Routing a Tour

When you first go to plan the routing of a tour, it is important to take these factors into consideration and to first ask yourself a few questions to define the tour.

What is the purpose of the tour?

Are you releasing new music? Did you just release a single or record and want to support the new release? Are you playing a great festival or show in the middle of the country or in a big city that’s great exposure and great pay? It might make sense to turn the trip into a tour instead of flying there. Are you just looking to expand and play regionally as well as gain new fans? Or are you just looking to play and get paid gigs? Whatever it is, try and define that first with your band so when it comes to finding venues and cities you are looking in the right place!

(Photo: Jenny Bergman)

What vehicle are you using and how long is your tour?

Is your car or van in good enough shape to take you where you need to go? Is a rental a better option? And if it is, is it in your budget? Sometimes when you’re first starting out touring it might be best to consider just getting your feet wet with a few week-long runs with your band before diving into a full few weeks or month. That way you can build up to something bigger and you won’t go out of pocket too much if you’re just figuring things out! No matter how long you are going out on the road for, make sure that your car has passed inspection and that you can rely on it to get you where you need to go safely!

What is your target market?

Once some of your goals are defined, decide who you are playing for. Which cities do you think your music will go over well and where do you want to start to build a fanbase?

Music scenes all over the U.S. grow and change on a regular basis, but it’s important to keep in mind which part of the country you’ll be playing to and what type of music is mostly focused on in an area or venue. It will vary all over, but you can research the cities you’d like to play in and see what’s going on at the local music venues through the venues’ facebook page calendars or websites. You could also look up bands or artists you feel are similar to you and see the venues they play. Also consider asking other friends’ bands or artists who tour what experiences they have had.

*Make sure that if you’re focused on playing a specific bigger city that you aim to play there on a Friday or Saturday night as these are the peak show times! Try to keep larger cities on the weekends and the smaller towns in between.

*TIP: http://indieonthemove.com is a fantastic database of venues by city and state. You can also define the search by seeing the music genres that the venues host.

What is your budget and have you set a target amount that you will be getting paid or making per show?

Sometimes when you’re first starting out, you won’t get a guarantee from the venue. In some cases you will have to play a market a few times, and show consistent promotion for a door cut, bar %, or tips to gain fans. At times you will have to rely on merch sales when you are starting out! This can be such a great savior! Your two CDs and three t-shirts sold will pay for gas and food in a new place. Sometimes coffeehouses, bars, restaurants, and breweries will pay more and give bigger guarantees than a venue in a big city. The smaller town markets between the bigger cities can sometimes be overlooked, but will often host music, be a perfect stop in between two major cities, and can really help bring in larger amounts of money than a show in the big well-known cities would. This is often because they may have a budget for giving artists a guarantee or a good bar %, and you won’t be relying on bringing in fans for a cut of the door.

When you’re first starting to tour, it’s good to establish the worth of your performance. How much do you get on a regular basis when playing your hometown? How many people are in the band and how much will you need to get to the next city? It’s important not to undersell yourself but not to charge too much either. If you are new to a market, just know you will have to play the city a few times to help establish. Consider it an investment if you plan to tour a lot. If you’re basically beginning in a new place and can coordinate with the booker, always ask and see what they can offer you as far as a bar %, door %, guarantee, food/drinks, lodgings, etc. Often venues will feed touring artists too! So always check.

(photo: kribbean at 'Roll & Roll Hotel' via TripAdvisor)

Will you be staying with friends/family or at hotels?

If you are traveling to a place where you have friends or family, see if it’s possible for you or your band to crash with them for a night. More likely than not, they’ll be excited you’re in town and will want to come see the show and let you crash if they have the space. Offer them some merch or a guest list spot in return! If you’re staying at hotels, a lot of them offer deals and express deals through http://Priceline.com. It’s possible to get a motel or a hotel for as cheap as $25 a night in some cities!

(Photo: Vanessa Silberman on tour with Jimmy Dias of The Love Dimension)

What is the distance between cities/states you are traveling?

It is helpful to look on a map when routing a tour, and to keep in mind the lengths of your drives and the distances between your shows.

*TIP: find out who in your band will be sharing the driving duties and calculate how many hours the band can do on a gig day (ex. 4-5 hours plus gas stops/food breaks/bathroom stops. Also consider cushioning a little time for traffic in bigger cities or any time changes to get you on time for load in and sound check).

It can be a challenge sometimes finding great gigs on weekday nights rather than weekends, but it IS possible!! Many venues around the U.S. book music seven days a week, and some that only book on weekends will sometimes make exceptions for touring artists. The closer you can get to a straight line or a circle without retracing steps and driving extra miles is going to be the most effective way to map out a tour and to make the most profit!

(Photo: Jenny Bergman)

Do you have enough time for preparation and booking?

Make sure you consider starting the planning of a tour 3-6 months prior to the first night of tour. It’s going to take time to align it so it is linear and so you can fill in all the gaps accordingly. If there are any gaps, say on a Monday that you just couldn’t find a venue for, try hitting up a local show and meeting some bands if you’ve got the day off. You could visit some open mics as well as record stores to see if they’ll put your music on consignment.

This site can tell you how much a route will cost in gas and tolls and also how far you’ll travel in miles according to your vehicle. It’s great for figuring out a budget plan and a route! https://tollguru.com/trip-calculator

With just a little bit of planning ahead and time you can route a great tour!

Setting Up a Release

After playing some local shows, establishing yourself on social media, telling all your friends and new fans about your band or project, then planning recording, going into the studio, and finishing your first recording, (Single, EP or Full Length) you are probably ready to release some material! Even if you haven’t played out live yet and no one knows about the project you’ve been writing for or practicing with - releasing a song could be a great way to let everybody know about it as these days (depending on genre & direction) there are dozens of ways, both traditional and new school, to release material.

Whether it’s a single, an EP, or a full length album, the process could be looked at the same. You have the material, shows, you’re building your name and your image / music brand, and the object is to line up all the pieces so they work together. Getting the order of tasks so they start building and continue the building momentum is key! We’ll go over a few ideas in this post - Though keep in mind these ideas aren’t the only ways to do a release.

Before you release a song or an album (EP or LP), you’ll have to do some preparation and planning. Setting up a release is a lot like recording pre-production, but on a different front - time-line, social media, content, online promotion, digital distribution, and coordinating with numerous people. It’s pretty much thinking in terms of a musical “to do” list in order to get your newly recorded song(s) out into the world - and letting people know about it!

Before setting up a release you could ask yourself these questions regarding the material itself:

⁃ do you feel really proud of the song(s), the direction, and want to share it?

*you will be the one pitching and promoting the material regardless if you hire someone to help with PR, Marketing or Radio promo (you want believe in it 1000%)

⁃ is it representative of you and what your sound is?

*make sure before you release music that the image and the music represents you in the best way

⁃ has your music gone over really well live, and has it gotten a good crowd reaction?

⁃ is it sounding tight between you and your bandmates when you play these songs live together?

- did you pick the right songs for a release?

*Ex. If you recorded 5 or 6 songs or even 3 but 2 don’t feel right (maybe a couple have a different vibe direction than the others or the performance isn’t as good as it could be) don’t release them yet do a single or a smaller EP of only your best work!

*No filler!! These days there are so many artists, so many songs and so much content overloaded online that it is important to remember if you work really hard on your songs and what you do it will show and eventually pay off. The cream rises to the top!

Once you have decided on the amount of songs, preparing your album/single artwork would be the next step (or could happen simultaneously).

- will your music be a digital release, physical release, or both?

*this is a big factor because of art design and manufacturing, as well as budget!

Digital Art - you will most likely only need a cover for the single or album, and a few different versions of the art that you could use for online promotion.

(Example: Social media promo pics, including posts ‘coming soon’ & ‘out now’ and cover photos)

Digital Distribution - there are many digital ways to release music, here’s a few:

Tunecore, CD Baby (these sites distribute your songs to iTunes, Amazon, Spotify & many others for a small yearly fee & will send you money monthly)

Others: BandCamp, SoundCloud (Free streaming)

Physical Art - This is more costly but imperative if you’re a live band so people can buy your CDs at shows as well as online.

*you’ll need to decide on a design (pocket, plastic case with insert, fold out, 8 panel, there are many options, and at different prices) but you’ll need to figure out your budget by researching companies to find out how much printing is, how many they can produce for your budget, and how long it will take to manufacture. You’ll also need to get templates from the manufacturer (often you download these from their site, for digital the distributor usually states the requirements)

*check out http://www.discmakers.com and http://www.hollywooddisc.com for free quotes and prices.

You will also need to get your ISRC codes from your masterer - or these can be created by the online distribution outlet you choose as they will make them for you.

*ISRC codes are used to track sales and if you have them you will enter them in a form when you’re signing up to distribute your music.

With this information you can start figuring out a release date, timeline, as well as accounting/budget (art, manufacturing, distribution etc)

Here comes coordination and timing! The most important part!

- you’ll want to give yourself a good window of time to create the product (once you have the finished songs you’ll need to make a deadline with the graphic designer you’re working with and line up the time it will take for printing or online distribution)

- promote the product before its release

- release the product

- sell the product

- promote the product consistently thereafter

Giving yourself a large window of time will give you a deadline to get it done, it will generate excitement about the release, and will give you ample time to prepare.

Let’s say your window of time is 5 or 6 months for a record (with the suggestion of a minimum of 8-6 weeks for a single). Your deadline, or day of release is at the end of that time frame (release day for new music is Friday).

Additionally, if you have some extra budget, you can consider independently hiring out a company to do a collage and/or specialty radio campaign (typically radio campaigns start 4-8 weeks ahead of release), most campaign companies will have you print up an additional 100-200 physical CDs that they will mail to radio stations (or you will, depending on the budget) to you’ll have to account for additional costs. If you’re doing this, getting you’re music to the campaign people at least 6-8 weeks ahead of time (depending on length) before the release is super important. Coordinating with the organizers of the campaign at this time is imperative.

You can also consider hiring a PR company to pitch your music to blogs, media outlets, magazines, newspapers, and TV. There are many PR companies both big and small. Typically a PR campaign runs $1000+ a month. At a minimum, most companies like to start working a release 6-4 weeks before (sometimes more depending on the release as well as company or campaign length).

If you don’t have a budget but have time and a good work ethic, you can do your own PR (which we’ll go over in another future post!). But typically news and media outlets need time in advance for printing, featuring and/or premiering (of course not all online music blogs are the same but this is a general time frame) are 4-6 weeks.

A few check list items for you or your band in preparing for the release (5-2 months ahead of time) you will:

- make a budget / keep track of your expenses and know how much you have to put into your music

- set up and ready artwork idea/find a graphic designer

- set up distribution

- consider coordinating and setting up a release show in your home town

- make an online posting plan (telling your fans and friends that a new release is on its way - tell them what day it’s coming out)

- create and share cohesive artwork to go along with the release on all your social networks, get people involved through social media in a creative way

- set up PR and Radio campaigns - or If you’re doing it own your own, put the song or record up on a private soundcloud link that will be used for sharing with blogs/newspapers/media outlets/reviewers as well as other industry people a couple months before the release to help generate interest.

- share the reviews/features/premieres/response online that you get from the campaign to further excite your audience (this is a huge part of momentum and activity) and use it as online posting content.

⁃ consider making a list of Spotify playlists you want to pitch the song to once it’s out

- consider making a music video for your most popular live song (or if you haven’t played live, consider getting some feedback on what your strongest song is) that you can release around the time of the album release to build excitement and activity!

*Tips: you can try to get premiere for the video, or after the song has been released consider doing a video release show.

Other factors and tips for a new release to take into consideration are:

⁃ make sure, just like the music, that the album/single artwork is strong and matches you/your band.

- maybe consider a new photoshoot / art direction for a release theme which can be tied into marketing.

(For example, say you have a single called ‘Red Rose.’ Maybe you and your bandmates could do a photo shoot and wear all red colors near a rose garden. Maybe for building up for the release you could do social media pictures of red roses in different locations! Or live, wear these outfits. Whatever it is be creative and true to you!)

- sign up with a songwriters society (ASCAP or BMI, SESAC* *is invite only) and register your song or songs so you can get paid when your song is played on the radio.

- sign up for soundexchange.com and register your song or songs so you can get paid for online streaming.

Setting up a release successfully comes down to preparation, promoting your product, and finding the right outlets to help keep pushing it forward. You can pay lots of money for companies to do this work, but you can also do it yourself! Believe in the work you’re putting out and tell everybody about it! Setting it up with ample time to prepare for promotion and to generate more response and hype is going to be integral and well worth the wait!

Tales From the Road Part 2 (with tips)

The First Night of my First Tour

The first night of my first ever tour was in Burlington, VT. My band set out for our first show of a small week-long run around New England with all our gear in our Ford Escape. It was a great show in Burlington, we played late, made some friends, sold some merch, and the college town downtown was hopping. We loaded our gear back into the car and went back into the venue to watch the headlining performer. We locked the doors - from what we recall - and loaded everything safely into the vehicle around 12:30am. We finish watching the show and about an hour later we headed back to the car to find the door wide open and the inside lights on! Unfortunately, while unattended and while we were inside enjoying the show, someone found a way in the car. The intruder rummaged through our belongings and took my bass and my bass amp from our vehicle. I couldn’t believe it. The first night of my first tour, someone stole my bass. We notified police and the venue owner and we drove around town until the sun came up hoping to find it laying in someone’s yard or on the street. No luck, and we were beginning to feel delirious from being up for so long. We headed to the hotel and were trying to figure out how the rest of the tour was going to work without a bass. After a very long restless night I accepted that my bass was gone forever and we headed to Western MA for our next show. Thankfully a kind member of the first band let me borrow his gear and we were able to play our set. That night we were staying in Western MA (next day’s show was NYC) we were still trying to sort out what to do about the missing bass scenario. Unexpectedly after the show we got a call from the venue owner back in Burlington about a call they received from a mother reporting her son, who had stolen a bass and an amp from a band at the venue. The bartender answered this call and unfortunately did not get any info, so the call went untraceable. We knew it was our equipment the mother was reporting so we began to feel hopeful that we’d get it back! Early the next morning instead of heading to NYC we drove back to VT to see what we could do about the bass. No one called or knew how to retrace that mother’s phone call. We went and waited at the venue for a few hours but had to eventually leave to get to our show which was now about a five hour drive away. We left, again accepting we wouldn’t get the bass back, and headed for our show in NYC. We decided to do a stripped down version of the songs that night and had a great acoustic show on St. Mark’s St. There were only a handful of shows left - but we managed to do them all without a bass or by borrowing gracious bassists’ equipment at the shows. The kindness of strangers can sometimes come out of nowhere and mean so much!

Unexpectedly on the second to last day of tour we got another call from the venue in VT saying the bass and amp arrived safe and sound and would be driven to my house in MA by the end of the week. I really couldn’t believe it. I felt so grateful that somehow someone connected to the person who took the bass decided to do the right thing! Not only that but a performer who was playing that night while on tour was passing through my town the next day, and dropped it off for me to pick up the day I returned from tour. I went my whole first tour without my bass, or amp, but through the kindness of strangers, a little luck, and a miracle, it was all okay. Now at shows I am sure not to leave gear unattended, or in a car that I may or may not have locked! Lessons learned!

Tips:

- Keep an eye on your equipment at all times.

- Double check that you locked the car, hotel room door or anywhere else where equipment is left.

- Consider not loading all of your expensive gear into your car until you’re leaving the venue.

- Try to always be aware of your surroundings and if you’re in a place you don’t know.

- Travel as lightly as you can - the less you carry the less you have to misplace or worry about.

- There are great people in every town who are there to help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

- If there’s ever a scenario to help another band out with sharing backline do it! The kindness can go so far!

- If you can, always stay to see the headliner, even if it’s past your bedtime to support the whole show and other bands

- Support your bandmates on tour - you are a unit and should be there for one another through the thick and thin.

- Unexpected things can happen on the road, like anywhere, and sometimes you’re not prepared. Try to go with the flow if you can. Remember there is a solution for everything! There is always some type of work around!

Tales From the Road Part 1. (With Tips)

The first longest drive & journey on my first U.S. Tour 2005 (PT. 1)

I was on a tour with my band at the time and another L.A. band (there were about 10 of us in a 10 passager van) and we had to get from Olympia, Washington to Salt Lake City, Utah for a show the next night. It was just about midnight when we left Olympia and drove into the night. We had just played a house show in someone’s side-yard (pretty much adjacent to the street with no fence) and the cops were called because of the noise. I think the other band only got three songs into their set when it ended. I remember having a sore throat, a cough, and was very much not looking forward to driving nonstop until our next show but still extremely excited about being on tour. I spent half the night literally rolled up under a seat bench (so I could somehow try and stretch my legs out and sleep), wrapped in a hoodie with clothes around me, listening to my CD player with a record on repeat (over the big bumps it would skip). But as sick as I felt as we drove, there was an incredible feeling and experience I got from it and was able to share it with these people. There’s a feeling you can’t quite explain...a weird love/dislike. Almost a strange addiction that develops from being on the road and especially the moments of the feeling of being half asleep in a seat and waking up to the sunrise somewhere (it was Idaho)… Seeing nothing but a beaming sun hitting the window slowly coming up, the heat of summer slowly rising in the car, yellow grass fields for miles, the hum of the van radio and some people quietly talking in the front seats - either trying to keep the driver awake or just plain wired up on Coffee. From all of it there’s a kind of comfort and calm feeling.

By the time we got to SLC it was about 6pm and my throat glands were about the size of golf balls and this had been the most painful sore throat I had ever gotten. I had been slowly loosing my voice and ended up having to go straight to the hospital as soon as we got there so I could get medicine for it.

Unfortunately I had to cancel this show. To this date it marks the only show I’ve ever had to cancel for health reasons and aside from this show I have only ever cancelled one other show (that was agreed upon by a booker) to date.

(…To be continued)

Tips:

- Drive times, lining up dates, routing:

When planning a tour, if you’re first starting out, I’d suggest to try and route tour dates to not have to drive more than 6 hours on a show date.

Here’s why: depending on how many people you’re on tour with, you most likely went to bed after 1am and usually the latest check out time of a hotel or motel is about 11am or noon. Even if you're stay with friends, family or other bands lot of people have work the next morning...so odds is you'll need to get in the morning and leave enough time for everyone to get ready. By the time you get ready, stop for gas, grab coffee and food - an hour will go by. Then when you add the gas, bathroom and food stops (at least add another hour). Then add another hour if there’s traffic or a time change (of course there are exceptions!) but this brings you to 7 or 8pm which is a typical load-in time. Everyone has their own way of doing things and sometimes you make things work (the radio show at 10am, driving a few hours after your show to cut down on drive time). Planning ahead of around 6 hours drive time like this could be less stressful especially as you get into long tours, sleep will become very important as well as having enough time for everything with bigger groups of people.