My name is Callum Fitzgerald, primary songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of alternative-rock
trio Morphic. After having renowned success across the UK, we’d like to make plans to
embark on our second headlined UK tour. A primary goal of the tour would be to build on our
fanbase. With an upcoming release planned to be released next year, we would want to
embark on a tour to promote our new release to new people. Whether it’s fans of the band
inviting their friends or family to their local tour date, performing live music across the UK to
new people would be something that we believe would increase streams on digital streaming
services, sell more physical copies of our upcoming release and sell more merchandise (a
large portion of our band’s income). Another goal would be to expand exposure in other
countries. In Scotland, we’re starting to gain more of a fanbase. By touring the UK and
having a tour date there, we believe that we would be able to take advantage of the
momentum of growth to increase our fanbase there. We also believe this tour could lead to
possible opportunities to perform at festivals the following year by gaining recognition from
industry professionals. Our unique and professional qualities include- high energy
performances (perfect for larger venues), engaging stage presence, our loyal fanbase (known
to attend multiple shows in small frames of time), our large income from merchandise sales
and our professionalism within the industry.

Our band is made up of myself on guitar/vocals, Nathan North, our bassist, and our drummer
Thomas Robertson. Our debut album- an alternative rock album taking influence from
classical music, IDM, garage rock and shoegaze, performed exponentially well in the UK
market- boosting our monthly listers on Spotify to 1.9 million. Our biggest headline show we
have played was a sold-out show at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. Our biggest show we have
played was a support slot show at the O2 Academy Leeds, where we played to 2,200 people.
Our demographic is, primarily, people aged 16-30- additionally, a large part of our audience
is students. Another large percentage dates back when we were an independent band,
suggesting a niche fanbase.

For locations, one of the places we would like to play would be O2 Academy Leeds.
According to the BBC – ‘The University of Leeds is one of the largest universities in the UK,
with more than 38,000 students from over 170 different countries. In addition[,] Leeds Beckett
University attracts more than 29,000 while Leeds Trinity has about 9,575 students. Add on
the 2,245 people studying at Leeds Arts and 1,500 at Leeds Conservatoire and the city plays
host to roughly 80,000 each year – enough to fill Elland Road more than twice.’ (Dillon. G, 2024)
Consequently, we believe Leeds would be an ideal city to play on our tour- thanks to its large
student population. This would be a perfect city for us to play in due to a large portion of our
audience being students. O2 Academy Leeds would also be a perfect place for us to play in
terms of its capacity, ‘the auditorium is theatre style and has a capacity of 2,300’ (Academy Music
Group, no date). This is a perfectly sized venue for us to play, judging by how many people we
have played for previously, including the O2 Ritz in Manchester, which reportedly, an extra
300 people wanted to get tickets before sell out, proving we could sell at least 75% of tickets.
Secondly, we would like to play the Indigo at the O2 in London. ‘Indigo at The O2 is a
2,750-capacity live music club for smaller music events, club events, after shows, corporate
and private events.’ (AEG, no date) It’s a larger venue, therefore Indigo at the O2 would be our
biggest show on tour. We also believe, as London is the UK’s capital, we would be able to
have many international fans attending. London has many tourists visiting all year round,
therefore it would be a place more fans would be able to attend. Additionally, due to this, we
would be able to increase our audience internationally. Another part of the country we would
like to play would be Bristol, more specifically the Bristol Beacon. ‘The pulse of Bristol’s
underground music scene beats with raw energy, attracting aspiring musicians and producers
from near and far.’ (Domaille. J, 2025) Because of this, we believe that the Bristol Beacon would be
a great way for fans of underground music to see us. With a more underground band possibly
supporting on tour, Bristol could be a perfect place for us to play. With ‘2,124’ (Bristol Beacon, no
date) standing with seats in tiers in the Beacon, the venue would be a great fit for us to play.
Other venues we’d like to play include: The O2 Academy Glasgow- which has a similar
capacity to the venues listed above. This venue would be a great place to play to increase our
fanbase in Scotland as well. We would also like to play the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester,
due its similar capacity to previously mentioned venues, and because of its closeness to other
northern cities in the UK such as Liverpool, and Chester. With Manchester’s rich musical
history, we would love to play there on our tour. The O2 Institute Birmingham would also be
a great place to play. With it having a venue capacity similar to what is previously mentioned,
and close enough for our fanbase in the midlands to travel to- the O2 Institute would be a
perfect place to play on our tour.

To promote this tour, we would utilise social media platforms such as: Instagram, Facebook,
and TikTok as sources of promotion both before and during the tour. On these platforms, we
will announce tour dates, post behind-the-scenes content, etc. We also had an idea to possibly
live-stream the Glasgow show on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. By doing this, we hope
to build a buzz for the rest of the shows, with the Glasgow tour date planned to be the first
date on the tour. Because of this, we would expect to sell more tickets for the other dates on
the tour further south. We also plan to ‘[w]rite and distribute press releases to local media
outlets, music blogs, and online publications in the cities you’ll be touring.’ (Playy Magazine, no date)
On these press releases, we would: share our band’s story to show our relatability and our
humble beginnings, share our band’s career achievements to gain media attention, and mark
tour dates and locations. We also plan to contact local radio stations to mark our tour
locations to promote the event to local communities. In terms of marketing specific dates, an
idea we’ve had for the Bristol tour date specifically, is to have a local Bristol-based band on
the tour to grab the attention of independent music lovers and people in the Bristol area. A
band in a similar genre like IDLES would work well for this idea, thanks to their connections
in the Bristol area and similarly humble beginnings. They also have a large enough fan-base
to contribute heavily to selling tickets for the venue sizes we have planned for the tour. We
will also need financial contribution to make more merchandise for the tour, as demands will
be higher than usual.

In terms of operational and resource requirements, there are a few things we will need. In
terms of musical equipment, we have a fair amount already- instruments, most amplification,
pedalboards, microphones etc. However, we will need to borrow some money for a bass amp
(our bassist Nathan is currently using a digital modelling system through DI for our larger
scale performances). Therefore, a reliable and high-quality bass amp would go a long way in
making our live sound on our tour a lot better. New in-ear monitors will also go a long way in
improving our live performances, as we plan to use backing tracks in replacement of live
strings for some songs- meaning we will need to play to a “click”. Alongside this, IEM’s
would also help us to hear our performances clearer on stage, something crucial for larger
scale performances. Money for emergency equipment would also be essential in the event of
a blown speaker or damaged valve in a guitar amplifier, spare instruments in case of damage
whilst travelling, etc. We would also need to loan money for promotion of the tour on social
media, to promote the event to larger audiences. Alongside this, money for travel, storage
units for equipment, venue hiring, accommodation, etc will also be essential. In terms of
operations of the tour, dates will be ideally set for the following dates for ease of travel:
Glasgow – 21st March 2026, Leeds – 28th March 2026, Manchester – 4th April 2026,
Birmingham –11th April 2026, Bristol – 18th April 2026 and London – 25th April 2026. The
band will only need accommodation for one night after each show as we will be travelling
home on the next day after each gig. All venues must be booked before 21st September 2025.
The tour manager will also carry out a ‘day-of-show advance’ confirming details with the
venue before each show to ensure that everything is aligned. Money will also be needed to
hire sound and lighting engineers for the tour. We also have ideas to include the bands IDLES
and Courting to support us on our tour. The bands will both have 1-hour long sets and our
band will have a 1 hour and 30-minute long set. Tickets will be available from £40 a ticket.
We will also need to acquire a temporary license to perform at the venues listed above, as
they have an audience capacity of over 500. All tour agreements will also need to be written
in a contract and be reviewed for compliance. The tour’s gross income agreement should also
be written out in a contract.

A breakdown of the costs are as follows: musical equipment – £9000, venue hire – £60,000,
travel and minibus hire – £750, accommodation – £2,625, 2 months of boosted promotion on
social media prior to the tour – £300, storage unit rent – £42, live sound and lighting engineers
wages – £12,000. Altogether, this comes to £84,717. By calculating the band’s current
growing demands for tickets, we expect to make £480,000 from tickets leaving us with a
profit of £395,283 with the record company taking 70% of it.

Summary and proof of group work: In terms of the hypothetical business plan above, in
future- I would have a larger word count, there were various things I was unfortunately
unable to talk about because of the word count limit. This includes- a more detailed
promotional plan, a more in-depth analysis of the reasons for the loan from the record
company, etc. It would also be easier if my band actually did have the success used in the
hypothetical example above, as we could have shown real statistics gathered from social
media, Spotify, Ticketmaster, Skiddle etc. It would’ve also been more beneficial to write a
business plan with the rest of the band and a team of other people. Although I went to the
band for some feedback on this business plan e.g, how we could maybe utilise social media in
other ways apart from posts and stories (leading to the idea of a live stream of the Glasgow
show), I believe that writing it together could have possibly lead to a more comprehensive
business plan with more ideas from other creative thinkers. I also would have liked to have
listed links of where we could buy equipment, contact venues, and hire engineers. However,
again, because of the word count I was unable to do this. In terms of the other group work I
utilised for this piece of writing, by attending collaborative seminars and group study
sessions, I was able to see other examples of people writing their business plans. These
seminars really helped me to connect with new people which helped a lot with gathering new
ideas. We shared ideas of things to speak about in our business plans. Some ideas that were
given to me personally included: the idea of requesting for a temporary license to perform on
500+ capacity venues and talking about writing out a contract for the agreement of the gross
income from my theoretical tour. I also spoke to a family member who works in law to gather
information on how a typical tour’s profit would be split between the band and the record
company/promoter. I also spoke to a music business student from university who had studied
business plans. They gave some ideas of what to include.

Bibliography

Dillion. G, 2024 – Why does Leeds need so much student accommodation? –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgq8v5ww11no

‘The University of Leeds is one of the largest universities in the UK, with more than 38,000
students from over 170 different countries. In addition Leeds Beckett University attracts more
than 29,000 while Leeds Trinity has about 9,575 students. Add on the 2,245 people studying
at Leeds Arts and 1,500 at Leeds Conservatoire and the city plays host to roughly 80,000
each year – enough to fill Elland Road more than twice.’

Accessed – 3rd April 2025

Academy Music Group, no date – [O2 Academy Leeds venue information] –
https://www.academymusicgroup.com/companyo2academyleeds/

‘the auditorium is theatre style and has a capacity of 2,300’

Accessed – 4th April 2025

AEG, no date – INDIGO AT THE O2 – https://aegworldwide.com/divisions/music/indigo-o2

‘Indigo at The O2 is a 2,750-capacity live music club for smaller music events, club events,
after shows, corporate and private events.’

Accessed – 5th April 2025

Domaille. J, 2025 – Exploring Bristol’s Vibrant Music Scene: A Melodic Journey Through
Time – https://www.accesscreative.ac.uk/blog/exploring-bristols-vibrant-music-scene/

‘The pulse of Bristol’s underground music scene beats with raw energy, attracting aspiring
musicians and producers from near and far.’

Accessed – 5th April 2025

Bristol Beacon, no date – [Bristol Beacon Hall venue information] –
https://bristolbeacon.org/venue-specification/

‘2,124’

Accessed – 5th April 2025

Playy Magazine, no date – Promoting Your Band Tours –
https://theplayground.co.uk/promoting-your-bands-tour/

‘[w]rite and distribute press releases to local media outlets, music blogs, and online
publications in the cities you’ll be touring.’

Accessed – 6th April 2025