Christopher Knab's... FourFront Media & Music in partnership with Home | Articles | Bookstore | Promote Your Music | Music is Your Business | Subscribe Twitter | Start a Record Label | Radio Promotion | CD Art Design | Music Career Help Christopher's Blog & Newsletter What's on Christopher's mind? Read his Blog! or Subscribe to his Newsletter! Out Now! The Brand New 4th Edition! Sale Price for a Limited Time!   Music Is Your Business For SERIOUS Musicians Only! Order Here Christopher Knab and Bartley F. Day's 343 page Fourth Edition of Music Is Your Business is now filled with MORE insights into the business side of being a successful musician or band. The new edition is 100 pages longer and is filled with essential information to help you help yourself with the business of music. Included are chapters on both Internet and traditional music marketing methods. Plus, the essential legal issues you need to know are explained, with additional chapters covering music publishing and recording contract tips, as well as info on how to license your music. This expanded edition will also help you learn how to attract distributors, get radio airplay, negotiate contract offers, and create a demand for your music. The new edition of Music Is Your Business also includes several updated music industry charts, samples of an artist bio, a music marketing plan, and checklists for jump-starting your career and/or running your own record label! Find out more... How to Promote Your Music on the Internet This step-by-step guide to online music promotion will provide you with all the knowledge you need to sell music on the Internet! Find out how and where to target visitors most likely to buy your music, increase your CD sales via the web, promote your music successfully using Internet radio, accept credit cards (without a merchant account), optimize your web site for the search engines and much more! Buy now and receive the PDF version of the next edition of this book FREE! It will be emailed to you automatically! Find out more...    Learn the FOUR FRONTS of the music business...  Click on one of the sections below: 1) Artist & Product Development 2) Promotion 3) Publicity 4) Performance Christopher's Blog & Newsletter What's on Christopher's mind? Read his Blog! or Subscribe to his Newsletter! Do You Twitter? Now you can follow Christopher Knab on Twitter! Latest Articles... Streaming Music Revenue Payments If a song is streamed on Spotify, the company has three entities to pay... and none of them are the artist. So how does the artist get paid by Spotify? I Get Emails.... Boy, Do I Get Emails! Today I'm going to share with you a response I wrote to a well-intentioned guy who was clearly very passionate about getting some artists he'd found into the mainstream. He was fairly polite, and even though he had no idea how to write or talk to a music industry professional... I felt kinda sorry for him. Streaming Royalties Suck Now, but Just Wait Spotify et al are still relatively new companies and services. Whenever any new digital music company launches; musicians, labels etc. think they are some kind of instant savior that will make all artists and labels finally rich and famous. But how can that be? Off the Wall Music Marketing Tips Why Are Musicians So Afraid of New Technologies? I've seen it over and over again. Musicians who have been promoting themselves for years, if not decades, are so suspicious of any new online tools or apps that can help their careers... About Playing Live... To get booked at a local or regional club, you will not need the services of a booking agent, instead you will be able to do it yourselves. All you need is a complete and updated press kit, lots of persistence, and the ability and confidence to play a 45-60 minute set. Adapt... or Don't. Change is what life is all about. Think about it. We may want things to remain the same in a relationship but they don’t. A job we’ve had for years requires us to get re-trained or risk being laid off or fired. Somehow life gets in the way of our plans, and we have two options… change things, or pretend everything is just fine and face the consequences. Well, life in the music business is no different... Ignorant Musicians Finish Last KNOWLEDGE IS BLISS should be the byword for the musician of the new millennium. Finding a Manager Isn't as Easy as You Think Making money as a personal manager is no easy task, and many upcoming artists forget that if any moneys are to be generated from their music, it can takes years for the flow of that income to be reliably there. So, as a band develops self-management, or gets help from intern/student manager-wannabees, this can help pave the road for professional management. Got an Entertainment Law Attorney? The business of getting signed to any deal in the music business has always had the involvement of entertainment law attorneys. Any relationship between a musician, a record label, a publisher, a merchandiser etc. will come down to two attorneys hashing out the contract for the musician and the respective companies.   Know the Labels/Publishers You Want to Work With Some musicians get too excited when a certain label or publisher approaches them with a contract offer. Being approached for a deal is a compliment and is a recognition that a musician’s music is appealing. But, to rush ahead without taking the time to learn a few things about those companies is foolish indeed. Excuses Musicians Make for NOT Learning the Music Business I have heard them all... reasons many solo artists and band members give for not learning about the business they are in... the Music Business. Design Simple, but Effective Promo Materials Simple, but effective promo materials can draw people to your music! Here are 3 tips to help you promote your careers, and enhance your chances of being offered opportunities. Register Your Songs With the Copyright Office When you write a song and "fix" it "in a tangible form", i.e. write it down somewhere or record it even in a simple way, your song is at that moment-protected by U.S. copyright laws. But... PROVING that the song is yours requires another step... Building a Successful Radio Campaign The commercial radio industry, at this time in history, couldn't be less friendly to the independent musician. However, that doesn’t mean there isn't some significant radio airplay available to you if you know what you’re doing. Be a Master Musician Prior to the late 70’s, more often than not, the music that is our heritage was made by musicians who, from the time they took up their instrument, worshipped at the feet of some master rock n’ roller, bluesman, jazz player, folk legend, songwriter, or whatever. The habit of these inspired musicians was an appetite for perfection. A need to be not just good enough but GREAT. Why settle for less? Challenge yourself to go beyond your limitations. Play Often No Matter What You can always tell the difference between a musician who is in it for the money, and a musician who is in it for the music.The dedicated musician can’t NOT play music every chance they get. Money-focused musicians whine about the fact that they can't get club gigs that pay anything. Well, If you think that you can make your living solely as a musician in the first three to four years of your career, you're headed for a breakdown and disappointment. Make Music That Doesn't Suck Since we do indeed live in a time when everybody and their sister can and does make their own music, that doesn’t mean that your music has what it takes to make it. A&R Reps are always saying, when asked what they are looking for, “We don’t know what we are looking for, but we’ll recognize it when we hear it.” What we can read into this comment is that your music must truly stand out in some significant, original, dynamic, and creative way. There are No "10 Steps to Musical Success" Today, more than ever, there are countless advisers like myself who offer tips to developing acts and ‘struggling musicians’, and all too often we try to inflict some step-by-step process on musicians that will help them become successful as musicians, but the truth is ‘There are no 10 steps to success’ or even 25 or 50 steps. Why I Do What I Do Why I write my books, why I write this blog, why I offer my workshops and seminars on the business of music, why I offer consultations, and why I have committed to interacting with social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter. More Articles... WHO'S CHRISTOPHER? FourFront Media & Music's Christopher Knab provides a unique consultation and education service for independent musicians and record labels. Through private consultations by phone or in-person in the Seattle area, Christopher helps musicians help themselves with the business of music. More about Christopher...