Sources and assumptions
Every price, cost and benchmark in this guide carries a marker like S1. This page says where each one came from, when it was checked, and whether it is published, derived from published figures, third-party reported, or an estimate that should be replaced with a measured number as soon as one exists.
How to read the labels
- Published Taken from the vendor's, authority's or organisation's own source on the date shown. Safe to repeat, with the date.
- Derived Arithmetic on published figures: a conversion, a per-unit split, a monthly total. Show the working if challenged.
- Reported A third-party press, marketplace or review figure. Real, but somebody else's negotiated outcome or estimate rather than a list price. Say "reported" out loud if it is used.
- Estimate A reasoned guess. Never quote it as fact. Replace it with a measurement as soon as one exists.
All checks were made on 5 September 2026 unless stated. Currency assumption throughout: USD 1.25 = GBP 1.00S26.
| Ref | Figure | What it says | Type | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | Sam's public site, positioning and roster | Positioning, verbatim: "Specialises in bespoke Public Relations and project management in the performing arts, promoting artists, record labels and orchestras in the UK and France." Featured artists listed: Víkingur Ólafsson, Alice Sara Ott, Bryce Dessner, Bertrand Chamayou, Pekka Kuusisto, Jean Rondeau, Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Previous clients listed: Barbara Hannigan, Colin Currie, Michael Barenboim, Naïve Classique, Alpha Classics, Festival de Pâques d'Aix-en-Provence, the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Contact published on the site. No pricing, no news page and no blog anywhere on the site. | Published | samanthaholderness.com | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S2 | Career, training and philosophy | Interview: began as a PA at EMI Music, moved into PR across the roster; after EMI's closure took a postgraduate diploma in classical piano; then Albion Media; founded her own agency in 2014. Quotes: "integrity is crucial"; the work is "understanding what an artist needs, while understanding what's going to work from a journalist's perspective"; on the media shift, that opportunities "to reach people in broader yet more targeted ways, such as through social media, have exploded". Also names Kate Lindsey as a client. Universal McCann and the Albion campaign range (Kylie, Coldplay, Marin Alsop, Joyce DiDonato) appear in her published profile material. | Published | Sisters Communications interview, 2017; samanthaholderness.com | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S3 | Encore Artists, founded 2014 | A boutique PR agency in the performing arts, chiefly classical, working with a small number of clients in the UK and France. An X account exists at @encore_artists. A ZoomInfo aggregator listing carries an @encore-artists.com email pattern; that is a scraped third-party source and the pattern is not verified. | Published (the 2014 date and description); Reported (the email pattern) | Sisters Communications; ZoomInfo listing | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S4 | Music PR costs, published vendor guide | Monthly retainers "$2,000 to $10,000 per month for developing and mid-level artists" and "$10,000 to $25,000+ per month for established acts with label backing". Campaigns: indie artist $1,500 to $5,000; rising artist $5,000 to $15,000; major $15,000 to $50,000+. Typical indie campaign $3,000 to $8,000. Freelance one-off work $75 to $250 an hour. Radio promotion $1,500 to $5,000+ per single per format. | Published (a vendor's own pricing guide, so read it as a vendor's view of the market) | amworldgroup.com/pricing/music-pr-cost | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S5 | Independent publicist retainer and minimum term | Independent publicists reported at $1,500 to $3,000 a month; established music PR firms $3,000 to $8,000 a month. "Most firms require a minimum commitment of 2 to 3 months because media outreach takes time to build momentum." The £1,500 a month and "about £4,500 to try" figures used throughout this guide come from the bottom of this band converted at S26. | Reported | tunepact.com | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S6 | UK musician earnings | First UK Musicians' Census, from Help Musicians and the Musicians' Union, based on responses from nearly 6,000 UK musicians: average annual income from music work £20,700; 43% earn less than £14,000 a year from music; those earning 100% of their income from music average about £30,000; 70% hold a degree or higher, 50% a music degree. | Published | Help Musicians; Classic FM coverage | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S7 | Roxhill Media pricing | Supplier's own price schedule filed on the UK Digital Marketplace, G-Cloud 14, May 2024. Licences are per named user and may not be shared. Up to 5 licences £6,450 + VAT; up to 10 £8,950; up to 15 £11,450; up to 20 £13,950; up to 25 £16,450; up to 30 £17,700. Twelve-month subscription includes topic-led searching, social searching, international and broadcast data, alerts on journalist moves and forward features, unlimited distribution, unlimited training, list management and regional mapping. | Published | G-Cloud 14 pricing document, Roxhill Media Ltd | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S8 | Muck Rack pricing | No public pricing. Users reported paying "$3,500 to $40,000+ per year for a license", with an estimated average around $15,000 annually. | Reported | Prezly, Muck Rack pricing guide | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S9 | Prowly pricing | Reported from $258 a month. Prowly ceased to be sold as a standalone product in December 2025 and now redirects to Semrush. | Reported | prowly.com | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S10 | PR ON THE GO Global Music Media List | $49 one-off for a downloadable spreadsheet of "900+ music journalist email contacts" with outlet, format, address, phone, name, email, website and social. Majority North America, UK and Germany, plus US and Canadian college radio. "The database is updated monthly" and buyers get "complimentary updates within 3 months of purchase upon request". Non-transferable, in-house use only. Almost entirely non-classical. | Published | pronthego.com | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S11 | Gloria Chou, PR Starter Pack | $1,495 for 12 months of access. Includes a searchable, customisable database of media contacts across 50 industries worldwide, video training on writing pitches, and samples of pitches that achieved national coverage, plus quarterly coaching and accountability calls. Higher tiers bundle 24-month access with a 90-minute 1:1 pitch-writing session, at a stated $2,990 value. | Published | learn.gloriachoupr.com; IFundWomen listing | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S12 | Selena Soo, Impacting Millions | A year-long publicity programme at $2,997 or 12 payments of $297. Reported as not currently on sale. Included here for the shape of the offer and because the payment plan lands at almost exactly $297 a month, which is the same band as £299. | Reported (a third-party review, and the price may be historic) | Idyllic Pursuit review | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S13 | Ari's Take Academy | Special Events course $1,297, with payment plans quoted at $83 a month and at 12 payments of $127. Musician Momentum and Mentorship Program $1,500 to $3,000, running to fixed dates (August to December 2026). The site states "over 6,000 musicians, industry professionals and students" have used the academy. | Published (the site's own prices); Reported (the 6,000 figure is the vendor's own claim) | aristakeacademy.com/special-events; /momentum | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S14 | tonebase pricing | Monthly $49.95; yearly $24.95 a month billed annually, which is about $299 a year; lifetime $695. 14-day free trial. Students and educators 30% off. Periodic sales of 30 to 40% off annual and lifetime memberships. | Published | tonebase pricing; tonebase sale page | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S15 | ISM membership fees | Full membership £185 a year; student £17; early career from £55; Friend of the ISM Trust £25; Music Hub £55; corporate £110 to £540. The ISM website blocked automated fetching, so these come from a search summary rather than from the page itself. Verify before quoting to anyone. | Reported | ism.org (not machine-readable at time of check) | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S16 | Musicians' Union joining offer | The MU's own site promotes "Join for £1 For The First Six Months", with standard rates set by income band thereafter. The rates page did not resolve at time of check, so the standard rate is not stated in this guide. | Published (the joining offer); Not verified (the standard rate) | musiciansunion.org.uk/membership | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S17 | Making Music membership fees | Annual fees by the group's gross annual income: up to £7,200, £109; up to £10,000, £132; up to £14,500, £155; up to £21,000, £219; up to £31,000, £298; up to £100,000, £392; above £100,000, £496. Membership runs January to December and fees are 50% off when joining after 30 June. These are the 2024 fees as reported in the organisation's fees update. | Reported | makingmusic.org.uk | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S18 | ABO membership prices, 2026-27 | Full membership by annual turnover: Band A (£3m+) £6,752; B (£2m to £3m) £5,303; C (£1m to £2m) £3,738; D (£500k to £1m) £2,584; E (£100k to £500k) £1,661; F (under £100k) £646. Associate: Band A £574, B £150, C £106, D £90. Affiliate £402. Corporate and sole trader £402, or £201 for sole traders. Memberships renew annually in April; figures exclude VAT. The ABO states it has over 200 members. | Published | abo.org.uk/joining/membership-prices | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S19 | Circle pricing | Professional $89 a month, 2% transaction fee, 3 admin seats, unlimited members, courses, live streams, paid memberships, custom domain, gamification. Business $199 a month, 1% fee, 5 admins, workflows, custom profile fields, branded email notifications, automated transcriptions. Circle Plus is custom-priced at a 0.5% fee. No annual pricing is published on the page. | Published | circle.so/pricing | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S20 | Kajabi pricing | Basic $179 monthly or $143 annual, 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 2 admins. Growth $249 or $199, 50 products, 25,000 contacts, 11 admins. Pro $499 or $399, unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 26 admins. Transaction fees 2.9% + $0.30 on Kajabi Payments; 2%, 1% and 0.5% respectively on third-party providers. | Published | kajabi.com/pricing | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S21 | Mighty Networks pricing | Launch $79 a month or $950 a year, 2% fee, 3 hosts, 20 streaming hours a month, 100 stream viewers. Scale $179, 1% fee, 5 hosts, 30 hours, 200 viewers. Growth $354, 0.5% fee, 10 hosts, 40 hours, 1,000 viewers. Mighty Pro is custom-priced. | Published | mightynetworks.com/pricing | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S22 | Podia pricing | Mover $42 a month or $504 a year, 5% transaction fee, 100 email subscribers, 50 products. Shaker $84 or $1,008, no Podia fee, 500 subscribers, 150 products. Earthquaker $150 or $1,800, no Podia fee, 1,000 subscribers, unlimited products. Stripe or PayPal processing of 2.9% + 30¢ applies on all plans. | Published | podia.com/pricing | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S23 | Teachable pricing | Starter $39 monthly or $29 annual, 7.5% transaction fee, 5 products, 1 admin. Builder $89 or $69, 0% fee, 10 products, 1 admin. Growth $189 or $139, 0% fee, 50 products, 5 admins. Processing fees of 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards and 3.9% + 30¢ international apply throughout. | Published | teachable.com/pricing | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S24 | Substack economics | Free to publish. Substack takes 10% of paid subscription revenue, plus Stripe processing of roughly 2.9% + 30¢, so a publisher keeps about 87% of a paid subscription. Nothing is taken if subscriptions are not charged for, which is why this guide recommends a free-only Substack. | Reported (Substack's own pricing page did not resolve at time of check) | beehiiv analysis | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S25 | Stripe UK pricing | UK domestic standard cards 1.5% + 20p; UK premium cards 2.8% + 20p; EEA cards 2.5% + 20p; non-EEA 3.15% + 20p; a further 2% where currency conversion is required. Billing on a pay-as-you-go basis 0.7% of billing volume, or from £450 a month on a one-year commitment. Disputes £20 each. Instant payouts 1%, minimum 40p. "Stripe does not charge setup fees, monthly fees, or any other hidden fees like closure fees." | Published | stripe.com/gb/pricing | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S26 | FX assumption | USD 1.25 = GBP 1.00 throughout, used to convert vendor prices quoted in dollars. A planning assumption, not the rate on any given day. The GBP price list in Chapter 5 is a set of local list prices, not a conversion of anything. | Estimate | Stated assumption | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S27 | Revenue and member-count scenarios | All member counts, revenue figures and hour counts in Chapter 8, Chapter 12 and the front page are outputs of model/revenue.py in this repository. Base case: month 6, 37 course members, 20 Press Room members, 1.8 Campaign Partner places, 0.6 converted clients, £9,947 revenue in the month, about 12.2 hours a week. Month 12: 68, 28, 3.3, 1.5, £18,469, about 18.2 hours a week, and £125,225 of cash summed across twelve months. Low: £4,515 at month 6, £7,109 at month 12, £50,960 across the year. High: £20,858, £34,635, £246,740. Inputs: prices from Chapter 5; caps of 60 and 4; churn from S35; conversion rates of 0.4%, 0.8% and 1.4% per member-month; a converted client at S34; sign-up pace stated in Chapter 8; time coefficients from S28. | Derived (arithmetic on stated assumptions, not a forecast) | model/revenue.py, run 5 Sep 2026 | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S28 | Time coefficients | 6.0 hours a week fixed (monthly brief 0.2, media list 0.7, clinic including prep 0.5, moderation 0.5, content 2.0, selling 1.5, admin 0.6); 12 minutes per Press Room member per month for the written review, which is 0.05 hours a week; 1.5 hours a week per Campaign Partner place; 4 hours a week per converted full-service client. Also the £30 a month for Zoom, email tooling, domain and equipment in Chapter 7. None of this is measured. Replace the review coefficient with a real average after the first ten reviews. | Estimate | model/revenue.py, stated assumptions | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S29 | Monthly running cost | About £412 a month at month 6 of the base case and £648 at month 12: Circle Professional £71 (S19 at S26), Circle's 2% transaction fee on platform revenue (S19, S27), Stripe at about 1.7% blended plus 20p per charge assuming roughly a fifth of members pay on EEA cards (S25), and £30 of tooling (S28). That is 4.9% and 4.4% of revenue respectively. | Derived | Chapter 7, working shown | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S30 | The 200-target list | Two hundred organisations and public platforms, researched 5 September 2026 and generated by model/targets.py into targets-200.csv. Composition: 32 conservatoires, 30 media, 28 competitions and schemes, 26 festivals, 20 promoters and venues, 20 labels, 18 sector bodies, 16 artist managements, 10 ensembles. Every source is the organisation's own public web presence. Verified: that the organisation exists and does what the row says. Not verified: sizes, which are approximate; and whether the stated way in still works, since departments are renamed and schemes close. No named individuals and no personal contact details anywhere in the list, by design. Conservatoires UK is stated as having 11 member institutions. | Published (existence and description); Estimate (all size figures) | model/targets.py; each row's own source URL | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S31 | RCM Creative Careers Centre | The RCM's Creative Careers Centre offers "bespoke career advice, workshops led by industry specialists, and a wide range of professional opportunities", and its "resources are available to all alumni for up to five years after graduation". That five-year window is precisely the membership's buying window and is the reason conservatoire alumni relations rank second in Chapter 10. | Published | rcm.ac.uk | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S32 | YCAT selection | YCAT states that no set number of artists is selected in any one year; audition performances are measured against a standard of excellence rather than against each other, with juries looking for "exceptional musical talent, artistic individuality and projection as a performer". So a cohort size has to be asked for rather than assumed. | Published | ycat.co.uk | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S33 | Circle Professional to Business crossover | Moving from Professional ($89, 2%) to Business ($199, 1%) costs $110 more a month and saves 1% of platform revenue. The two are equal at $11,000 of monthly platform revenue, about £8,800; this guide rounds the trigger to £10,000 MRR to leave headroom. Prices from S19, conversion at S26. | Derived | Chapter 7, working shown | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S34 | Value of a converted full-service client | Modelled at £2,500 a month for about eighteen months, roughly £45,000 of lifetime value. This is a placeholder. This guide does not know what Sam charges a retained client and did not guess from anything. Replace it in model/revenue.py and rerun. The conclusion does not change at double the figure: conversion is still under one client in year one in the base case. | Estimate | Stated assumption | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S35 | Churn assumptions | Monthly churn on the start-of-month base: course tier 8%, Press Room 6%, Campaign Partner 4%. Six per cent a month compounds to roughly half a cohort gone within twelve months. These are category-typical figures for a paid online membership, not measurements of anything, and they are the single assumption most likely to be wrong in either direction. Replace them from real data at month four. | Estimate | Stated assumption | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S36 | Low-cost music membership floor | Repair Music Members Club, level one €5.99 a month and level two €10.99 a month. Included to show the floor of the music-membership category, which is roughly 25 to 50 times below the £299 tier. | Published | Gumroad listing | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S37 | Group mastermind pricing, general market | Masterminds reported as "usually small groups of around 20 people" priced from £97 to £997 a month. Not music-specific. Used only to show that £299 a month sits mid-band for a group programme with expert access, and that about 20 is a workable live-call size. | Reported | General-market summary, no single authoritative page | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S38 | French-language capability | Sam is described in her own public material as fluent in French, having lived in Paris for several years, and as promoting artists, record labels and orchestras "in the UK and France". Former clients include Naïve Classique, Alpha Classics and the Festival de Pâques d'Aix-en-Provence. The strategic conclusions drawn from this in Chapter 10 are this guide's judgement, not hers. | Published (the capability); Estimate (the strategic weight placed on it) | samanthaholderness.com; Sisters Communications | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S39 | Classical:NEXT delegate numbers | Described in this guide as about 1,300 delegates. This figure was not verified against the organiser's own published attendance data and should be checked before it appears in any proposal. | Estimate | classicalnext.com, not verified | 5 Sep 2026 |
| S40 | The price list itself | £49, £299 and £1,500 a month, with £199 founding for the first 30, £2,990 annual, £499 one-off for the course, £29 per seat institutional, £750 and £1,500 for workshops, and caps of 60 and 4. All of this is a recommendation argued from the comparables in Chapter 3, not a market fact. The Campaign Partner price in particular is set without knowing Sam's agency rate and must be confirmed against it before publication. | Estimate | Chapter 5, reasoning shown | 5 Sep 2026 |
How this guide was made
Who wrote it. Simon Minton, with Claude (Anthropic's AI) doing the research and the drafting, on 5 September 2026. The AI read Sam's public website and her one published interview, fetched vendor pricing pages, downloaded a UK government supplier price schedule, wrote and ran the revenue model, and generated the target list. Simon set the direction. Treat it as a well-researched briefing from a colleague, not as gospel.
What is solid. Every platform price, the Roxhill schedule, the ABO scale, the Musicians' Census figures, Stripe's UK rates and Sam's public roster. All carry a URL and a check date above.
What is judgement. The three prices, the tier boundaries, the exclusion list, the sign-up pace in each scenario, and the ranking of channels.
What was deliberately not invented. There are no testimonials, no member numbers, no case studies and no results anywhere in this guide or in the collateral, because none exist. Sam's agency rate, her available hours and her appetite for teaching are unknown and are marked unknown rather than filled in with something plausible.
Numbers to measure yourself, in order
- Sam's real agency rate, which sets S34 and decides whether the Campaign Partner tier exists at all.
- Minutes per written review, averaged over the first ten. It sets the entire time model (S28) and therefore the membership cap.
- Actual monthly churn after month four, replacing S35. It is the assumption with the widest error bars.
- Conversion rate from the twenty discovery conversations, which is the first real evidence that any of this is wanted.
- Submission rate from month two, which is the leading indicator of everything downstream (Chapter 12).
- The ISM and MU membership rates (S15, S16), neither of which could be read from the source at time of check.
- Classical:NEXT attendance (S39), before it goes in a proposal.