Guidance

Sourcing royalty-free imagery online

Using good-quality images in your marketing is an effective way to attract attention, drive engagement, and boost ticket sales and membership; however, it’s essential to ensure you have permission to use them to avoid copyright infringement. 

Insurance for your group from Making Music

The Making Music members’ insurance scheme is run by Finch, specifically for our members. It is offered to those members of Making Music which operate on a voluntary (ie non-professional) basis, for ‘activities associated with the general promotion of music and the performance of musical works’.

Addressing barriers with your group’s performance wear

What your music group chooses to wear on stage is part of how you present yourself to the world - but care must be taken not to have it become a barrier that might lead to exclusion.

A group's performance wear - their 'uniform' - is the first thing an audience will see, which is why many groups choose to specify what their members wear while performing. This can be a good thing; uniform can bring a sense of belonging to people and help them feel part of a team. If you’re trying to present a unified sound, it can also be effective if you look uniform too.

Recruiting a Music Director

Recruiting for a new musical leader is an important moment for a music group. This resource will take you through the process from defining the role to making an offer. Groups use different terms for their group's musical leader role, but in this resource we will use Music Director (MD).  

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Supporting deaf people and those with hearing loss

In 2023, Paul Whittaker spoke to our members at two events about how groups could support instrumentalists and singers with hearing loss to take part in music-making. This resource covers the good practice suggested by Paul and members that attended those events, for any music-making group working to include deaf people and people with hearing loss in their regular activity.  

Webinar recording: Climate Change Network

Our fifth meeting in our Climate Network series (original event 11 April 2024) discussed the ways in which music groups could come and share their learnings on climate-related music projects.

The speakers for this event were:

Webinar recording: Where do I find sheet music, and at what price?

In this recording of our webinar (original event 8 March 2024), we talked about the options available to members for sourcing sheet music.

Webinar recording: #MakeSpaceforMusic - Get involved

In this recording of our webinar (original event 16 February 2024), we talked about our progress on our #MakeSpaceforMusic campaign, since its launch in Autumn 2023.

How to make your group easy to find online with SEO

It can be very difficult to get new people to discover your music group. But with our handy resource for beginners, you too can start using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to improve your website’s search rankings.

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Webinar recording: Understanding and influencing parish and town councils in England and Wales

In this recording of our webinar (original event 20 October 2023), we learned about how local authorities work, and what music groups can do to influence their decision-making.