How to write a business plan for your band

© 2019 David Verney
Published through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
The information within this book is for guidance purposes only. While you may follow the guidelines
and work towards succeeding in the music industry, it is important to know that the information
held within this book does not guarantee your success. Therefore, it is essential that you work hard
on your music and use the strategies that I suggest in this book. In the end, it will be your own
musical and entrepreneurial talent that guarantees your success. I am praying that you just might
succeed.
About the Author
David Verney is a producer and entrepreneur who was born in Coventry,
United Kingdom, in January, 1976. He is one half of Krannaken who are an
EDM duo.
David lives with his wife and son in Stourbridge, West Midlands on the west
side of Birmingham.
Ahead of you lies a lot of hard work. If you want to employ an experienced professional to
do this for you, please see my gig or order any other gig at…
https://www.fiverr.com/davidverney

Contents
Module One - Executive Summary
1.1 Business Summary
1.2 Business Aims
1.3 Financial Summary
Module Two - Elevator Pitch
2.1 Business Name
2.2 Strapline
2.3 Elevator Pitch
Module Three - Owner’s Background
3.1 Why Do You Want to Run Your Own Band?
3.2 Previous Work Experience
3.3 Qualifications and Education
3.4 Hobbies and Interests
3.5 Additional Information
Module Four - Products and Services
4.1 Description of Basic Service
4.2 Different Types of Product or Service
4.3 Start Dates For Sale of Service or Product
4.4 Additional Product/Service Information
Module Five - The Market
5.1 Description of Typical Fan
5.2 Geographic Locations of Fans
5.3 What Prompts Fans to Buy Your Music
5.4 Differences to Competitors
5.5 Any Past Success with Your Band
5.6 Any Current Fan Base

Module Six - Market Research
6.1 Key Findings From Desk Research
6.2 Key Findings From Field Research: Questionnaires etc
6.3 Key Findings From Field Research: Test Trading
Module Seven - Marketing Strategy
7.1 Online Marketing Strategies
7.2 Offline Marketing Strategies
Module Eight - Competitor Analysis
8.1 Table of Competitors
8.2 SWOT Analysis
8.3 Unique Selling Point
Module Nine - Operation and Logistics
9.1 Production
9.2 Delivery to Customers
9.3 Payment Methods and Terms
9.4 Suppliers
9.5 Premises
9.6 Equipment
9.7 Transport
9.8 Legal Requirements
9.9 Insurance Requirements
9.10 Management and Staff
Module Ten - Costs and Pricing Strategy
Module Eleven - Cashflow Forecasts
Module Twelve - Back Up Plan
12.1 Short Term Plan
12.2 Long Term Plan
12.3 Plan B
12.4 Plan B Continued
Learn More About Our Music and Promotional Services

Module One: Executive Summary
This module includes the executive summary, band or artist aims and financial
summary. Basically, this is where you introduce your act to the reader. What do you
want them to know about your music. Remember that this document will be read by
potential investors. Therefore, you have to put yourself and your band in the best
possible light. Make yourself and your business to sound almost too good.
However, it is essential that in the process of making yourself sound great, you do
not provide false or misleading information – even if your background is poor.
1.1 The Executive Summary
Your executive summary needs to state what your plan will cover. Namely, your plan will
cover each aspect of running your band. You need to name the most important aspects that
your plan will cover. In all cases, without exception, your plan will cover market research.
You need to mention here that your business plan covers both desk and field research. The
difference, and how you can carry out each of these is mentioned in the market research
module.
Please find yourself a pen and paper and note down the above information when applied to
your business.
As Krannaken, we aim to improve the lives not only of our fans, but also of other musicians.
Our own business plan goes into each aspect of how we aim to support other musicians. It
explains what services we are going to have available; what digital downloads and music
retail sites we are using and how we are going to build on that and open our offerings to
assist other musicians as best we can It includes what we are going to have available and it
points out the best demographics for our fans and our customers.
1.2 Business Aims
This is your opportunity to be ambitious. However, don’t go overboard. What albums or
EP’s do you aim to have available to purchase or download for your fans? How is your
music career going to improve the lives of your fans? How wide (geographically speaking)
do you want to cast your net? Do you want to only serve customers in your local area?
What are the good points that your business will provide to the local community? What do
you define as “good customer service” and what do you aim to have available to your
customers? What prices do you trade at?
For Krannaken, I can say…
We have a number of different products and services open to both musicians and fans.
Firstly, and most obviously, we are releasing music. Breakthrough EP will be released on 1st
April 2019 and will be available from all the top streaming and music retail websites. These
include Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple iTunes and around 50 others.
We are also going to have vinyl available which we sell to club DJ’s, mobile DJ’s and radio
DJ’s. This is how we can grow our inner circle of people who can spread our sound. From

listening to our music, it is hoped that listeners will investigate our music further and listen to
us or download our music from their favourite websites.
We are in the process of developing sample packs and templates available for our fans to
download from various sample sites. These will include some of the biggest and most used
sample providers on the internet.
I am offering services on Fiverr (https://www.fiverr.com/davidverney). These include things
like researching, writing and promoting original blog posts. I can produce social media kits
that include headers for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. I have various music promotional
services available for you. I can write a full business plan complete with desk and field
market research. In some cases, this can lead to fan acquisition. Click here for our Fiverr
profile.
Lastly, we are getting involved with some charitable causes. We are providing stems for a
drum and base album in aid of Shelter UK. This organisation help to improve the lives of
those who are unfortunate enough to be homeless or living in poverty in the United Kingdom.
Yes, there are poor people here too!
1.3 Financial Summary
What is your current bank balance? What do you hope to achieve financially by the end of
the first month? How about your first three, six or twelve months?
For Krannaken, I could say…
We hope to be making £1,091 per month by the end of May 2019. We are not doing so yet,
but thank you reader because you are helping us to achieve that goal.

Module Two: Elevator Pitch
This module is a continuation of your introduction. It includes your band or artist
name, strapline (or slogan) and elevator pitch.
2.1 Business Name
This is one of the easiest questions in the whole plan. What is the name of your business?
Krannaken is our band name.
2.2 Strapline
If you had to sum up your music in one sentence, making it sound as good as possible, what
would you say? You could have an alliteration such as “Singing Sexy Songs” so that the
three words have the same first letter. It could be something like “Giving it to the Man”. That
would be the slogan for the film, School Of Rock.
The Krannaken strapline could be something like “Making Beautiful Music”. To me, trance
music is beautiful.
2.3 Elevator Pitch
If you were in a lift with a potential fan and you had to say something between the time you
both got in the lift to the time one of you left the lift, what would you say? That is why it is
called an elevator pitch. It is because you have to make your business sound so impressive
that this potential fan, becomes a fan and is yearning for more after just spending a few
seconds in your company.
When doing an elevator pitch in real life, it is vital that you carry a bunch of business cards
with you so that you can pass one to your prospect before you part. As a musician, you
should keep a premium membership of Spotify and always carry your phone or tablet so that
they can be instantly hooked.
You can practice your elevator pitch in real human company by joining networking groups.
For musicians, there are some excellent Facebook groups. It is vital that you add something
of value before you think about sharing your music. Please see my book entitled How to
Write a Marketing Plan for Your Band. This will give you more ideas on different marketing
strategies for your music in 2019.

Module Three: Owner’s Background
The idea of this module is to tell the reader of the business plan as much about your
background and the background of other band members as you can. This includes
all your skills, experience, qualities, and hobbies and interests. This module can
really enable a potential investor to relate to you and/or your band members by
sharing similar interests. Therefore, you need to sell yourself to the reader. As you
do throughout the entire plan, you need to be ultra-positive. You need to be almost
too positive, but genuine and honest at the same time.
For instance, someone I worked with offered me a job purely on the fact that we both
support the same soccer team.
There are six elements in this module. They include…
✓ Why Do You Want to Run Your Own Band?
✓ Previous Work Experience
✓ Qualifications and Education
✓ Hobbies and Interests
✓ Additional Information
3.1 Why do you want to run your own band
I have a background in network marketing and MLM. It’s kind of like admitting to being an
alcoholic. I know, very few people see the money in that game and yet they spend so much
money chasing a mythical fortune.
In any good company, they will teach you about your purpose. They refer to it as their
“Why?”. Well, why do you want to run your own band? What is your one burning desire
behind your wish to run your band? What is it that you love about it? Is it the feeling of
being loved and adored by so many women (if you’re a man that is). I know The Village
People loved the fact that so many gay men loved them. However, for all we know that
feeling could have been what drove the band.
For Krannaken, I would say that our reason for making music is just that we have a passion
for making music. Other than that, I am not sure what else it would be. I am passionate
about my wife and son. Everhald is passionate about his wife and two sons. That is why we
don’t tour. We want to be at home to support our families. However, if you are a DJ, get in
contact with us as we want to share our music with the world through your sets.
3.2 Previous work experience
Have you worked in a band before? What gigging experience do you have? Have you ever
recorded music in a studio? Have you used computer software applications such as FL
Studio or Cubase? How many years have you been playing your instrument? How many
years have you been making music on your computer?

Both members of Krannaken have got extensive musical experience. Everhald has worked
with some major bands. These include UB40 and Musical Youth. He is on friendly terms
with the lead singer of Aswad. David has played guitar at various events and has recorded
guitar music at a recording studio twice a week for six months while doing a course in the
late 1990s.
Both members have qualifications in sound engineering. David played guitar for three album
releases at that studio in the late 1990s. Everhald has also played session guitar for
recording studio work.
Everhald has used Cubase since it was first released and has updated his software
consistently when new editions of Cubase have been released. David uses FL Studio and
has also updated his editions as new versions have been released. The good thing with FL
Studio is that when you have bought the Producer Edition, all further editions are free of
charge. Therefore, Everhald has made music with his computer for many years and David
has been making music with his computer since 2013.
Between them, David and Everhald have over 50 years of experience with the guitar. David
started to play guitar back in 1994 and Everhald started to play guitar in the early 1980s.
Although the primary instrument for both band members is the guitar, they can both play
keyboards and David plays the harmonica and bodhran too.
3.3 Qualifications and experience
Only list qualifications that are relevant. For instance, for Krannaken we can say that
Everhald holds a degree in teaching music. David holds a Foundation Degree in Creative
Music Production. David also holds a Certificate of Higher Education in Business Planning.
It is important that you also list your business qualifications because being a musician and
making it in today’s music industry is as much about being a good businessman as it is
about how good a musician I am. I tend to make most of the business decisions for
Krannaken, but I always run important decisions past Everhald before I agree to anything. It
is important that we are both singing from the same hymn sheet (excuse the pun).
3.4 Hobbies and interests
What hobbies and interests do you hold outside of music? This helps the investor to relate
to you if they hold similar interests. If you say you support a sporting team, it could go
against you if the investor supports an arch rival. For instance, I support Tottenham Hotspur
in football, but if the potential investor was an Arsenal fan, they may be discouraged from
continuing. I know, this is silly, but there is a chance that the investor will leave it there. The
same goes with faith. I am a Christian. Some people do not want to do business with a
Christian. Again, this is a little silly, but there is a chance that people will consider you to be
a Bible-basher and a God-botherer and decline any chance of investing in your business.
3.5 Additional information
Although, it could go against us in some situations, it would be a good idea to mention any
disabilities here. For instance, with Krannaken, we can say that both members of the band have a
visual impairment. Everhald is registered blind, while I am partially sighted. This means that we are
unable to drive, yet it heightens the quality of our music and therefore, they can make better music.

Module Four: Products and Services
In this module, we go into great depth about your product. What are it’s features and benefits.
Always remember that it is the benefits that people purchase. In the old days when we bought CD’s,
we did not buy the CD because it looks nice and shiny and was a round piece of metallic plastic. We
bought it because it stored some music that we really wanted to listen to. The music could bring on
some emotions that we wanted to feel. For instance, back in the day, I bought a compilation trance
album on CD. I would sit listening to it for hours. I once blasted it as loud as my PC speakers could
go and some people thought there was a party going on. I bought it because the music made me
feel great. Feeling great was the benefit that I gained from purchasing the CD. It is the same with
any product or service.
We describe the basic product or service and the different types of product and/or service. We
discuss the start dates for sale of the product or service. If we started the sale of this product or
service several months or years ago, we mention that. We then go on to mention any further
additional product or service information.
4.1 Description of basic service
Your basic product is your music. It is essential that you have your own sound that is different from
other bands. This is essential to keep people listening to your music. Many people want to sound
like one of the bigger artists or bands. We see the importance of generating our own sound. If
people want to listen to Armin Van Buuren, they do not listen to Ben and Jerry because they sound
like Armin Van Buuren. They listen to Armin Van Buuren. Therefore, if people want to listen to
Krannaken, they can listen to Krannaken.
4.2 Different types of product or service
Although your music is your primary product or service, there are other products you will want to
sell. For instance, if you are gigging somewhere, you need to sell your event to the venue. So if
you’re playing a gig at the Fox and Goose public house, you are going to want to confirm that gig and
agree on payment terms (namely how much you will charge the venue for your event and when they
will have to pay you).
You can also sell merchandise. You can ask the bar staff if they can sell the gear for you while you
play. You can then announce to your audience that your T-shirts and other merchandise can be
bought at the bar. It is good to pay the bar staff something to sell your merchandise.
If you make music with your computer, do you sell samples, one-shots and loops? Do you sell
templates for different digital audio workstations?
Do you teach your instrument to people who want to learn to play the instrument? If you play guitar
in your band, do you supplement your income by offering lessons to students of the guitar?
Do you use Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/) to gain subscribers to your music? What do you
provide to your subscribers on Patreon?
As Krannaken, we can sell vinyl to DJ’s who want to play our music in their sets. This is a great way
to gain publicity. If the audience want to know who the music is produced by, they will be able to
purchase our music online or listen to us on their favourite streaming website.
We also provide samples and templates that can be used in a wide range of genres.

4.3 Start dates for sale of service or product
When was or is your first album or EP to be released? When are your other products going
to be available? If you are going on tour, what date do tickets go on sale? These are the
questions that need to be answered here.
As a duo, our first EP was released on 19th
October last year. Our second EP is due for
release on 1st
April 2019. We are making some great music now and the collaboration
between Everhald and I is a great one. We write some incredible music.
4.4 Additional product/service information
This is your chance to talk more about further selling points. Here is where we can mention that
both members of Krannaken are both visually impaired. This adds more interest to our music as
people can hear what can be produced by two men with a visual disability.

Module Five: The Market
In this module, the reader wants to know who your fans are, where they are geographically
located, what the typical demographics are, what prompts your fans to buy or listen to your
music, what differences there are to your competitors. You will be able to mention any past
successes. This includes your current fan base and finally you can tell the potential investor
anything they wish to know about your band.
5.1 Description of typical fan
There are several websites that can tell you about your typical fans. As a music business,
you should have a website, or at least be visible on social media. The larger your online
following is, the more precise you will be able to be when describing your fans. You will be
able to answer questions such as…
➢ What age is your typical fan?
➢ Where do they live?
➢ What is their income level?
➢ What do they for work if they are older than school age?
➢ What level of education did they achieve?
➢ What other websites do they use regularly?
➢ What other hobbies and interests do they have?
➢ What is their gender?
➢ Do they associate with any particular religion?
➢ What keywords your fans used to search for your website?
Therefore, you can target exactly the people who follow your music. This allows for greater
success and less expenditure when it comes to Facebook advertising.
Websites and apps that can show you this information include…
✓ Google Analytics https://analytics.google.com
✓ Facebook’s Audience Insights https://www.facebook.com/ads/audience-insights/
✓ Alexa https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/
If you have a WordPress website, you can install the Google Analytics app. There are
actually a number of apps that work with Google Analytics. Some show you the information
in your WordPress dashboard. Others will require you to visit Google Analytics and login to
see your statistics.
Facebook’s Audience Insights can convey information to you on the people who like your
page, people who have a particular interest or occupation.
Alexa is known for showing how popular a website is. With Alexa, you have to type a certain
website address into the search bar. For instance, you could type Udemy.com or something
like that. If I wanted to find information on our website, I could put “Krannaken.net” into the
search bar. However, with Alexa, if your site is too small, it will not be able to give you a
whole lot in the way of information. It is worth a try though. If you can type in your website,
it will provide you with information like how your website is performing over a certain time
period.

5.2 Geographic locations of fans
One of the most important statistics is the geographic location of your fans. Where do they
live? This information will help you to plan your tour. If you have more fans in Birmingham,
you will be better to play at the Birmingham NEC. If you have a lot of fans in London, you
can play at venues like Wembley Arena, the Royal Albert Hall or Brixton Academy.
If you’re in America and you have a lot of fans in New York, you may be able to play at
Central Park.
It can give you similar websites and let you know who your biggest competitors are. For
instance, I did a search for Udemy on Alexa. It tells me that Udemy’s biggest competitors
are Skillshare and Lynda.com. I own something like 170 Udemy courses, but I am also a
fully paid member of Skillshare.
5.3 What Prompts Your Fans to Buy Your Music?
As I said previously, your unique selling point is your music. Bryan Adams wrote and
performed the original of Heaven or Summer of ’69. Bon Jovi did Living on A Prayer.
Therefore, Bryan’s version of Summer of ’69 is his unique selling point. With Jon and the
boys, Living on a Prayer is their unique selling point.
With Krannaken, Promenade is our unique selling point. We could say that our visual
disabilities are our unique selling point. However, people don’t buy the music for us, they
buy it because they like the music. It goes back to the fact that people buy benefits and not
products. In many ways, we are not the benefits of our products, the benefits are the songs
that we write.
5.4 Difference to Competitors
Just as your unique selling point is your music and being the origin of that music, the
difference you have to your competitor is that you have your song and if your fans like your
music, you have the competitive edge.
We recently did a cover of a synth-pop track from the late 70s. This was Popcorn and is
available on our new EP to be released on 1st
April 2019. However, just as that was popular
synth, Armin Van Buuren could be described as popular trance. There are a lot of vocals in
his music. Our music does not need vocals and we steer clear of using them. We do it for
the music and we are not poets.
5.5 Any Past Successes
Module Five goes on to talk about the past successes. Our successes include three number
one songs in our local Reverbnation chart. One of these was at Christmas in 2017. Not
many people can say they achieved a Christmas Number One.

5.6 Any Current Fan Base
As I have mentioned before, your business acumen comes into play in your music career,
just as much as your musical talent. If you are in business, you need a customer base. In
this type of business, your customer base are your fans. They are the ones who purchase
your music, your gig tickets, your merchandise and anything else that you want them to
purchase.
When I was a boy, I was a mad Roxette fan. I had their tour T-shirts. I had all their albums
in every format. I had Roxette posters all over my bedroom. I had vinyl autographed by
Marie (I think I still have that somewhere). Heck, I was even learning Swedish. Talk about a
nutter, right! Well, you too could generate this kind of devotion from your fans.
As a businessman, it is important that you generate publicity for yourself and your band
wherever you can – but make it the right kind of publicity. Don’t do anything you may later
regret. We all have regrets, but try and keep them outside your professional life.
If you are sending music to a record label for them to consider whether or not to invest in
your music, it is important that you let them know how many fans you have. How big is your
email list? How many Facebook fans, Twitter followers, YouTube subscribers etc do you
have?
If you have any further information related to your market, then enter it here.

Module Six: Market Research
6.1 Key findings from desk research
Desk research is the facts, figures and statistics that you can find from sitting behind a desk.
That is why it is called desk research. With the evolving technology, this kind of research is
easier to perform than ever before.
Facebook’s Audience Insights, and the information you can get from Alexa (see module five)
are included in this kind of market research. With our music, we can do a search for
everyone who likes instrumental trance. To target even closer to our goal, we can search for
everyone who likes Chicane or everyone who likes Café Del Mar by Energy 52. We can
then target the demographics we find in our Facebook advertising for future success.
6.2 Key findings from field research: Questionnaires etc
You can use sites like Feedier (https://feedier.com/) to create a questionnaire. It is essential
that you know exactly what information you need to gain before you do this questionnaire.
You can then define your needs when you are configuring the questions. If you have any
problems with this, reach out to me. I am here to help. Just order one of my fiverr gigs at
https://www.fiverr.com/davidverney I can do the whole plan for you or just the market
research.
6.3 Key findings from field research: Test trading
Test trading will give you a good idea of who your fans are. In 6.2 we asked fans a few
questions, but nothing tells you whether they are willing to open their pockets as well as their
mouths better than test trading. If people are prepared to part with cash in return for your
music, then you are onto a winner. Test trading will tell you who your real fans are.
Have you tested the market in any other way. If so, you can show the reader here. Any
information you can possibly find, would be useful for a potential investor.

Module Seven: Marketing Strategy
This can be split into two parts. They are online and offline. What you do for your music largely
depends on what kind of music you make, but here are some ideas…
7.1 Online marketing strategies
There are plenty of things you can do online. You can use Patreon.com (https://www.patreon.com/)
to bring in a regular contribution of money from your fans. Fans will pay a set amount each month
to be subscribed to your band on this platform. For this payment, you have to give your Patreon
fans an exclusive benefit that they won’t get anywhere else. For our music, we could give fans the
link for unlisted videos on YouTube and only make them public when the music is released on major
streaming and retail websites.
It is a good idea to submit work to as many playlists as possible through Soundplate
(https://soundplate.com). If you send music to the right lists, they can really help to boost the
numbers of Spotify listeners to your music. However, it is up to the playlist curators if they want to
use your music. I have been a Playlist curator on this site myself and probably around 60% of the
music that I have been sent has been unsuitable for the list I am building. You have to ask yourself if
people have any idea of the right music jargon when they read your terms. My list was for trance
music covers of popular songs and I got a whole load of stuff that was original to the musician who
sent it to me, but it was not a cover and most of it was not even trance music.
There are also sites like StoryAmp (https://www.storyamp.com/) and SubmitHub
(https://www.submithub.com/), but both these sites are again, down to the discretion of the
journalist and your tracks have to be perfect to be considered. A lot of these people have to use
these websites to promote their own companies. I have had emails saying, “We love your music, but
you have to pay x amount to be considered for promotion by our company”. Some have even been
very rude and literally made up excuses for not playing our music. They have said things like, “I
don’t like the FX you use” and things like that.
Another great site for promoting your music is Hypeddit.com (https://hypeddit.com). This allows
other music fans to listen to your music and then if they want to, they can follow you on a social
channel or channels that were pre-defined by you. This can be a fantastic way of building your
following on all the different social sites.
As we produce electronic dance music, we can also make an extra income by selling samples, one-
shots and loops, and also by selling templates. There are a number of different websites who will
accept these files and who will enable you to be paid every time someone purchases these files.
It is important that you use the major channels for your music. On Facebook, you should use
different Facebook groups to promote your music. It is important that you are a proper and valuable
member of the group and not just a link poster (spammer). You can use the musicians groups if you
have a band. If you produce dance music, as we do, we can join DJ groups and promote our music to
DJ’s. Whatever genre of music you make, it is vital that you join in with the discussions and get to
know other members. When it comes time to share your music with the other members of the
group, you will find greater success because you are a familiar face in the group.
When I have finished this book about preparing a business plan, my aim is to write another on
writing a marketing plan. I aim to cover all marketing strategies in that book. If you want to support
my work further, please look out for that book on Amazon Kindle, on Fiverr or wherever you picked

this book up from. It is my wish to use each channel that I used for this book. Probably, more
people will find it on Amazon Kindle so go to Amazon and type in my name, (David Verney).
Just before I leave 7.1, I want to mention what Armin Van Buuren does to guarantee his success.
Those of you who know of Armin Van Buuren, will know that he is one of the most popular DJ’s in
history. Every week, Armin puts a show together. He has video cameras in his studio in Amsterdam
and he records a show called A State of Trance. He does that from his studio at home. He will travel
too, but most of the time when his music is heard is when he is playing it in Amsterdam. If like
Everhald and I, you want to stay in your home area with your families, it is an excellent idea to play
music live on your YouTube channel. You can do the same with your band. If you are a DJ, you can
do the same there too.
7.2 Offline marketing strategies
There are a few that I can mention here. However, as we don’t perform, the brunt of our marketing
strategies are online.
One of the best ways to make extra money is through merchandise. It is important that you have
some merchandise to sell at every gig. Do you have a CD, some T-shirts, hoodies, you name it.
There is a lot of different merchandise that you can provide to your fans.
A great way to sell merchandise is to give it to the bar staff to sell for you when people order drinks
etc. You announce as often as you feel you should that the merchandise is available behind the bar
and then it’s just about how much is sold and how much money you can make.
At the end of the night, you should look to the venue for feedback. Did they enjoy the gig? Did they
make good money from the gig? Would they book you again? Now, another important question is:
Do you know of anyone else who wants to hire a band like ours? These questions can enable you to
develop your business exponentially.
If you produce dance music, and have become familiar with members of Facebook groups, you can
send vinyl to DJ’s who will be happy to play your music. This can put your name on the map. If your
music is good enough, people will ask, “Who did that track”. The DJ will tell them and the rest is
history.
Lastly for this module, don’t forget to list yourself in your local classifieds directory if you want to
find gigging opportunities in the area that the classifieds directory serves. This can be an excellent
starting place and you can find opportunities for celebratory events like weddings, special birthdays
etc.

Module Eight: Competitor Analysis
8.1 Table of competitors
In this module, we investigate the competition. Whatever genre you are in, you will have
competitors. However, it could be counted as slightly odd because in the music industry,
different bands and artists will promote other bands and artists in their niche. There is real
camaraderie going on, even though we are competing for popularity with fans.
Back in the mid to late 1980s, there was a rivalry between two rock bands, Europe and Bon
Jovi. While Europe had tracks like The Final Countdown, Rock the Night and Carrie, Bon
Jovi had Living on a Prayer, You Give Love a Bad Name and Bed of Roses. Both bands
were big, but fans considered that either you were on the side of Europe, or you were on
Bon Jovi’s side. Needless to say, Bon Jovi had a bigger future than Europe. They were
bringing out hits well into the 90s and 00s.
In dance music, Armin Van Buuren is a rival to Above and Beyond and also John 00
Fleming. While the Europe/Bon Jovi rivalry was either-or, it is perfectly fine to be a fan of all
of these dance music acts. Having said that, it’s perfectly fine to be a fan of both Bon Jovi
and Europe, but an arch rivalry is how a lot of people saw it.
In 8.1, you need to compose a list of bands or artists who you class as your rivals. These
are people who stand between you and stardom. Who else in your area and genre could be
hired for gigs in your place? Who else in your genre has music to sell? Who else has merch
to sell? What was the name of the band on the boy’s T-shirt who you passed in the street?
If you’re a metal band, who was wearing that Metallica shirt or hoodie? You need to make a
note and mention those bands in 8.1.
8.2 SWOT Analysis
When I first heard of the SWOT Analysis, I thought of a video game that I used to play on the
Commodore 64 back in the 1980s. It was all about taking a Swat Team down a road and
shooting anything that moved. Although that was a fun game, it had nothing to do with the
SWOT Analysis that is discussed in 8.2.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
Strengths: What strengths do you have that you can build on? What is your speciality?
What are the best things about your band? Strengths are the good things about your
business that are well within your control.
Weaknesses: What are your main weaknesses? What do you need to improve? Where are
your drawbacks? Where can you improve to the point that you are better than the
competition? Weaknesses are the aspects of your business that are weak and it is within
your power to improve on them.
Opportunities: What opportunities are there for you to exploit the market? Can you provide
anything extra if it is a customer’s birthday? Can you spot the trends and work to meet them
so that you can use them to the benefit of your business? Opportunities tend to be things

that are outside your control, but that you can do something to benefit your business about.
It is like Christmas coming around. It is outside your control to determine when Christmas
will come. It is coming in time whether you like it or not – and you can’t control time.
However, you can do something to benefit your business by it. You could put on a concert
for Christmas. You could equip yourselves with merchandise that says, “Merry Christmas
from Krannaken” or whatever your band is called.
Threats: These are the negative things that are outside your control. If there is a terrorist
attack in the area where you are holding a gig, people will not turn up because they may be
frightened. Therefore, your band would suffer because fewer people would go to the gig.
It is important that you do SWOT Analysis for both your band and also for your competitors.
This may point an area where you can exploit the market to your own benefit.
8.3 Unique selling point
As already mentioned, your unique selling point is your music that is unique to you. As an EDM
artist, I need to make my own sound. For instance, back in the late 1990s, there was a band called
Darude who produced a track called Sandstorm. This track had it’s own sound. It was kind of like a
motorcycle engine crossed with the old BBC Sports results machine, the Vidiprinter. The Vidiprinter
made this strange kind of printer sound.
Your USP (unique selling point) is either the sound you make or the music you play. As I mentioned
before Bon Jovi’s USP is music like Living on a Prayer and other bands are known for their music.
Seal is known for Killer. Tasmin Archer is known for Sleeping Satellite. Billy Idol is known for his
aggressive singing and also for songs like Rebel Yell and White Wedding.
What are you known for? You need to mention it in this part of the business plan.
As Krannaken, we are known for Lost Youth. This was the first track that we released as a duo.
However, when we left our label, Lost Youth was taken down so at the time of writing this, we are
planning to rerelease it with RouteNote (https://routenote.com/referral/2f7964f8) who can publish it
for free and distribute it to around 50 online stores and streaming services including Spotify, iTunes,
Amazon Music etc. Please note that the link is an affiliate link and I will take a tiny cut of the
proceeds from album/EP sales and streaming of your work.

Module Nine: Operation and Logistics
In this module, we are going to look at all of the capital requirements. What is the production
and distribution process? We are going to look at how you are going to get paid. Where are
you going to get your equipment from? What do you require in the way of travel for gigging
etc? What laws are you subject to as a recording artist? What insurance do you need? We
are going to look at your personnel and what backing staff you require.
9.1 Production
Here you have to state the artistic process for building your music. Who writes the material?
Do you use lyrics? If so, who writes the lyrics? Who plays what instruments? Whose
responsibility is it to record the music? Who plays with the sound? Do you use a home
studio set up or do you go the “old school” route and use a professional recording studio?
As a producer of electronic dance music, I find that most of my time is taken up in front of my
computer trying to figure out different tracks. I will usually start with a drum beat. I will then
flesh out the bass and melody before I get to the FX. Once I have all these components
together and have arranged them in my track, I turn to the effects. I might filter the sounds,
add delay and reverb, play with EQ, change velocity levels etc. When I am happy with a
track, I send it to Everhald who makes a few mixes with the components, polishes it up and
masters it. He then sends it back to me and I distribute it through RouteNote
(https://routenote.com/referral/2f7964f8) along with the artwork and I decide on a pre-order date,
publishing date and finally I decide which countries, regions and stores it will be distributed
through.
9.2 Delivery to fans
How do you distribute your music to your fans? Do you just use digital distribution? Do you
sell CD’s? How is your music delivered? I am unsure of whether this happens today, but
when I was a teenager, popularity was sold to the music shops in bulk. What I mean is that
chart positions did not go by how many unit sales occurred? It was all about how much
stock the record shops bought of that particular release.
Therefore, when 100,000 units were bought by Virgin Megastore, the chart position was
based on those 100,000 copies. It was not that Virgin bought 100,000 units, but only 20%
sold. Twenty thousand copies wasn’t the figure the chart position was based on. It was
based on the 100,000 copies sold to the shop.
9.3 Payment methods and terms
The music industry is notorious for holding back money that is due to artists. With many
distribution channels, they only pay you when your music hits a certain threshold and even
then it’s not a lot. Apparently, to meet the minimum wage on Spotify, your fans need to
listen to 80,000 tracks per month. That is a lot of listening, but it is achievable if you can use
the right marketing methods.

If you are gigging, it is often that you are paid a deposit to play a gig. You are then paid the
rest after the gig. With some good fortune, you are paid a nice amount for merchandise
sales too.
9.4 Suppliers
Where do you buy your equipment from? Do you shop online or do you go to an instrument
shop? Where do you buy your recording equipment? Why do you use those particular
shops or websites? What influences your decision to buy from these stores? You need to
explain where you get this equipment in 9.4.
9.5 Premises
Where do you practice your music? Do you have a home or a bedroom studio? How do you
collaborate with other musicians? Do you each have your own home studio? How much is
your home studio worth?
For my University work, I had to work with musicians around the world to build a track. It
was a 12 bar blues because anyone who is anyone knows the structure of the 12 bar. I
worked with a guitarist from Romania, a drummer from the United States and a singer from
the United States. I actually hired the guitarist twice for different projects. However, when
you take it that I live in the United Kingdom and I organised the whole track through Fiverr,
you can understand that it was an incredible project to have all these different musicians
around the world.
9.6 Equipment
What instruments are used in your music? Why do you use that make and model of
instrument? Do you use an Apple Mac or a PC? What digital audio workstation do you use
to record your music? What hardware do you use? Do you use a midi keyboard or guitar?
Do you use hardware foot pedals or software plugins for effects? What influences your
decision to use this equipment?
9.7 Transport
How do you get from your location to the concert venue? If you fly, what influences your
buying decision to fly with that particular airline? If you have a van, what influences your
decision to use that vehicle? How much petrol do you use? How much money do you
spend on travel? How much time do allow for travel? What time constraints does travel
pose from one venue to another? How much time do you allow yourself for setting up the
venue and doing the necessary sound checks?
9.8 Legal requirements
What are the legal requirements for your music? Are you a member of the Performing
Rights Society or any similar organisation? Is your venue in a residential area? Can sound

carry easily to local homes? Do you have a good lawyer on hand to assist if you have any
issues that need advice on law? It is vital that you do not plagiarise anyone else’s music.
For those of you who are old enough to remember, Vanilla Ice plagiarised one of Queen’s
songs and he was sued as a result. If you want to use a sound you borrowed from someone
else’s track, you need to reference them. It is the same with any publication. If you are a
writer, you need to reference other books if you use any of their wording or ideas.
9.9 Insurance requirements
Do you have insurance to protect against theft of equipment? What are the terms of those
policies? Can you quickly and easily get replacements? Do you have insurance to protect
against damage to your equipment? You also need to have insurance for your transport. In
the United Kingdom it is illegal not to have insurance for your motor vehicle.
9.10 Management and staff
Do you employ any staff to assist with either getting from place to place, setting up your
gear, booking and managerial decisions? You need to mention everyone who you pay to
assist in the day to day running of your band here.
Any other information to do with the operation and logistics of your business has to go here.

Module Ten: Costs and Pricing Strategy
What are your costs. Take into consideration all the running costs for the band and also
your own take home pay. You need to allow for every little expense you, your band and your
backing staff have before you set the price for the venues that you will play at.
Shortly before his death, Michael Jackson was charging $1,000,000 per gig. Fair enough,
he had to pay to live, but out of that money would come things like transportation of all your
gear from the United States to the United Kingdom etc. Sure enough, it was an attractive
fee for him, but there was a lot that he had to pay for. There were a lot of road crew and
Michael had to pay for the expenses of all his road and technical staff.
If you only sell digital download music tracks, you will know that the price is determined by
the store who work with you. However, you are allowed to say whether you want it to be set
at the standard price, the lowest price or the highest price that the store have.
However, if you can get physical copies of your CD’s to sell at gigs, you would have more
say over how much this costs. This also goes for all kinds of merchandise. If you want to
set it at a certain price level, you can stipulate that before it goes on sale.

Module Eleven: Cashflow Forecasts
This is one of the most important elements in your business plan. Your Cashflow Forecast
will show you whether or not your band and your plans for your band make financial sense.
Here is a list of everything that you should remember in your expenditure…
✓ Premises
✓ Travel and Motor
✓ Telephone
✓ Room/Studio Hire
✓ Rehearsal Costs
✓ Music CD’s and DVD’s
✓ Audio Equipment
✓ Instruments
✓ Advertising and Publicity
✓ Competition and Audition Fees
✓ Agent Fees
✓ Accountancy Fees
✓ Solicitor Fees
✓ Subscriptions/Memberships
✓ Bank Charges
✓ Bank Interest
✓ Website Costs (Including Email Marketing)
✓ Wages
✓ Social Media
The income you include in your Cashflow Forecast should include…
✓ Album Sales
✓ EP Sales
✓ Merch Sales
✓ Tuition Sales
✓ Fees from subscribers on Patreon etc
✓ YouTube subscription fees (if you have enough YouTube subscribers)
✓ Tips
✓ Sample Packs
✓ Concert Ticket Sales
✓ Government / State Benefits (Child Benefit etc)
✓ Stocks and Shares
✓ Pensions
The Cashflow Forecast should predict your income and expenditure three years into the
future. You should use a spreadsheet program for this.

Module Twelve: Back Up Plan
If things do not go according to the plan you have set out in this document, you need to have
a back up plan. This will enable you to know that there is something you can do in the future
to generate finance and so that you don’t feel totally discouraged and dejected.
This section includes your short and long-term goals within your band and your Plan B if
your band breaks up and things do not work out.
12.1 Short Term Plan
Your short-term plan should apply to the next six months. What are your goals for the next
six months? Where would you like to be by the end of it? What do you want to have
accomplished? How much money would you like to have made?
12.2 Long Term Plan
Ask yourself the same questions as you asked yourself in 12.1, but apply them to where you
would like to be in 3, 5 and 10 years from now. Be as positive as you possibly can.
Remember that there is a lot of power in positive thought. If you haven’t already, I
recommend that you watch The Secret. You can get it on YouTube here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3isjlvccc0 It is important that you watch this film over
and over. You will find it benefits your life immeasurably.
12.3 Plan B
If the plan you have set out does not materialise, you may be able to salvage one or more
aspects of your business to work with in the future. Maybe you lose too much money by
touring around. As in the Armin Van Buuren example, you may find it more financially
worthwhile to have your own YouTube channel and operate from your own basement or
garage with video cameras and using YouTube Live. Maybe you want to forget about
gigging altogether. You might just like to create samples and templates. Use this space to
introduce to your investor what you might like to do if things don’t work out.
12.4 Plan B Continued
Go into more detail about what you might like to do if things do not go to plan, here.
Learn More about our music and promotional services…
If you feel that you would like someone to handle the development of your business plan for
you, please contact me through Fiverr at https://www.fiverr.com/davidverney
Please feel free to look up Krannaken on Spotify.
Like our fan page here - https://www.facebook.com/Krannaken

How to write a business plan for your band

How to write a business plan for your band

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