.
05 · Proof
06 · Hear it
Ade Oyelaran · 2025
Lagos Gold
Built around a live talking-drum session recorded at 2am, then cut against a swung 104bpm groove. The vocal stack sits deliberately dry so the percussion carries the record.
Producer · Mixing · Arrangement · 3:28
“I came in with a voice note and left with a record, a look and a plan. The rollout was the part I never knew I was missing.”
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