Band Business: rights, tours and management

01

The band as a business

In simple words

A lemonade stand is a tiny business. You buy lemons and cups, you sell drinks, and you count what is left. A band is the same, just with more people and more kinds of lemons, so everyone needs to see the same notebook.

Before this course: Gigging & Promotion: booking, recording and marketing (course 11.3.3). You can already pitch and book shows, read a deal memo, send a tech pack, record a demo, keep a rights list with ISRCs, release music and run a promotion campaign. This course is about running the business behind the band: rights, contracts, money, tours and the people who help you.

Key facts

Where band money usually comes from:

Income stream	What it is	Who it usually belongs to
Live shows	Fees, guarantees or door shares (course 11.3.3)	The band, as agreed in the band agreement
Merch	Shirts, stickers, physical music	The band, after the cost of making it
Recordings	Money from streams and sales of the masters, through a distributor or label	The owners of the recording (Lesson 3)
Songwriting	Royalties for the songs (compositions), collected by music rights organisations and publishers	The songwriters, by their split (Lesson 2)
Sync	Fees for using a song and recording in film, TV, ads or games	Both song owners and recording owners

Songs and recordings are separate (course 11.3.3): a band member who did not write a song may share in the recording money but not in the songwriting money. Say this clearly in the band agreement.
Band agreement version 2 (building on course 11.3): who owns the band name and logo; how decisions are made; how each income stream is split; who pays costs; what happens to recordings, gear and debts if someone leaves or the band ends; who may sign agreements for the band.
Separate the money: a band bank account or at least a separate ledger, every receipt saved, and a monthly summary everyone can see. Mixing band money with personal money is the most common source of arguments.
A simple ledger has: date, item, income or cost, amount, who paid, receipt number. Settle what the band owes each member at a fixed time each month.
Legal form and tax: whether a band should register a business name, a partnership or a company, and how members report income, depends on your country. Ask your government's business registration office and an accountant before money grows.
Records to keep: band agreement, split sheets, deal memos, set lists, contracts, invoices, receipts and royalty statements, in one shared, backed-up folder.

Step by step

List every income stream your band has now or expects in the next year.
Next to each, write who it belongs to: the band, the songwriters, or the recording owners.
Reopen your band agreement from course 11.3 and add the six "version 2" items from Key facts.
Set up a band ledger with the six columns and enter the last three months.
Agree a monthly date to settle up and share a one-page summary.
Create a shared "Band business" folder with sub-folders: agreements, splits, gigs, money, royalties.
Ask every member to read and sign the updated agreement.
Check: any member can open the folder and answer "how much did the band earn and spend last month, and why?"

LESSON 01The band as a business

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:15

Voice

Read the video script

[Host at a lemonade stand with a notebook] "A band is a small business. Everyone needs to see the same notebook."
[Text on screen: Live. Merch. Recordings. Songwriting. Sync.] "Money comes in five main ways, and they don't all belong to the same people."
[Screen: song and recording shown as two separate folders] "Songs belong to the writers. Recordings belong to whoever owns the master. Write it down."
[Host] "One band account, every receipt saved, settle up once a month. It saves friendships."

Try it now

Write an income map for your band, update your band agreement with the version 2 items, and start a ledger with three months of entries and one monthly summary.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Band Business: rights, tours and management" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "The band as a business".

What the lesson teaches:
- Where band money usually comes from:
- Income stream - What it is - Who it usually belongs to
- Live shows - Fees, guarantees or door shares (course 11.3.3) - The band, as agreed in the band agreement
- Merch - Shirts, stickers, physical music - The band, after the cost of making it
- Recordings - Money from streams and sales of the masters, through a distributor or label - The owners of the recording (Lesson 3)
- Songwriting - Royalties for the songs (compositions), collected by music rights organisations and publishers - The songwriters, by their split (Lesson 2)
- Sync - Fees for using a song and recording in film, TV, ads or games - Both song owners and recording owners

The exercise I'm working on:
Write an income map for your band, update your band agreement with the version 2 items, and start a ledger with three months of entries and one monthly summary. ---

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "The band as a business" from the course "Band Business: rights, tours and management".

Here's what the lesson says:
A lemonade stand is a tiny business. You buy lemons and cups, you sell drinks, and you count what is left. A band is the same, just with more people and more kinds of lemons, so everyone needs to see the same notebook.

The activity:
Write an income map for your band, update your band agreement with the version 2 items, and start a ledger with three months of entries and one monthly summary. ---

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

My notes

I learned this

02