Produce music and videos, plan concerts and tours - keep track of your budget, timing and team.
It's more important than ever that musicians know where they stand in business today, because the music industry is changing. From large record companies that sign musicians, the trend is towards independent artists who run their own labels and take care of the production, distribution and marketing of their music themselves.
Whether you're just beginning to record your music or video, or you're already a recognized artist who takes care of every aspect of your business, you need to know your budget, timing and team at all times. Making a living from music usually involves recording an album, shooting a video, and a tour to promote and sell your music.
Music Production
From song selection, pre-production, studio booking and travel preparation to mixing and mastering - all the information on the individual tasks must be recorded during the production of your album. Keep track of every step and monitor progress, budget and resources.
Video Production
Produce a video, coordinate multiple tasks within a specific timeframe and budget. A meaningful production plan is essential for you as a producer, director, DOP, editor and refiner.
Tour Planning
Whether you're a musician, production company or crew member, on tour you need to know where you are in the world, where you're going next and who should be with you. It's also important to know who has to do a defined job at a certain time and within a set budget.
All this costs time, money and effort. You have to sit down and calculate your budget for all these undertakings. In the end you have a well thought-out plan - but as we know: Plans change. You have to keep up with the changes by changing dates, adjusting your budget and notifying your fellow musicians, studio team, rental companies, etc. of these changes. Sooner rather than later, you'll miss an email, forget a meeting, or miss out on extra costs by moving between your phone book, calendar, Excel spreadsheets, and emails.
Merlin Project supports you in these diverse tasks. Manage schedule, team and budget centrally and get a quick and easy overview of when the band needs to be present, which artists you want to have in the studio and whether you can afford them with the budget you have at your disposal. You can save mixes or video edits so that your A&R man or colleague can pick them up without interrupting the workflow, you can attach sheet music, lyrics, demo recordings, hotel reservations, airline tickets and much more.
Stay up to date and share your schedule with band members, engineers, studio directors, video directors, or tour managers via iPhone, iPad, Mac, or even the Internet. So you can keep bands, managers, record companies, video production companies, and tour organizers informed and up to date about planning with everyone involved.
Together with music producer Chris Heil we have developed special Merlin Project templates for music production, tour planning and video production. The Musician Budget Monitoring supports you in harmonizing your schedule, team and budget.
You see all necessary information at a glance and adapt it dynamically to the changes during the production process of music, video and tours. If you get into trouble with your deadline, you will receive an early warning. You see the workload of each colleague and can react accordingly and distribute the workload more evenly and efficiently. The exemplary workflow for every music style as well as for tours and video productions helps beginners in particular. Learn the workflow in each chapter.
The project templates for music production, tour planning and video production can be found in the support area.