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!

​Booking & Setting Up a Show

A lot goes into booking a show for an artist or band from start to finish. From rehearsing and coordinating to online and grassroots promotion, and from negotiating and communicating about availability to confirming other acts for the bill (whether you or your band puts the bill together or booker does - someone does the work).

The terminology regarding shows can sometimes be confusing for someone just starting out (words like: hold, load in, line check, draw, room cap, cover etc.). Bookers will often ask questions like “what’s your market history?” and “what’s your draw?” or “how many people can you bring out to the show?”

Here’s a brief overview of some terms:

Hold - Sometimes artists or agents will put a “hold” on a date when their working on routing / booking a tour and waiting for other dates to confirm so in that case venues will put you on “hold” if they have other acts who have reached out before you for the specific date you reached out for. Sometimes the booker will tell you have a second or third hold, and if the other bands who have that date reserved end up cancelling it, the night will go to you or your band.

Load-in: The booker will give you a load-in time for the show, this will vary from venue to venue, but will generally be about an hour before doors open. This is the time you bring your gear in and set it near the stage or onstage before the show.

Line-check: This is another word for “soundcheck” but it’s more of a quicker one right before the band plays. Rather than doing a full 20 minute or hour long soundcheck before the crowd gets there, often for headliners, the opening bands will just do a line-check and check their levels minutes before their set.

Draw: A draw is how many people you can bring to a show. A booker or venue will ask this so they can figure how many people will likely be there buying drinks, cheering you on, and paying the cover to get in. This could also determine a guarantee you’ll be paid, bar % or door deal you’ll get. Bars and venues rely on this draw sometimes to cover their expenses for the night (security, sound people, door people, bar tenders). They want to know that hosting you is going to benefit them.

Room cap: “Room Capacity” This is how many people the room/venue holds according to fire safety laws.

Cover: Door price /  Ticket price / How much it costs to get in.

A lot of people are involved in a live show. In addition to your band and the audience, there is usually a few other people involved: The promoter &/or booker, a sound person, a door person, other acts (that a promoter, band or you will have added to the bill) and the people who work at the venue.

First, the booker is who you’ll have to reach out to for a potential gig. This e-mail is usually listed on a venue’s website contact form.

Helpful Tips:

- If there are two different booker contact e-mails: local & national - email the most appropriate one

- Address the booker by their name if you see there’s a particular person

- Introduce yourself, your act or bands name (if you are one)with a brief paragraph & include a short description of your band / comparisons and that you’re looking to book a show

- Pick a few dates to send as options for booker (prior if you’re in a band make sure all members could do these days as possible options, some people may need to get off work or change their schedules)

- Include a link to any CURRENT single or album & some live video if you have available.

- Include you or your bands career highlights (like if you have been featured on any blogs, news papers, magazines or on any radio, tv) & where you have played in the area (list a few venues & locals acts you have played with)

- Include your contact info & social media links

The booker will ideally get back to you (usually within a few days but sometimes a couple weeks, if not, try e-mailing again/follow up. Try following up a week-10 days later) and let you know if the date is available or sometimes they will recommend other venues that may be a better fit or other possible dates if the one requested is already taken. If the date is open and your band is given the gig, the booker may ask you to find other locals acts to support the night. Local bands will help bring in a bigger crowd especially if you’re not from the area. If you’re booking a show outside of your hometown, it’s integral to get local supporting bands. You can find other bands on sites such as http://reverberation.com, facebook music groups, local music blogs to the specific city, venue website’s show calendars, and fliers other artists have hung up at venues or coffeeshops nearby. Also google searches can be helpful by looking up city names, band & genres tags. Sometimes bookers will also have a recommendation band list, so always ask incase they do!

Reaching out to other bands is similar to reaching out to the booker: be specific, be respectful, and include all the info in a clear and concise way!

Sometimes and ideally, a promoter or venue of a show or venue will help push this newly booked show out to online outlets and upcoming show listings. There won’t always be a promoter, but even when there is, it’s important to do your own promotion. There are many simple ways of getting your friends, family, and soon-to-be fans to your gigs. Sometimes venues, bars, coffeeshops, or houses that host events will have a built-in crowd but you can’t rely on this. That’s where online promotion and grassroots promotion come in! Once your show is booked and you’ve found other fitting acts to join the bill, make a flier and an event page on facebook and push it out to everyone you can! Give yourself a good month to promote and remind people, in person, and on social media.

Also ask the booker if they have a press list. Often they do! This can be helpful as they may have good contacts at local radio stations, blogs, and news outlets who you can email/reach out to help promote your show. Invite them to your show or ask if they can feature you, do an interview or live in-studio performance (radio) before the show to help get people out :)

Once you’re at your show, it’s important to know the door person’s and the sound person’s role.

The door person will sometimes tally how many people come into the venue and take the cover from anyone entering the show. The sound person will do the soundcheck/line check for bands, and ask you what your set up is. *Sometimes when booking (depending on venue, a booker will request you send an input list & stage plot for production so they know what to expect as far as your setup ahead of time).  They will want to know what you need on stage as far as instruments, microphones, and necessary cables, etc. to get the best sound. You can tell this person how high you want the levels in your monitors, and if you’re singing - whether you want reverb added to your voice or not. Don’t expect them to read your mind! They’re there to make it sound the best it possibly can.

At whatever level you are at, it doesn’t matter, you have to start somewhere! If you are just starting out just know even bigger artists who have been playing for years also have their own booking or show / touring struggles. So regardless of the level, hopefully this post and some of these suggested steps and tips might help making booking easier!

Additional Tips:

- http://www.indieonthemove.com is a great database for bands and musicians starting out looking to book their next gig. There are listings on this site of music venues all over the country, and they will even tell you how many people fit in the room, what genres they host, and who to contact to book a show. We would highly recommend checking this site out and becoming a member! It will help you locally as well as country-wide once you’re ready to take your act on the road! The benefits of this site are great examples of what you need in order to book shows.

Photo: Samuel Bendix  

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.

Show Etiquette

Playing a show involves a lot of extra things besides being on stage and playing your songs. From the time you arrive at the venue to the time you leave, a lot goes on and it’s important to be conscious of how you’re presenting yourself. Keep in mind what your goals are. Most likely it involves performing the songs you wrote and sharing them with the world. There will likely be other acts on the bill as well and they have a similar goal in mind, playing their songs in front of a crowd. At the start it can be difficult to find that crowd to perform in front of but that’s why it’s important to stay the length of a show and watch the other acts. In a way you have to be the audience before you can expect to have one of your own! It all comes down to being respectful, and putting care into what you do. Let the other bands know you care about them and will give their work a listen, and they’ll likely stay to give yours a listen too.

A few tips & suggestions with shows when you first arrive to a show:

Find the booker, sound or production person and introduce yourself. Biggest suggestion - regardless of what other people do, if a booker or venue asks you to show up at a particular time for load in / sound check, don’t roll in right before you play! ...And don’t be late. However if you are running late, contact (however you communicated to book the show) the venue or booker to let them know. It’s respectful. You have to treat music like a job, and you wouldn’t show up to your job late!

For up coming or long time bookers and promoters: if you’re located in the same town where you book, be the point person and show up to the venue for the show. Too often there is a gap in communication between the venue and promoter where there’s no point person and people don’t respect the artists who could be traveling many miles. Some artists base their whole day around taking off from work early or cancelling plans / getting rides and/or equipment for a gig. To show up and find no one there and no one in communication makes things very difficult! Please respect what you do & act like you care.

If you’re serious about music here are some other tips:

- treat people how you want to be treated!

- respect requested time slots. (load in, set length)

- artists: be kind to the sound person, their job is not easy & vice versa: engineers try to be friendly to the artists so they’re comfortable

- be friendly & have a great attitude! Your like a business-card but in person. People will remember.

- if you’re open to it, always share your equipment! At some point you might really need an amp or cable! Most of the time people are exactly like you & might need an extra hand if their equipment broke last minute.

- have merch so you start thinking like a business and have products available, something for people to take home as a momento. Also: don’t force your merch on people! Do let them know it’s available though.

In addition to show etiquette you can also carry your support further by almost living a daily musician etiquette- supporting local artists & bands by even going to shows that you aren’t playing, buying merch from touring acts & always remember - you are the face of your brand so do everything you do with care/heart.

Making Goals & figuring out who you are as an Artist or Band

Goal making & having a message is a very important first step, even before creating & writing songs because finding/figuring out your goals, messages & purposes as an artist or band will help you write songs that reflect that. Of course there’s also the natural progression of a band or song writer...naturally writing songs & playing a couple first shows, jamming with people, having a couple bandmates & figuring out over time what it is that everyone wants. If you can take a little time to ask yourself these questions when you’re first starting out or if you even have played for years defining this sooner than later should help eliminate a lot of road blocks especially as you grow bigger. People shouldn’t tell you who you are. You should tell them & this should be the case for most of your career. For example, if you’re working with management or a label marketing team, you should be working with them & communicating your vision that way they can do a great job & come up with ideas. Another example is you might be communicating to a possible producer you may work with so you’ll want to be as clear as possible telling them your ideal sound & also what you stand for. Of course there’s collaboration- that’s what bands, working with people & life is about! You can work as a team defining these things!

What’s your goal as a band or artist? Do you want to tour? What do you want your recordings to sound like? Do you have a message that reflects in your band’s image (how you dress, your art & logos). Do you want to just play once a month weekend shows? Do you just want to record & release songs online & not tour? Do you want your songs on the radio? Do you just want to play solo but have a drummer once in awhile? If so would you hire them or is it a band? Or do u want to build a band? Do you want to write for other artists? There are countless questions you can ask & the more you define them the more you’ll know & be clear on your goals, vision, as well as message.

Your message is what you’ll carry throughout your path as an artist. It’s what will connect you to your audience, your fans, your fellow musicians/bands, and to opportunities down the road. Look at it as a road map for the future, envision how you want your music and yourself to be perceived and received by your audience. This will help in defining your goal. Your goal will be a good indicator of what you’ll need to do in order to reach a certain market and what your path will entail. If you set out to write songs and perform them in front of crowds, what genre do you most resonate with? Which venues would make the most sense for you to begin playing at? Especially if you’re an act just starting out in your home town —Find other bands or artists on a local level who are doing what you envision yourself doing and connect! Go to shows, big and small, and take note of what inspires you. Why do YOU belong on that stage? What do YOU have to offer?