Artist FAQ and music industry terms, explained

A&R stands for artists and repertoire. It is the part of a label that finds artists, listens to their songs and helps them grow. With us, A&R means we listen to your demos properly, give you honest creative feedback, develop the songs with you, and shape the project around them: the sound, whether it is a single, an EP or an album, the release plan and the team who play on it, produce it, mix it and master it.

Artist development is the longer game behind A&R: helping you become the artist you are aiming to be, not just finishing one record. With us that means working on the songwriting, the sound and the live performance, building your story and your content, and growing the people who listen, release after release.

Pre-production is the planning before recording. We go through the songs together: the structure, the key and the tempo, the arrangement, who plays which part, and what the record should feel like. Doing it first means the recording days are spent making music, not making decisions.

Tracking is recording the main performances, often with the band playing together in the live room. Overdubs are the parts added on top afterwards: a second guitar, backing vocals, a horn line or a part on the 1904 Steinway.

A master is the finished, release-ready version of a song: mixed, polished and ready for listeners. Stems are that same mix split into a few grouped parts, such as drums, bass, music and vocals, so someone can adjust or remove one part. Stems are handy for remixes, live backing tracks and sync, where a film or TV editor may want the song without the vocal. Every release we make comes with both.

An Atmos master is the finished Dolby Atmos version of a song, where the sounds are placed all around and above the listener rather than just left and right. It is delivered as an ADM file (a broadcast wave file that carries the audio and where each sound sits in the space), alongside the usual stereo master. Listeners hear it as Spatial Audio on Apple Music and in Dolby Atmos on Amazon Music and TIDAL. We mix and master in our Atmos room, so every release has one.

A rollout is the plan for how a release reaches people, not just the day it comes out. It covers the release date, the order of singles, the pre-release weeks (teasers, session clips, pitching), release week itself, and the content and campaigns that keep it moving afterwards. We build the rollout with you around the songs and the session footage.

DSP stands for digital service provider. It is the industry name for the streaming and download services where people listen, such as Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL. When someone says "out on all DSPs" they mean out everywhere people stream.

A pre-save lets a fan save a song before it comes out, so it lands in their library on release day. It is one of the tools for the pre-release stretch of a rollout. Whether it suits your release depends on where and how the music goes out first, and we plan that with you.

Editorial pitching is sending a new release to the streaming services’ own editors ahead of release day, so it can be considered for their playlists. Playlisting is the wider work of getting songs onto playlists people actually follow. We pitch every new release to the editors; nobody can promise a placement, and we will never pretend otherwise.

Sync (short for synchronisation) is music placed with pictures: in film, TV, adverts, trailers and games. We pitch your songs for sync, and stems and instrumentals make them far easier to place. No film or TV placement of your music happens without your written say-so.

An EPK is an electronic press kit: your bio, photos, music, the session video and your key links in one place, ready to send to press, radio and promoters. We put one together for you.

D2C means direct to consumer, or direct to fan: selling straight to the people who love your music, rather than only through streaming. Superfans are the listeners who want more than a stream: the CD, the signed vinyl, the limited edition, the merch. Your own artist page and store on 4chords.studio is built for exactly that.

Royalties are what your music earns each time it is used. Streaming royalties are paid on the recording when people stream it. Mechanical royalties are paid on the song itself whenever it is copied or streamed. Performance royalties are paid on the song when it is played in public, on the radio or on TV. They come from different places and each needs registering. You make the music; we handle the maze, and find and collect what it earns so nothing slips through the cracks.

Publishing is the songwriting side of music, as opposed to the recording. Publishing admin is the paperwork that makes the songs earn: registering each song and its writers, and collecting the royalties the songs are owed. It is part of the maze we handle for you.

Splits record who wrote what on each song, so every writer is registered properly. It is paperwork, and we sort the paperwork: agreed with you, written down, and registered.

Your catalogue is the body of songs and recordings you have released. A catalogue keeps earning and finding new listeners long after release day, which is why our work does not stop at release day: content, sync pitching and campaigns keep the songs reaching people.