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 An Introduction to the
"Four
Front" Music Marketing Concept
And What They Have to Do With You...
by Christopher Knab - Fourfront
Media & Music - Updated May 2011
Back to Music
Business 101
If you’re a musician and you want to make money from your
music, you’re in a challenging position. If you’re like a lot of musicians, you
spend huge amounts of time and money to improve your music and performing
skills, but you haven’t thought much about the business of music, or how you’re
actually a part of it. When you combine making music with making money, you
become a part of the music business—whether you like it or not. Since most
musicians don’t know much about the music business, they don’t realize how much
that ignorance can cost them.
My music business career began in the retail side of the
industry in the 1970s. That led me to working in radio broadcasting and running
my own independent record label, where I learned about distribution, publicity,
and the role the live performance industry plays in making artists and bands
successful.
During that time I felt like I was only seeing separate parts
of the music business. Then around the early ’90s, I finally saw the whole
picture, and understood what the entire music industry looked like and how the
various aspects of the music business worked together. It was then that I
developed what I call the Four Fronts of
Music Marketing.
I was finally able to describe the structure of the music
industry. Since then, I’ve been using my system to show others what they need
to do to work their independent music projects—by using the tactics and techniques
that all successful record labels use.
These “Four Fronts” I
call Artist and Product Development,
Promotion, Publicity, and Performance.
I divide the First Front into two parts—Artist
Development and Product Development— for a very important reason. Artist
Development is about developing your music and building a solid business
foundation for your career. It’s as
important as Product Development,
which is about developing a way to record, manufacture and sell your music.
What has or has not been done in Artist Development will either help or hurt
the music product you make and intend to sell.
The three remaining Fronts—Promotion, Publicity,
and Performance—I call these the Exposure Fronts. They include those
activities that will get your music heard, talked about and experienced live.
So, let’s take a closer look at how the music business is set
up, so that you can learn how to protect, promote, publicize, and sell your own
independent music.
The First Four Fronts - The Details
The First Front: Artist and Product Development.
Artist Development: Preparing Your Career
The Artist
Development part of the First Front includes fundamental issues that are
the basis of your music career. These are the same issues a professional record
label would consider when they’re deciding to sign an artist or band. It’s your
job, more and more these days, to develop your own career creatively and in a
professional manner. Artist Development includes such important things as:
- Songwriting
skills
- Copyright issues
- Music publishing
- The role of thePerformance Rights Organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC)
- Music equipmentand instrument needs
- Band/musicianissues and agreements
- Artistmanagement
- Ethical, moral,and political issues
- Record label dealings (A&R and misc. other)
- Contracts and
legal issues
- Creating yourimage
- The beginningof Social Networking
Product
Development: Making and Selling Your
Record
The Product Development part of the First Front includes
those areas that are directly involved with recording and selling your music,
such as:
- Marketing and
sales plans
- Home and/orProfessional recording studios; producers, engineers
- Mastering andmanufacturing
- Choosing which
formats to release your recording in
- Graphic design
and printing for CDs
- Traditional
distribution and sales: research and contacts
- Retail options:
chain stores, mass merchandisers, mom-and-pop stores, misc. other retailers
- Distributor
options: one-stops, independent distributors, rackjobbers
- Internet sales
and distribution, mail order
- Website design
and creation
- Live show sales
The Second Front: Promotion
Getting
Airplay for Your Music
The simplest
way to remember it is: Promotion equals
airplay. Airplay is how most people hear new music for the first time. It’s
the business of securing broadcast support for your record. This is the Front
that record labels rely on to hopefully secure a hit record. Radio airplay is
still the most effective exposure to get for your music; it’s also the most
difficult to secure for independent artists.
Key Promotion Front issues are:
- Radio airplay:
format selection
- Station
research: commercial, non-commercial, Internet, and satellite radio stations
- Creating stationcontact lists
- Promotion
tactics and strategies
- Program and
music director relationships
- Independent
radio promotion
- Video: (YouTube,
Vevo, etc,)
- Tracking airplay
on the charts
The Third Front: Publicity
Creating
a Media Buzz and Social Networking
If the Promotion
Front is about getting airplay for a song, then the Publicity Front is about getting your music talked about in the media
and by your fans. Publicity creates opportunities for music fans to read or
see reviews, interviews, and feature stories about your music in print or on
the radio, TV, or on Internet sites. The key issues included in the Publicity
Front are:
- Print media
research: magazines, newspapers, fanzines
- Broadcast media:
radio and TV; website interviews and blogs; reviews, interviews, stories, and intensive Social Networking via, Twitter,
Facebook, Linked-in, et al.
- Creating
broadcast, print, and Internet contact lists
- Publicity
choices: on and offline reviews, articles, interviews, calendar listings
- Music programs
and shows research
- Publicity and
public relations plans, both online and in traditional ways
- Analog and electronic promo kits: (All of the issues listed here can and should be created both in traditional ways and posted on your website and other Internet related services)
- Bios
- Fact sheets
- Photos
- Press clips and quote sheets
- Cover letters
- Press releases
- Press
relationships: publisher, editor, writer/blogger issues
- Media deadlines
- Social
Networking with fans (Twitter/ Facebook et al)
- Advertising
options and choices (Note: publicity is free, but advertising is paid for.)
The Fourth Front: Performance
Finding
Your Audience
For most
styles of popular music, the live
Performance Front is the foundation for developing a fan base and it's an
important part of marketing and selling recorded music. The key areas of the
Performance Front are:
- Live show
venues: clubs, halls, fairs, festivals, etc.
- Venue research:
creating venue contact lists
- Booking agents
and concert promoters: roles and relationships
- Live performance
and live concert contracts
- Internet: plans
for streaming concerts, downloading concerts, misc. web live music ops.
- Lighting, sound,
and equipment needs
- Tours: planning,
tour coordination, concert promotions
- Road managers,
roadies, and life on the road
- Touring as
marketing: radio, press, and retail opportunities
What All the Fronts Have in Common: Three Essentials
Dollar and Sense Issues: It costs money to develop and
promote music. To put it bluntly, it takes more
money than talent these days to get your music to the attention of consumers.
Image Development and Management: Developing an
honest, yet consistent image is essential for any artist. An image is what
people remember about a singer or a band—finding and managing that image is of
the utmost importance.
On and Offline Marketing Opportunities: Gone are the
days of building your music career without the use of current digital
technology. Online sales and downloads are a booming business. Internet radio
stations number in the thousands and opportunities for live Internet
performance broadcasts are already an everyday occurrence.
Social
Networking and more Social Networking: Use Twitter, Facebook, etc. consistently. It should go without saying that the advances and opportunities
involved with staying in constant
contact with your fans is more important now than any time in music history.
There is a huge increase in music releases these days
(over 1000 new music releases a WEEK)
that if you don’t consistently stay in touch with your fans, it will very
difficult to grow or even maintain a loyal following. Fans are more fickle than
ever these days!
Lest you think that the Four Fronts are only for beginning
artists and bands, let me tell you this. You may just be getting started and
think that all this is a one-time deal until you are “discovered.” Sorry about
that, the truth of the matter is that the more successful you get, the more
time you’ll spend dealing with the Four Fronts (both on and offline). No matter
how well-established or famous musicians become, every record they put out is
like starting over again. For each new release, even superstars have to devise
a marketing plan that is based on the ideas and structure of the Four Fronts.
The Four Fronts are Interrelated
You must realize
that the Four Fronts interact and depend on each other. In some ways
there’s a catch-22. In order for you to get your recording into mass
distribution, the distributors and stores
will ask you how many sales and downloads your record has had, what kind of
radio support your record is getting, how the media is supporting your music,
and what the audience response to your live shows has been.
In order for you to get significant airplay, the radio stations want to know why they should play your record; how it’s been selling,
if you’re getting good reviews in the media, and how well your live shows are
being received.
In order for the print and broadcast media to be willing to
review your music, they want to know why their readers and audience would want
to know about you; how your record is selling, what radio airplay you’ve
gotten, and if your live shows are creating excitement. And today your fans
want to know the same things!
In order for you to get better live shows and tours, the
booking agents, concert promoters, and venue operators want to know that
they’ll make money from your concert. They may check your retail and Internet
sales, airplay statistics, and media reviews before they decide to work with
you.
Today, the Internet
offers all Four Fronts for marketing purposes… (manufacturing websites to
place your CD orders and prepare your digital files, sales opportunities
galore, plus web radio broadcasts, social networks, web publications, and even
the ability to stream or create the
podcasts of your concerts.) So, you’ll have to work the Four Fronts of
music marketing on the Internet while still using the traditional “analog
world.” of music marketing.
Let me say it again loud and clear:
“The Four Fronts of
music marketing are interrelated and dependent upon each other!”
No
one uses the tools in every Front equally. Many acts, for example, build their
careers primarily by playing live as often as possible (the Performance Front).
Others have jump-started their careers with college or Internet radio airplay
(the Promotion Front) or become “critic’s darlings” and received a ton of
favorable press and/or mentions on the social networking sites (the Publicity
Front). Others combine different
elements from the Four Fronts both on and offline. The trick is to pay attention to what works best for you and build on
your successes. It’s up to you to decide what mix is best for your career.
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Christopher Knab is an independent music business consultant based in Seattle, Washington. He
is available for private consultations on promoting and marketing independent music, and can be reached by email at: chris@chrisknab.net
Chris Knab's new book, 'Music Is Your Business'
is available NOW from the Music Biz Academy bookstore.
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