MUSIC BUSINESS STARTUP

BUSINESS PLAN

AMPAIRE OMUHIGA VIANNEY

Kampala, Uganda

This Music Business start up plan is to give insight about an independent recording Community
of collectives that are creatives, hoping to expand and grow as a collective that operates in the
record production and distribution industry. Our forcus is on signing new artists in the Afrobeats
genres as well as providing those individuals with the necessary marketing and promotion to help
sell their music and build their brand. Our focus on the digital environment of the industry allows
us to keep costs low relative to competitors as well as achieve a reach far beyond the immediate
markets we operate in.

Problem The music industry has been facing a gender inequality problem since its conception in
the late 1800’s. In 2017, only 16.8% of all popular music artists were women, a number that has
actually dropped since the years prior (28.1% in 2016). These numbers reflect poorly on the
music industry, where over half of the consumers are female. Solution Our goal is to provide
female artists with the tools and resources necessary to create a career out of their music.
Through artist development and continuous marketing and promotional efforts, We will create a
platform that female artists look up to and aspire to be a part of. Primary Target Market 16-45
year old women who live in Uganda. Our target market’s median income is about 900,000/=
with a high school degree or higher. Primary genres that they listen to are Afro-R&B, Afro-pop
and Afrobeats, According to a PwC report published before the Covid-19 pandemic, recorded
and live music revenue was worth $34m in 2018, up about 7 per cent on the previous year. PwC
projected the music market would grow by 5.2 per cent a year over the next five years and earn
$44m in 2023, and that’s only in Nigeria, although those numbers may be revised as a result of
the pandemic and the fact that funding and copyright are still under looked in the African Music
Industry

This business plan presents a persuasive and innovative system for organizing and running an
alternative Music Business Startup. An entrepreneur with a new improvement on a traditional
business will find this plan's clear logic instructive.

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 Why Start Music Business?
Starting a business in the Entertainment Industry is highly profitable and interesting for
someone with business sense, perseverance and smartness. With conducive working
environment (Fully Equipped recording studio), various promotion structures in place to
deliver the music to the consumer and a “dedicated to the cause team”, will
automatically lead top-notch service and good marketing.

It is important to note that starting a well Organized, Music Business startup also needs
a significant investment capital, solid planning, and concentration to detail in order to
keep your business profitable.

The truth is that, if you are serious about starting a Music Business Organization in any
part of the world, you are expected to have done your feasibility studies and market
survey before committing your capital in the business. Above all you would need a
detailed and workable business plan if indeed you want to build a successful and
profitable Music Business Organization from the scratch.

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Mission Statement
To develop a highly successful, profitable business which provides quality Audio services
to every individual on our team and to our various clients to become a standard for an
ideal Music business Organization not only in the city but also throughout the Continent.

Core values
1. Innovation
2. Leadership
3. Quality
4. Partnership and cooperation
5. Loyalty to all stakeholders

Goals
• To employ and empower the youth with a passion.
• To provide customers with the best Quality Audio solutions.
• To retain clients through development of attractive loyalty programs.
• To Expand operations by Late 2022.
• To build and maintain relationships with other companies in the business.
• To actively participate in community growth associations.
• To build strategic partnership with stakeholders which will support development
of the business.
• To expand the business into supplementary fields

Business Structure
We are quite aware that the success of any business lies in the foundation on which the
business is built on, that is why we have decided to build our Music Business Company
on the right business foundation.

The company will employ professionals and highly skilled people to occupy the following
position;

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 1. Record Label President
2. Legal Department
3. Business affairs
4. Executive Vice President
5. A&R
6. Promotion
7. Artist Development
8. Marketing
9. Publicity
10. New Media
11. Record Label Liason
12. Sales
13. Art Department

Roles and Responsibilities

1. CEO/PRESIDENT/OWNER

Record label CEOs manage their companies with a mix of business skills and skills that
are particular to the music industry. The CEO determines the general direction of the
marketing, the music distribution and other matters. The CEO must also master basics
like improving financial performance and communicating with board members. Many
CEOs come from a traditional business school background. However, regardless of
background, CEOs must have strong skills in business management and financial
analysis. For a CEO, a smaller label with a handful of artists will have less paperwork to
handle and tends to be more independent. A big corporation has many divisions and
different music genres, and marketing and touring are major operations. CEOs must
understand the different kinds of music distribution methods, they also recruit and hire
management staff members. CEOs are currently dealing with an industry experiencing
rapid changes in digital music distribution and illegal copying issues.

2. VICE PRESIDENT

Most record labels have several vice presidents. There are different vice presidents for
each department at the record label who manage and oversight their departments.
Depending on the size of the label, there may be up to 10 or more vice presidents for a
single record label. Examples of departments that have vice presidents and has a different
function that works to build the label. The departments include business affairs, legal, art,
artist and repertoire, publicity, marketing, sales and label liaison.

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3. BUSINESS ACCOUTANT

Music Business Accountants advise and work with musicians and music industry
companies on financial matters. Some Accountants specialize in copyright, royalties or
licensing. An average salary is $65,080 An Accountant may be employed in different
roles — as a management accountant, as a specialist account in a particular field. Their
tasks will include: monthly financial reporting, support for forecasting and budgeting,
including advances and royalties and managing payments. Knowledge and experience of
working with music industry clients is required, and will be an asset for any Accountant
working within the music industry.

4. LEGAL.

A record company’s legal department is responsible for all the contracts that are made
between the company and the artist. The label’s team of attorneys will draft the recording
contracts and do the final negotiations with the artist’s manager or lawyer. Any legal
actions, such as lawsuits between musicians and the label, go through this department,
such as: licensee queries, issues and disputes; record company membership
documentation, queries, issues and disputes; performer registration documentation,
queries, issues and disputes; issues relating to facilities and services, carrying out
company secretarial duties; dealing with other major issues.

5. A&R DEPARTMENT.

The A & R department, also known as the Artist and Repertoire, is responsible for
finding and signing new talent. The vice president of this department manages scouts
who receive hundreds of submissions a day from unsigned artists. These scouts also
attend shows and conventions to find the best new talent. Depending on the size and
budget of the label, the vice president may choose to only sign a few acts a year out of the
thousands that he reviews.

6. ARTIST DEVELOPMENT

The vice president in this department is in charge of managing the staff that is in charge
of career planning for artists signed to the label, both artistically and financially. This
department sets up promotional opportunities and determines how best to market the
album and artist to reach the target audience. In this department, they are concerned with
making signed artists a hit as quickly as possible to make a profit. They are responsible to
stockholders for how fast they see a profit from their investments in artists and albums.

7. MARKETING

A Marketing Assistant is responsible for helping to come up with new marketing
concepts, working with the creative department on images and advertisements, develop
marketing strategies and plans, and present findings to company executives. They are
also involved in coordinating all the promotion, publicity, and sales campaigns that the
label is committed to. A marketing assistant or manager may be assigned to work on one
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 or several campaigns at any given time, but will usually liaise with the artist and/or their
management. Their aim would be to come up with a “plot” for that artist which may
include starting with some “viral marketing” activity such as involving fans via fan
websites, blogs and social media to create excitement.

8. ART DEPARTMENT

This department is responsible for handling all artwork that goes into creating an album
and its video. This artwork is the first thing fans and the general public see when
purchasing the album, therefore this is crucial that the art department presents the
artist/bands image correctly. The music video needs to be exciting and full of a “cool”
atmosphere. This is because this is also one of the things new fans or people with an
interest will see when looking up the band.



9. PUBLICITY/PROMOTIONS.

Press/Publicity and Promotions department try to obtain maximum publicity for any
appearances/gigs/interviews/arrests leading up to the projected release of a single/album.
This is usually when the employee gets involved and uses his/her contacts or calls in
favours to ensure that the song is heard on the radio and/or played on TV. In turn, the
album would be promoted in the press, on radio, billboards, online and, depending on the
budget, on TV. Not all record labels have the funds to follow such a potentially expensive
route for all (or any) of their artists and smaller budgets call for greater creativity and,
perhaps, a less traditional approach to marketing. This is where certain independent
labels, benefiting from strong reputations in specific genres can gain higher success for
their artists.

10. SALES.

Once the song/album has been recorded and the marketing campaign is in place, the sales
team will need to ensure that the retailers and wholesalers buy enough stock to cover the
anticipated demand. Because of the high cost of warehousing and physically distributing
stock to thousands of outlets throughout the country, most of the distribution is from two
or three major distributors, co-owned by the larger record companies and a handful of
smaller distributors serving the independent labels. The sales team is usually consists of
telephone sales staff, who sell new releases direct to the independent record shops and
key accounts (or national accounts) salespeople who liaise with the head offices of the
large retail chains and supermarkets. The relationship that the sales people build with the
buyers is a crucial component in the success of a new album. The distributor may also
employ the services of a merchandiser to visit the shops and supply point-of- sale
material (posters, cut-outs etc) in support of a particular release.

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 11. ARTIST MANAGEMENT

It is the manager’s job to serve the artist; to deal with all the everyday mundane business
affairs so that nothing is left to interfere with the delicate creative process. Many
managers find themselves dealing with the personal as well as the professional lives of
their artist or band, and grow a strong relationship with one another, as they’ll spend
almost every day of the year with this person/ people. Invariably though, any interested
record company will suggest, if not insist, that an artist be signed with an experienced,
professional manager; recognizing the importance of the role. Certainly, they will be
involved in any decision that directly concerns the artist’s earning potential. A manager
must be prepared to negotiate with record labels, publishers, tour managers, booking
agents, promoters, producers, lawyers, accountants, journalists, photographers,
merchandisers, fan clubs and often the artist’s friends and family. Whilst it is important
for both parties that the manager is a fan of the music, he or she must remain objective
about the look, sound and next career moves of their artist(s). In an ideal scenario,
everyone will have the same objectives and will trust and respect each other’s decisions
and motives. In return for these services, a manager can expect to receive anywhere
between 15% and 25% of an artist’s gross earnings.

MARKET ANALYSIS
The Music Business Climate in Uganda is growing positively rapdly, quality music consumption
in the country is increasing, the number of shows is continuously raising by the day, for example
there a numerous live band shows on every night of the week, case in point is Ntinda, we have
bars with live band starting on Monday night. These go on till the end of the week.

We are also able to interact with the outside world, on a music business basis with music
streaming platforms like spotify, tidal, apple music etc……Ugandan music gets to be promoted
out of Uganda.

Our Target Market

We look forward to meeting the quality of the demands of our clientele, we anticipate shows,
live sets and continental tours, In less than a year of the commencement of this project.

Methods of marketing
Online advertisement
Social Networks

Purpose: Social media will be used primarily as an attraction tool to create a communication
channel with potential end-customers, to highlight the latest news, the latest industry
trends, loyalty programs, updates/new features of mobile application, etc.

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 Strategy: Facebook fan pages, Twitter and blogs will be created with minimum once-
daily updates. This will have an added advantage of contributing to the overall SEO
effort as well.

Keys to Success: The keys to a successful social media launch include the following:

ü Successful and aggressive initial friending/following campaign

ü Ability to create compelling blog content
ü Ability to find time to interact with users via Twitter and Facebook
ü To launch display and video marketing campaign targeting relevant keywords to
attract members of target audience

Google

Purpose: To leverage the allowance of paid advertising on Google and to acquire

traffic at a competitive CPA for Project D
Strategy: A standard AdWords strategy of identifying potential keywords and then
whittling said keywords down to a profitable and manageable list, utilizing tests in
ad copy.
Keys to Success: The keys to a successful Google AdWords launch include the
following:
Successful acceptance by Google

Ability to quickly test and to respond to ad copy, landing page copy and
acquisition offers

Ability to track and determine ROI and CPA of AdWords campaign

Offline advertisement
Traditional marketing tools (Billboards, TV, Radio ads and advertising in printing media)
Purpose: Leverage the allowance of advertising to attract clients at a competitive CPA.
Strategy: Build marketing campaign based on communication with potential clients
through advertising on local TV, Radio channels and printing newspapers on each
market.
The key advertising method will be billboard advertising located in densely populated
urban areas.

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 Keys to Success: The keys to a successful traditional marketing campaign will include
the following:
ü Qualified/Well-trained marketing personnel
ü Proactive and creative marketing personnel
ü Availability of resources to implement traditional marketing tools

PROPOSED METHODS OF FINANCING

Below are some of the methods to solicit finances in order to run the business.

Crowd funding
There are a handful of really good crowdfunding sites that have become very popular
with inventors, entrepreneurs and the general public.

Angel investors
Angel investors stand out from other types of funding options because they are always
on the lookout for the next business to invest in. Many of the biggest tech companies
today, including Google and Yahoo, were funded by angel investors.

At its most basic deal, taking money from an angel almost always requires you to give
your investor some share of equity in your company. Angel investors and any related
transactions must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Venture capitalists
Similar to angel investors, venture capitalists have money to invest, which they want to
invest in young, up-and-coming businesses with a high potential for growth and
monetary returns. Venture capitalists typically also look for a share of equity in
exchange for their investment, but are also interested in having a voice in the direction
of the company.

Personal financing
Starting your own business is risky. In many cases, this level of risk is what prevents
traditional lenders from granting loans to entrepreneurs. This is made even more
difficult if the startup owner hasn’t invested any of his or her own money.

It’s hard to get a third party to give you money for your business if you haven’t ponied
up your own.

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If you have savings or own your home and are willing to refinance or take out a second
mortgage, then these are options you should definitely explore if you’re comfortable
with the potentially bad consequences.

Purchase order financing

Many different factors can affect a business’ cash flow, including seasonality and supply
and demand.

For example, some companies may find themselves unable to fulfill a large order due to
a lack of funds to purchase the materials needed to produce the goods.

In these instances, purchase order financing might be the answer. A purchase order
financing organization will essentially extend an advance so the organization can
purchase the materials it needs today and then collect back the money once the goods
are sold.

Friends and family loans

Your friends and family have a vested, personal interest in watching you succeed. This
might make them more willing to invest in your business, especially in the beginning.
Taking money from friends and family, however, can be tricky, and all of the pros and
cons should be scrutinized before deciding to use this method to generate funds.

Contests
Believe it or not, there are organizations out there that offer monetary rewards—or
even financing—for businesses and entrepreneurs who enter their contests.

Eligibility requirements, entry fees and judging criteria vary widely. But if you have
confidence in your pitch, this might be the way to get some cash.

Alternative lending sources

Using alternative lenders might require more due diligence on your part because you
want to be sure you are doing business with a legitimate vendor. In most cases,
however, these lenders fall just outside of the category of banks or government
institutions.

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With more than 10 years, of trying to surpass and excel in this industry, we face a
number of limitations mainly as a result of luck of funding. A list of the capable
individuals, their contacts and various roles has been attached;

1. Record Label President - Chenkobe Derrick 0779347301

2. Legal Department - Viola Musiimire 0782863715
3. Business affairs - Agaba Victor 0756457035
4. Executive Vice President. - Ampaire Omuhiga Vianney 0784231987
5. A&R -Rodney Bananura 0755348588
6. Promotion -Jerry Kato 0780245390
7. Artist Development - Douglas Bbosa 0707520055
8. Marketing - Peter Kusemereirwe 0705742220
9. Publicity - Elizabeth Tumuhirwe 0701710448
10. New Media - Segane Sharif 0706138921
11. Record Label Liaison - Rona Tuhirirwe 0705279387
12. Sales - Akampamya Angela
13. Art Department - Hope Mugabi 0759909270

Due to the limitations and setbacks as a result of lacking funds, we have also attached a budget;

Our budget is divided into sub budgets for easy clarity

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