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Knokr

Multi-Tenant CMS for the Music Industry

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Knokr platform screenshot

Overview

Knokr is a multi-tenant content management system designed specifically for the music industry. It provides artists, venues, festivals, and sponsors with a free CMS and hosting platform where they can manage their data, deploy to websites, and network their content across the ecosystem. Built with database-driven routing, the platform enables users to create pages without web administration expertise.

The system operates as the administrative backbone for the Knokr ecosystem, providing CRUD operations for all entities while sharing its PostgreSQL database with experimental products (Orchestra, Lineups, Nuncio). As features prove valuable in isolated applications, they are merged into the base platform.

Problems Solved

Data Fragmentation and Inaccuracy

The music industry operates through multiple closed systems producing inconsistent, inaccurate data. Knokr provides a centralized, networked platform where artists, venues, and festivals host authoritative information.

Technical Barriers to Online Presence

Artists and small venues lack access to affordable, music-specific web infrastructure. Knokr provides a free CMS with hosting, removing technical barriers while offering music industry-specific features.

Digital Press Kit Distribution

Organizations require artist information but traditionally rely on manual collection. Knokr generates networked digital press kits that organizations can programmatically access.

Content Management Without Technical Expertise

Traditional CMS platforms require web administrators. Knokr's database-driven routing engine enables users to create pages without technical knowledge.

Core Features

Multi-Tenant CMS Architecture

  • • User Namespacing: Each user receives a site at /f/[username] with complete data isolation
  • • Database-Driven Routing: URLs stored in database records, enabling dynamic page creation without code deployments
  • • Page Builder: Component-based content creation with templates and draft/publish workflow
  • • Entity-Specific Sites: Dedicated branded presence for verified artists, venues, festivals, and sponsors
  • • Premium Subdomains: Custom domains for verified entities

Music Industry Entity Management

  • • Four Entity Types: Artists, Venues, Festivals, Sponsors with type-specific workflows
  • • Entity Request System: Fan-initiated verification requests reviewed by admins
  • • Official vs Fan Content: Distinction between verified entity content and community contributions
  • • Ownership Transfer: Transfer venue/artist/festival ownership between users
  • • Pending Entity Workflow: Bulk selection, promotion, and linking for unverified entities

Event Management

  • • Three Event Types: Official events, fan standalone events, and satellite events
  • • Multi-Entity Events: Link multiple artists, venues, and festivals to single events
  • • Geographic Discovery: City-based event search with radius filtering
  • • Real-Time RSVP: Attendance tracking with commemorative digital ticket generation
  • • Event Filters: Genre, price, accessibility, date range, and custom criteria

Festival Operations

  • • Festival Builder: Complete stage, event, and lineup management
  • • CSV Bulk Upload: Import lineups at scale
  • • Cruise Festivals: Support for ship-based and floating events
  • • Poster Extraction Integration: Automated artist name extraction from festival posters

Community and Networking

  • • Fan Clubs: Automatic clubs for each entity (artist clubs, venue clubs, festival clubs)
  • • Following System: Unified UI for following users, artists, venues, festivals, and sponsors
  • • Road Trips: Multi-city concert tour planning with stop sequencing
  • • Organizations: Team collaboration with role-based permissions and project management

Discovery and Intelligence

  • • Vector Search: Semantic search using pgvector with OpenAI embeddings
  • • Full-Text Search: PostgreSQL tsvector indexing across all content
  • • Music Discovery Graph: Graph-based artist discovery using Node2Vec and Louvain scene detection
  • • Home Page Discovery: Personalized and trending recommendations
  • • Enhanced Embeddings: Artist embeddings include country, region, genres, gender for improved matching

Permission System

Six-tier role-based access control with Redis caching, achieving 90-95% latency reduction through three-layer route protection: middleware, layout, and component.

SUPER_ADMIN

Full system access, user management, entity verification

ADMIN

CMS operations, limited user management

EDITOR

Create and edit content, publish drafts

CONTRIBUTOR

Create drafts only, no publishing

MEMBER

Basic access, no administrative privileges

VIEWER

Read-only access (organizations)

Ecosystem Integration

Knokr serves as the integration platform for the broader ecosystem. External tools share the database but operate independently, enabling rapid feature iteration:

  • • Orchestra: Crowdsourced band member data with admin moderation UI
  • • Lineups: Festival lineup extraction and AI recommendation engines
  • • Nuncio: Event list curation and distribution with embeddable widgets

Proven features from isolated applications merge into the base platform, which will ultimately serve as the unified user-facing platform.

Competitive Differentiation

Knokr competes with generic website builders (Squarespace, Wix, WordPress) by providing:

  • • Music Industry Specialization: Artist discographies, venue capacity management, festival lineup builders
  • • Networked Data Model: Cross-entity relationships and discovery features
  • • Database-Driven Routing: Dynamic page creation without code deployments
  • • Free Hosting: No cost barrier for emerging artists and small venues
  • • Vector Search: Semantic discovery unavailable in traditional CMSs

Testing and Quality

Comprehensive testing strategy with 2,300+ tests including Vitest for unit and integration testing, Playwright for end-to-end testing, Testcontainers for database integration tests, and Memlab for memory leak detection. ESLint 9 with flat config ensures code quality.

Target Users

Artists

Musicians and bands seeking free online presence with music-specific features

Venues

Music venues managing events and building fan communities

Festivals

Festival organizers coordinating multi-day lineups and ticket distribution

Sponsors

Music industry sponsors establishing brand presence

Fans

Music enthusiasts discovering events and planning concert tours

Organizations

Music industry teams collaborating on projects with role-based access

Technology Stack

  • Next.js 16
  • React 19
  • TypeScript
  • PostgreSQL
  • pgvector
  • Prisma
  • Redis
  • BullMQ
  • HeroUI
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Clerk
  • AWS S3
  • CloudFront
  • OpenAI API
  • Node2Vec
  • Vitest
  • Playwright
  • Testcontainers
  • Sentry
  • Railway