Communication Case Study

Music Beyond Mainstream

Communication Strategy

Music Beyond Mainstream is a consortium of 11 major regional arts venues - The Anvil Basingstoke; Usher Hall Edinburgh; De Montfort Hall Leicester; Colston Hall Bristol; The Sage Gateshead; Warwick Arts Centre; The Bridgewater Hall Manchester; Philharmonic Hall Liverpool and Brighton Dome.

Knifedge started working with MBM in 2005 to mastermind the marketing and communication strategy for a series of World Music tours. This involved everything from design and manufacture of print; copyright clearance, mastering and manufacture of all CD samplers sent out to market each tour; sourcing and co-ordination of press agents and the venues’ internal marketing departments; all media buying, and co-ordinating MBM’s online presence from websites through to podcast production.

At the same time, Knifedge acted as lead producer to centrally coordinate and manage tours including: Taj Mahal; African Soul Rebels with Amadou & Mariam; Seu Jorge; Soul Britannia; New Orleans Nights wtih Alan Toussaint and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

In addition Knifedge provided consultation on the constitution, development and administration of the organisation. We held a caretaker role as central point of contact for all directors of the company, agents, producers, promoters, artists, member venues and record labels whilst MBM evolved their in-house management structure. We were also instrumental in ensuring that the venue retained its Arts Council Funding.