Music Business Plan

As an A&R Consultant with Lisa Davis Music Management, I have been able to take a lot of the material that I have learned over the past year during my program and share it with the Independent Producers and Artists that I have the opportunity to work with on a daily basis. Often when I speak with these artists they have no plan in place as to how they are going to market their music, or a budget to record, mix and package their music. This proves just how important a business plan can be no matter what field.

Well what is a business plan, what is it used for and what necessary components are needed for a successful business plan? With the help of eleetmusic.com and musicthinktank.com, I have put together the essentials any music entrepreneur (artist, producer, etc) will need to put together their business plan.

A business plan is an essential roadmap for business success. A business plan is used to: 1) Acquire funding from a financial institution or private investor or 2) How you will run your business on a daily, monthly and yearly basis.

The Elements of a good plan are:

Executive Summary:
This is summary of who you are, what you sell and what you want.


Products and Services:
Okay, so it seem obvious that you're an artist and product is your music, but there are so many other sources of income for artists today through ringtones, merchandise, songwriting etc, be sure you explore those other sources of income.

Marketing Plan:
"I am going to push my music on the internet and the streets", this often how many artists tell me how they plan on getting their music out. That is not a marketing plan, I believe the marketing section should cover who, what, where, when and how.

Management Plan:
Your team is only as strong as its weakest link. You may not have a manager, attorney or business manager, but for the people that are apart of your team, this where you would explain in detail everyone's roles and responsibilities.


Financial Plan:
This is a key component if you are looking for an investor or even family to invest in your project. How many albums or merchandise need to be sold to cover the costs of creating the project? How will you be able to pay back your investors and turn profit? These are things to be covered in the Financial Plan of your business plan.

This is just an overview of the components needed to write a music business plan. You can download a template here.