🟪⬛ 30: Design your Business Model Canvas for Artists in 30 minutes
Wrap-up 15+ hours of assignments to improve your digital presence
You did it! You have reached day 30 of the Artist Lockdown Challenge.
If you have done all the tasks up until now: we are seriously impressed. If you have done most of them: well done! If you’re still working your way through: keep it up.
To close things off, we have prepared a task that will help you reflect upon the challenge, as well as articulate your digital strategy as a musician, artist, and entrepreneur.
Today: Design your Business Model Canvas for Artists, in 30 minutes
Read the explanation below.
Make a copy of the Business Model Canvas for Artists linked below.
Fill it in and refer to it often.
The Business Model Canvas is a tool used for understanding all the basics of a business: its customers, its costs and income streams, its brand and product, its distribution, and promotion. We have made a slightly altered version to make it more appropriate for the digital landscape of artists: click here to open it.
Fill it in, print it out or save it as your desktop background, and refer to it regularly. Make it your own. Once a month or so, consider whether it needs updating. It’s also an excellent communication tool, so when you expand your team, walk people through it.
The canvas explained
Let’s go through all the steps row by row, starting from the top, moving down the sheet from right to left.
Designed for / Designed by -- this is your work. Own it. Put your name on there, even if you’re the only person who will ever see it.
On / Iteration # -- since it is your first time, put today’s date and iteration 1. Whenever you come back to the topic and update it, you’ll update this too.
Right:
Personas -- all the people for which you’re creating value, from casual listeners to hardcore fans. You can re-use your notes from our personas task (day 15).
Value Proposition -- your why should appeal to all personas (day 01). Describe how your brand appeals and what products the personas may be interested in. You can use your checklist from day 3.
Channels -- how do you get that value to your personas? Think: streaming services, social media, etc. and write down your key channels. You can refer to fan journeys (day 19, day 22) to make this clearer.
Customer Relationships - what do fans expect from you and how do you engage them? Take inspiration from tasks like the press release (day 05) and creating a video series (day 10).
Revenue Streams -- what business models do you use to translate value into income? You can use your notes from the Better Than Free task (day 27) and yesterday’s task about stock music (day 29), but don’t forget to include typical income streams like royalties, performances, sync, etc.
Left:
Key Resources -- what infrastructure do you need for your value proposition, the delivery thereof, and the monetization? These are your skills, tools (like your data report (day 24) and content calendar (day 04, day 06, day 15)), but also physical objects like instruments, studio, etc. Some artists may find visual design a part of their brand, fill that in here.
Key Activities -- these are specific things you’re doing to get your value proposition to the personas. For instance: songwriting, storytelling, performing live shows, releasing, and the promotion.
Partners -- any resources or activities that you don’t own or perform yourself. In other words, who do you need to work with in order to accomplish everything? Don’t forget your digital scene (day 8).
Costs -- take note of the costs of your infrastructure and highlight the most important ways in which you’re spending money in order to generate revenue.
Use today’s 30 minutes for your first iteration of the Business Model Canvas for Artists. Use keywords to map out the general topics. Extend the Business Model Canvas whenever you have more time.
Schedule a monthly recurring reminder in your task management app or calendar to refer to your Business Model Canvas for Artists on a regular basis.
We tried the Business Model Canvas for Artists on the Artist Lockdown Challenge itself, check it out here:
Make a screenshot and show your Business Model Canvas for Artists in the dedicated channel in our Artist Lockdown Challenge community on Discord. We’ll keep the Discord going in the future.
🟪 Need help? Join us on Discord and get help from the Artist Lockdown Challenge community.
⬛️ Task done? We’re happy to share the results: tag @artistlockdownchallenge on Instagram and we’ll repost.