ARTIST:ENTREPRENEUR DAY

FAC + CMU present Artist:Entrepreneur Day

Building a career and business around your music.




The Artist:Entrepreneur programme from the Featured Artists Coalition and CMU:DIY is a series of artist-led events that provide important information and practical advice to help early-stage artists build a long-term career and sustainable business around their music.

We stage the full Artist:Entrepreneur Day across the UK in partnership with local venues, festivals and educational organisations. Check out the running order of the A:E Day – section by section – below. Click here to find out about upcoming editions of the A:E Day.



01: Welcome
Meet your hosts: a team of artist entrepreneurs from the Featured Artists Coalition who will let you see inside their artist businesses throughout the day. Find out about their music, their brand, their business, and their career to date.



02: Making Money From Your Music
How can you make money out of music? Find out with CMU:DIY’s A:E Guide to music revenues, and learn about how artists generate income by creating and administering intellectual property, staging live performance and monetising the fan relationship.



03: Making Money From Your Songs And Recordings
First we put the focus on copyright. If you’ve written a song, you have created a copyright. If you’ve recorded a track, you have created another copyright. Welcome to the copyright business!

Get CMU:DIY’s A:E Guide to music copyright. Then watch each of our FAC artist entrepreneurs dissect one of their tracks. What rights are contained within? Who owns those rights? Where are those tracks streaming? How did they make money?

PLUS find out what PRS For Music and PPL do and get practical tips on how you can protect your music and earn money via these two organisations.



04: Making Money From Your Shows
Next, live. For many established artists today touring is the key revenue stream, though at the outset gigging is as much about marketing as it is money. Getting your live career going requires a little experimentation, both creatively and commercially.

CMU:DIY provides a speedy overview of the live music industry. Then find out more about the live careers of each of our FAC artist entrepreneurs as they talk us through a recent gig or tour.

Who promoted the show? Who laid out the cash? Who sold the tickets? What happened on stage? Did the artist make any money? Did they sign up any more fans? And why is stagecraft such an important part of both your artistic development and ensuring your artist brand stands out? Find out what our artist entrepreneurs did and what they learned.

PLUS hear from people working in the live sector on the ins and outs of putting on shows and getting gigs.



05: Building Your Brand & Fan Business
Building your artist business means creating a brand and finding a fanbase. Then you’ll have an audience to stream your music and buy your tickets. Plus, you’ll be able to start selling stuff directly to your fanbase, at gigs and online. But what do we even mean by a ‘brand’? At what point do musicians have to get visual? Which social media and digital channels matter?

CMU:DIY talks you through the basics, and then each of our FAC artist entrepreneurs will reveal how they developed their individual brand and visual identity. Did they collaborate with designers and photographers? What channels did they employ? What direct-to-fan platforms do they use and why?

PLUS hear from experts on how to build a brand, grow a fanbase and reach out to the media. And learn about the importance of streaming service playlists in driving listening, and how the music industry pitches tracks to the playlist curators. 



06: Choosing Your Business Partners
As your artist business grows, you’ll need to start working with other people – and companies – to unlock all your potential revenue streams.

Get CMU:DIY’s A:E guide to the music industry, and learn more about the suppliers and business partners you might want to work with. Then hear from some key business partners and find out what services they offer and on what terms.

PLUS find out how our FAC artist entrepreneurs have put together their teams. What companies do they work with? How did they choose their partners and why does it work for them?