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Pre-Written music business plan template available! This 25-page music business plan is fully written and includes example verbiage from a musician. Use it as a template to write your own.
Creative entrepreneurs have a responsibility to themselves (and their families where applicable) to make good financial decisions for their present and their future. Whether you’re full-time, part-time, or aspiring; being financially savvy is both good for business and good for your overall morale. However, for musicians, it’s way too easy to get distracted with making music and art while neglecting other important parts of being in business like taxes, legal considerations, insurance, and finances. If you’re hoping to build a strong financial foundation for your music business, starting with a Music Business Plan is highly recommended.
Why?
Anytime an aspiring business person applies for a business loan, banks usually ask for a business plan. That’s because they want to see if you have a solid plan for making money and staying in business so they can get their money back and get a return on their investment. Likewise, if you’re hoping to achieve any amount of financial success as a musician, it’s important to start with a plan so you can make your money and get a return on your time investment.
A business plan is basically a blueprint for success. It outlines who you are, what you are, what you’re selling, who you’re selling it to, what your challenges are, how you plan to overcome them, and finally, how you plan on earning money to cover your expenses and produce a profit. Putting together a business plan for your music business forces you to ask and answer these tough questions and pave a path to success.
Your business plan should include the following sections:
Executive Summary
The executive summary is a quick synopsis of your business. It provides the who, what, and where. It’s sort of like a cover letter that you would include with a resume. It’s useful if you’re giving your business plan to someone such as a potential partner, investor, etc. It includes…
- Your stage name and location (where you’re based)
- Types of music related services and products you’ll offer (think live entertainment, sound engineering, sync licensing, songwriting, merchandise, etc.)
- Mission and vision statement briefly explaining your reasons for being a musician. If you need help putting together a mission statement for your music, check out our post, The Musician’s Guide to Creating a Meaningful Mission Statement
- The purpose of your plan (optional if you’d like to share this with others for the purposes of raising capital, support, or asking for help.)
Watch Me Walk You Through Writing Your Music Business Plan…
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Customize this template and make it your own. Includes all sections that are already pre-written for a musician or band. Just plug in your information and go.
Business Description
This is an overarching description of your business and its structure. It should include…
- How your business is structured legally. Is it a corporation, a sole proprietorship, or an LLC?
- How long you’ve been in business (or why you’re doing music if you’re just starting out), a brief summary of what types of business you will engage in, and what consumer needs you plan to meet.
- A brief description of your services and/or products and who your customers/clients are.
- An overview of any growth highlights you’ve achieved since you started such as expanding your fanbase, adding team members and their achievements, or increasing earnings.
- Business goals and how you’re going to make a profit from your business endeavors.
Service or Product Offerings
In this section, you’ll describe in detail what you’re offering including the various types of services you offer (live entertainment, lessons, session work, etc) as well as any products you sell such as merchandise, books, etc.
- List a description of each of your services along with its benefits.
- List a description of each of your products or product types.
- Share how you’ll stand out among fellow artists and how you’ll niche yourself, especially in your local area if you’re planning on making a splash locally.
- Any service or product expansion initiatives that you are planning in the future such as starting a band, doing larger shows at larger venues, touring expansions, etc.
Market Analysis
The Market Analysis provides a snapshot of your fanbase and how you’ll reach them. The standout portion of this section is the research you’ll do into your potential base of fans. Learning all you can in this area will help you make effective marketing and promotions decisions that save you time and money. Most importantly, it will help you build a solid following with loyal followers.
- A description of your fans or ideal fans.
Pro Tip: If you haven’t done any research or identified who your ideal fans are, check out How to Identify and Reach Your Ideal Fans here.
- A summary of music industry trends related to how you do business.
- How do people find new music?
- What types of music-related products are people buying right now ie. live entertainment, music merch, digital music, etc.
- A detailed description of similar acts in your area and how you’ll stand out.
Your Business Model
This section provides details regarding how you will make your money. It describes the nuts and bolts of your operation such as how you market your music in order to acquire new fans and how you get your fans/listeners to spend money with you. This section should include…
- An explanation of how you’ll promote your music to current fans and potential fans and how you gain exposure with your music.
- Information about your price points as it relates to each of your service offerings, products and merchandise items.
- Information about how you plan to distribute your music and make it available for people to purchase.
- A summary of your supply chain if applicable. This includes how you plan on producing your music, what professionals or studios you plan on working with, if you have a supply chain for creating your merchandise (check out my article about an easy way to create tons of merch items without having to stock an inventory here)
- An explanation of how you’ll market your services and products
The last bullet point on this list (how you’ll market your services and products) is the factor that will determine your financial growth. Each of these considerations is equally important. However, if you don’t address how you’ll market your services and products in order to earn an income, it will be very difficult to meet your financial goals. You have to be intentional about how you’ll earn your money and be willing to make these offers to your listeners, followers, and fans. In other words, simply putting your music “out there” is not enough. If you want to earn a significant income from your music endeavors, you have to start thinking like a business. This means actively engaging in sales and marketing efforts. These include…
- Hosting sales events for new merchandise items
- Promoting a special entertainment service like a singing telegram or a custom song
- Promoting your guitar lessons on your mailing list, website, and blog
- Encouraging your fans to buy your new album
- Encouraging your fans to host a house concert
- A campaign to get listeners to pre-order your upcoming release
Pro Tip: Check out our 30 Day New Release Promotions Bundle for an easy, plug-and-play way to market your upcoming release. It includes a pre-written press release, email, and pitch letter templates in addition to pre-written social media content for 30 days and more. It provides everything you need to market your upcoming release. Learn more about our 30 Day New Release Promotions Bundle here.
These are just a few examples to illustrate what actual sales and marketing initiatives look like. There are tons more ways to promote your products and services. Start paying attention to some of your favorite small businesses and how they promote their products and services. It might give you some ideas!
Organization and Management Team
This section lists who your main players are. In this section, you’ll list who facilitates the operations of your business starting with yourself at the top and then moving down the hierarchy.
- Who is the owner? Who is making high-level decisions for your business?
- Is there a management team?
- Is there a booking agent?
- Is there a PR person or team?
- Administrative professionals?
- List job responsibilities of each position.
- If you don’t have anyone currently functioning in these positions, that’s totally fine. You could choose to describe how these functions will be executed instead. For example, when you need a PR person, you’ll hire someone on a case-by-case basis. You could also use this opportunity to do a brief search for potential PR providers and list them in this section.
- You could also list potential mentors and music career coaches here as well.
Financial Outlook
This is the final section of your business plan. It describes the financial health of your music business. In this section, you’ll illustrate how your business is doing financially by providing historical financial data (if you’ve been doing business for a while) and/or financial projections for the future. When illustrating financial projections make sure it is realistic! This section includes…
- Income statements, Profit and Loss Statements, and cash flow data from the past three to five years.
- A snapshot of projected revenue and expenses for the next five years.
- A description of new potential business opportunities and how you plan to increase revenue in the future. Check out our article 18 Ways Musicians are Actually Making Money for ideas.
This section is very useful if you’re trying to apply for a business loan, business credit card, acquire investors, or show your business financials for other purposes such as taxes, insurance, rental/mortgage applications, or financial programs. It’s also great to see how you’ve done in the past and what you have to look forward to in the future.
Get the Music Business Plan Template for Musicians.
Free for members! Login or become a member below! Memberships start at just $5/month. Cancel anytime! Once you log in, you’ll see a link to the template in the exclusive members-only section below.
Preparing a business plan for your music business helps you build a solid blueprint to achieve success as a musician. It helps you create a map that will get you from starting with nothing to building your financial empire.
More Resources…
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Hi Anitra, great blog! I came across this article by watching your YT series on the same topic and wondered if by becoming a member, I could not only access the very helpful business plan template, but would it also include the August, Lately insert for contextual purposes? Or is the latter only accessible via your biweekly YT episodes?
Thanks Uasuf. The Music Business Plan Template that is available for members is pre-loaded will all of the August, Lately content. As of right now, the template only has the sections that have been covered in the YT series thus far. Let me know if you have any other questions and thanks for reading/watching!
I’m a member but it won’t let me access the music business plan template.
Hi Mars. I sent you a welcome email with all the information you need to access it along with all of your other perks. Did you get it?
I just had to be more patient! I’m good. You’re the best, thank you so much!
Ok great! Let me know if you have any questions or need help with anything!