The Music Maths

The maths before you spend. One file that judges your numbers back, and if the numbers don't work, it says so before it puts you in the red.

What you're buying

• Real spreadsheet formulas. Change one number and the rest answers back.
• Sample numbers already in every tool. You see what normal looks like before you type your own.
• Rates checked against the market in 2026. Every rate is a cell you edit.

What's inside

• The calculators. Streaming royalties with Spotify's 1,000-stream floor built in, what an ad spend brought back and what it needs to break even, how many tickets the night has to sell, what a shirt makes once the shirt is paid for, and the royalties most people never register for.
• The Route Test. The tour tested city by city before you book it: the audience each city actually has against what the show costs, with an honest read per room, green, amber or red.
• The Gig P&L. What one show paid, once everything is in. Its own tab, and you duplicate it per show. Every show row lights green or red by what the night netted.
• The Review. Whether the money came back at the end of it: the plan against what actually happened, and three questions to answer before the next one.

Is this you yet

The whole money layer already sits inside The Artist, The Manager & Label and The Lot, so take this if you want the maths on its own.

The details

• Will you use it? It's built for the first twenty minutes. Open it, fill in the light grey cells, then look up. The tabs open with sample numbers already in them, so you're never starting from a blank page.

Questions people ask

What's not in it?
The plan. No campaign calendar, no content planner, no pitching. If you want the plan around the maths, The Artist runs the whole campaign.

Isn't this just a template?
A template is blank and passive. Every tool opens with sample numbers already in it, so you see what normal looks like before you type your own, and the notes explain why each rate is what it is.

Do I need to be a marketer?
No. The writing is plain English and it teaches the few terms worth knowing as you go. Every tab has hover notes written for someone with no marketing background.

Is it a course?
No. Nothing to complete, no modules, no videos to get through. A course teaches you things; this does the work with you.

A spreadsheet, in 2026?
A spreadsheet, on purpose. The maths has to run itself, and a database that looks nice can't do that. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Apple Numbers, and the first open takes a moment while the formulas compute.

Do I need a Google account?
For Google Sheets, yes, and a free one does it. If you'd rather use Excel or Numbers, download the folder from your downloads page and open the file there.

I'm not in Australia. Does it work in my currency?
Yes. Every dollar figure is a cell you can change, so type in your own.

I'm Caitlin :) In Cahoots is my marketing practice for festivals, venues, labels and independent artists, these files are that work written down so you can run it yourself, and the hover notes on every tab say what I'd say if we were on a call.