Growing your group and audiences

To fully include everyone in our music activities, we need to understand the barriers that stop people from attending, taking part or progressing. In the Conversation about inclusion series of events, hear about the issues from the perspective of those who directly experience barriers and discuss what we can do to change things from within our own music groups. 

Many leisure-time music groups regularly consider making project fund applications to arts councils, trusts or foundations whilst others are considering it for the first time. This event will walk you through some of the usual things you can expect, and equip you with some best practice and tips to set you up for a much better chance of success, whether you're applying for £250 or for £250,000!

We'll talk about:

Making Music are thrilled to be partnering with one of our corporate members, Rayburn Tours, to host an online webinar, aimed at music leaders who wish to take that brilliant, brave and rewarding step into the world of touring! 

Whether it be performing in sacred cathedrals or embracing local culture, concert tours present choirs, bands and orchestras with fantastic opportunities to develop and perform to international audiences. But for many volunteer committee members the practical and logistical aspects of organising the experience may seem overwhelming and confusing!

Often we think of income ‘only’ in terms of funding, subscriptions or ticket sales. There definitely is a lot to delve into on those three topics, but is there more we could be exploring? Are we thinking about the whole financial picture?

70% of Making Music performing groups and 58% of volunteer promoters break even every year; but 15% and 23% respectively regularly make a loss. So finances are always a topic groups are thinking about, to maintain that balancing act of breaking even, yet remaining accessible to participants and audiences in their community.

The first of our marketing events in 2025 will discuss how social media has become a key component in many organisation’s marketing strategy. But how does it differ from ‘traditional’ marketing, what should you use it for, and how can you manage your time when there are so many different platforms available? 

In this session, we’ll look at how a social media strategy can help you define your goals in line with your overall marketing plans, manage your time more effectively, and create content to target the people you most want to engage. 

Your Making music membership offers a wealth of benefits. They are designed to support you running your music group, to save time, effort and money, as well as offer ideas and inspiration.

But are you making the most of your membership? In this event we will explain what you have access to - and how we can help.

We'll talk about some of the main benefits: