Investment from
£13,975
Category
Children Franchises
Established
1993
About This Franchise
Monkey Music is the UK's leading pre-school music education franchise, founded in 1993 by CEO Angie Coates. Offering age-specific weekly classes for babies and children aged three months to four years, the franchise has delivered over 4.8 million classes nationwide. With around 50 franchisees, a BFA Franchisor of the Year Bronze award and a 25-year track record, it offers a flexible, fulfilling opportunity for those passionate about early childhood development.
A detailed look at the Monkey Music Franchise franchise opportunity, what's involved and what makes it stand out.
The Monkey Music Franchise is one of the UK's most loved and longest-established children's activity franchises. Since opening its doors in 1993, it has brought music into the lives of hundreds of thousands of young families, teaching 12,000 babies and children every week across more than 300 venues.
Monkey Music classes are built around a world-class curriculum of nearly 500 original songs and musical activities, designed by teachers, musicians and child development experts. Classes are tailored to four distinct age groups, from three months to four years, helping babies and toddlers develop language skills, emotional intelligence and a lifelong love of music.
As a Monkey Music Franchise owner, you have two routes: teach some or all of your own classes while growing your business, or invest in a fully management-based model from day one and employ qualified teachers to deliver the curriculum. The flexibility of the model is one of its greatest strengths, allowing franchisees to build the business around their lifestyle and ambitions.
Monkey Music was awarded BFA HSBC Franchisor of the Year 2022 (Bronze), reflecting its exceptional standards in franchisee support, operational excellence and network development. Founder Angie Coates is also a former BFA board member, bringing decades of industry influence and credibility to the network.
The Monkey Music Franchise fee is £13,975 plus VAT. This covers your licence, exclusive territory, access to all curricula and trademarks, comprehensive business training and ongoing support. You will also need to factor in local working capital for the initial months before income builds, including venue hire and marketing activity.
Banks typically lend up to 70% of your capital requirements for a Monkey Music franchise, subject to a business plan and credit assessment. The franchise has strong relationships with lenders who understand the model.
You do not need a formal musical background to run a Monkey Music Franchise. Franchisees come from all walks of life, including corporate careers, teaching, nursing and retail. What matters is a passion for working with young families, strong communication skills and the determination to build a flourishing community business.
For further reading on the value of early music education, Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy, the charity supported by Monkey Music, publishes extensive research on music and child development.
Angie Coates trained as a classical oboist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and was head of music at a London prep school before her first child was born. When she went looking for an interactive class to attend with her baby daughter and could not find one, she built her own. The first sessions ran in a Dulwich church hall in 1993. Demand grew so quickly that by 1998 she was teaching close to 500 children a week and opened the model up to franchisees, becoming one of the UK's first female franchisors to join the British Franchise Association. The Monkey Music Franchise has been built on that same teacher-led curriculum ever since.
“"I wanted to bottle my experience and see if my daughter could become part of the magic of music at a young age." Angie Coates, Founder and CEO”
Every Monkey Music class is built around an age-specific stage that maps to a child's developmental milestones. Each stage has its own songs, props and parent-and-child activities, so families progress through the brand for up to four years rather than dropping out after a single term. That long customer lifecycle is one of the model's quietly powerful commercial features.
The operational rhythm of a Monkey Music Franchise is genuinely family-friendly. Classes run in term time, mostly mid-morning during the week with weekend sessions for working parents. A typical established franchisee delivers somewhere between 10 and 20 weekly classes across a handful of venues, often church halls, community centres and nurseries, with bookings managed online through the central system.
Outside class time, the work is split between marketing the next term's intake, planning props and curriculum themes, managing employed teachers if you have any, and running occasional nursery sessions, parties or holiday workshops. Most franchisees describe it as a school-hours business that fits around the school run, with quieter weeks during half-terms and longer breaks aligned to the academic calendar.
The weekly class is the backbone, but the Monkey Music Franchise model is deliberately built so franchisees can layer in additional income on top of term-time bookings.
Demand for structured early-years activities has held up well even through cost-of-living pressure, and parents continue to prioritise music, language and movement classes for the under-fives. Independent research summarised by Music Mark, the UK association for music education highlights gains in oracy, vocabulary, attention span and self-regulation in children who receive high-quality early-years music input. That evidence base helps a Monkey Music Franchise stand out from the more generic toddler-activity market when local nurseries and parents are choosing where to spend their term-time budget.
Franchisees come into the network from corporate, teaching, performing and parenting backgrounds. The ones who do best tend to be confident with people, organised about marketing the next term ahead, and genuinely enjoy being around babies and small children every week. Local visibility matters more than musical training, so the franchisees who put the energy into building relationships with nurseries, antenatal groups and family-focused community pages usually grow fastest.
The Monkey Music Franchise gives you a 500-song curriculum, BFA award-winning support, and a multi-revenue model. Request information through Franchise Hunt to explore territories.
Interested in exploring more opportunities in this sector? Take a look at other children's franchise opportunities available on Franchise Hunt.
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Cheaper than
76%
£14k
Under £20k
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To find out more about the Monkey Music Franchise franchise opportunity, simply click below to fill out the form to speak with a representative from the brand.
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The minimum investment for a Monkey Music Franchise franchise starts from £13,975. This typically covers the franchise fee, training, and initial setup. Additional costs such as premises, equipment, and working capital may apply.
Yes, Monkey Music Franchise provides training for new franchisees. This typically covers operations, business management, marketing, and ongoing support to help you get started and grow your franchise.
Monkey Music Franchise offers third party financing options to help prospective franchisees fund their investment. Contact the franchise directly for details on available funding support.
Monkey Music Franchise was established in 1993. With 33 years of experience, the brand has built a track record in the UK franchise market.
Monkey Music Franchise currently has 50 franchise outlets operating across the UK, demonstrating network coverage and brand presence.
Monkey Music Franchise franchise opportunities are available across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Contact the franchisor through the enquiry form to confirm specific territory availability in your area.
