MUSIC FINANCE

Jennifer Christiansen Research for Intro to Music Industry March 12, 2012

What is Music Finance?

Meshing together the music industry and finance.

Having complete control on all the finances and where the money is going to be spent.

While at the same time creating organized financial statements; balance sheets, stockholders equity, cash flow and a extensive journal of all your expenses.

The Music Industry is a strong field and is constantly growing with the help of new creations such as

With the rapidly growing technological advances the finances of a band also increases. There is more pressure put on these bands and new stresses. This is why music finance is such an important topic.

Also why my role in the semester project is so integral.

Keeping track of the Budgets!

There are many things that can rack up a pretty large receipt at the end of the day including;

Recording

Publishing

Networking

Daily band expenses

Equipment

and last but definitely not least

Touring

Recording

Recording can cost a lot of money.

As much as someone like the financial manager/ business manager can plan for the recording costs once your in the studio time could fly by and each hour you didn’t plan for can be hundreds of dollars out of your budget!

A trend that we see now is our generation is heading more in the direction of home recording or having a friend record their band, which will definitely help keep costs down (Turner 2006).

Touringcanmake or break a band.

Touring expenses can include a number of things but the biggest are; transportation, food, your “people”, equipment repair and the list goes on.

According to Peters (2009) the current economic times have changed the direction in which some artist tour, heading in the campus show direction. Any way to save some money right?

It is hard for a band to even break even on a tour let alone make a

significant profit.

Merchandise

In our semester project or in a real band merchandise is a resource that can generate a lot of revenue if you know how to approach it.

Finding the right vendor, cheap materials, single colors are all things that you can do to make sure that t-shirt costs stay relatively low.

Touring you could run into some problems such as hall fees. Which is when the venue could charge you to sell your own merchandise in their facility.

Expect the unexpected! The financial planner always has to make sure

that they are ready for anything. Say your touring and your van breaks down, or maybe a guitar breaks you need to be able to find the money to fix these problems.

Thinking on your feet is important but also knowing the boundaries at all time is

even more important.

Tip #1

Stay Organized!

To keep track of the budget you first need

to know what the budget is and know

how to stay within it.

Tip #2 Keeping all your records and financial journals organized is probably the most important things you could do.

HAVE FUN!

You most likely love music and have some sort of interest in finance so have fun with it!

Find that balance and roll with it

And STAY on your toes!

Tip #3

Keep track of the budget in an organized way

Citations

Peters, M. (2009, Oct 17). Touring - universities & booking agents: Class

acts - campus concerts adjust to tight economy. Billboard - the

International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home

Entertainment, 121(41), 23-23.

Turner, M. (2006, Recording: Recording Q & A. Canadian Musician, 28(6), 59-59.

Jennifer Christiansen Loyola UniversityMusic Industry Studies jchristiansen10@gmail.com