Tips On Booking A Music Tour
Some may think that a few calls to surrounding venues are enough and bam! Your foot is in the door. Not so much. Sadly the reality of the fact is that, if your name doesn't garner in a decent amount of patrons through the front doors or sell tickets...you will be booted from the club.
Tip 1. Don't have a manager or agent? Booking shows mean living and breathing your iPhone. Sending emails, texting, exchanging numbers and more emails and more texts. From venue operators, supporting band slots to possible cancellations. However, the alternative route is to educate yourself into becoming your own booking/band manager. Taking a few classes via online would benefit that process highly and make the transition a bit smoother.
Tip 2. Send other bands who could be traveling through your area, a demo or a track. Again sound simple right. Typically most bands will post something on their social media accounts about needing an opening band for said city. Keeping on top and tracking which bands are going to your hometown could be that foot in the door.
Tip 3. Accounting. No one wants to be an accountant, yet this is a necessary skill to have. Depending on the venue operator, bargaining a few round numbers means splitting the cost of ticket sales, or even the entirety of your ticket sales with the big man that runs the place. If so, have a stocked merch booth because that extra change can go towards gas, food, and pedal to the metal on your mini tour.
Tip 4. Make a detailed map. If a major record label has not signed your band, that means one thing. Airplanes are out of the picture for now and driving to each show is the only transportation. Making out a detailed time map from point A to point B will save your skin. Between bathroom breaks, traveling on the highway and arriving early enough to do soundcheck. Time-management is all up to you.
Tip 5. After a few bumps in the road now is your chance to double check everything. Never assume showing up to the gig, venue, club or hole in the wall is still happening. Cancellations happen on a dime's notice. Keep in touch with either the headlining band's manager as well as venue operator. Because if not, it means wasting a tank full of gas and not nearly enough money to the next stop. Plus no one wants to start selling merch on the side of the road (yet that would make for a great story ten years from now).
Bonus Tip For Music Gigs - Once you've arrived at your tour destination...make friends with the house guy. Yeah, the guy behind the big mixing board in charge of the sound system. Getting on his bad side will cause the sound to diminish and more than likely never to return to that city ever again. Word gets around, so never, never make enemies with the house guy.
--
Kristen Fisher
Photographer name katcigarette
websites: bleachnegative.tumblr.com
dirtylegszine.tumblr.com