How and Why Your Band Must Tour

By Ben Grimes and Paul Rogers of TourSavant

Here are some touring tips and opinons from TourSavant, a company dedicated to hepling artists reach their fans.

Why Every Band Can and Should be Touring

You need to get in front of people who are not your classmates, girlfriends and parents. You need to get out of town, blow open peoples' minds, show them exactly who you are and connect with new fans who will love you like friends. Because a fan who loves your band like a best friend is your most valuable resource. Touring may seem a little daunting, but you can do it and we can help you do it more efficiently and with great effect. You need a team to build any music career, and your initial team is your band itself. You’ve already got that part worked out, so now you're ready for the next step: a tour manager. Let’s hit it!

How do you get on tour and what do you do while on the road?

Okay, you’re ready to take it on the road and blow some minds elsewhere for a change. Here are some pretty basic tricks for getting your band out of the neighborhood and into some new scenery:

1) Find opportunities to open for bigger bands. There are a number of ways to get on these bigger shows. If you’re already friends with a bigger band that you want to support, just tell them you’re interested and ask for a date to try it out. You can also try to get on shows with bands you admire but don't know. The idea is to contact the band’s management and/or booking agencies, and the promoter(s) booking the show(s). Make contact, let them know you’re interested in the support slots, and ask for permission to send them a copy of your CD or press kit. Once you’ve sent them your stuff, just wait it out. If you don’t hear anything after a couple of weeks, make your follow-up calls and emails. Again, don’t pester them to death, just make a great first impression, thank them for their time, and if the shows you want aren’t working out, ask them to keep you in mind for anything they have in the future. If they start to refer to you as “that annoying bastard that wants a show,” you’ve shot yourself in the foot.

2) Network, network, network. One of the many ways that social networking sites like MySpace have made the world a better place for musicians, is the ability to look up all the coolest bands in all the cities where you want to play. Contact every single band you can find there, and become their best friends in the whole world. Try to arrange show swaps, where they come support you in your hometown, and you do the same in theirs.

3) Think locally, act nationally. On some level, you need to become a “local” band in each city you go to. Think about all of the connections and friendships and fans you have in your hometown: the best imaginable situation would be to have those same types of relationships established in every city in the country: that’s the ultimate goal. Start contacting every club, every promoter, and every band that seems like they’d "get" you and introduce yourself. Talk about all the bands you love, and let them know you’re looking for shows in their town. Let them know how well you’re doing in your hometown, and that, if they need connections there, you’re their man. Be generous with them, and they’ll be more likely to be generous in return. And when you finally get to each town, make it a point to arrange to hang out with the people that helped you in getting the show lined up. They are now your friends, peers, and business partners.

4) Go to college, but don’t enroll. Contact the head of the Student Union Activity Board at every university and college around, and tell them you’d like to play at their school. This person will almost always be a student, and it is their job to arrange shows and activities to keep the students happy so they don’t get all flustered and decide to throw a riot. This person is also rarely an experienced promoter, and will breathe a sigh of relief that a band actually made the effort to find them, instead of the other way around. Once you’ve made contact, it can be surprisingly easy to book university shows. The most wonderful thing of all about university shows is that they are backed by university funds, which means they can often pay well. It is not uncommon for bands that usually make around $100 - $500 a night to be able to pull down anywhere from $1000 - $2000 for just one university show. I advise bands that are self-booking tours who can arrange just one or two college shows a week so they can probably pay for the entire tour. Just understand, the people you’re dealing with are students; they’re not professionals, but they are music lovers and tastemakers. If the show sucks, don’t let it bother you, and even if you can’t help but be bothered, don't show it. Smile, be gracious, let your glowing personality shine through, make some self-degrading jokes, and enjoy your bloated paycheck.

Some FAQs and basic Do’s and Don’ts

What are some of the most basic road problems? Here are a few pretty common FAQs, most of these are easily solved with simple good organization: something we stress here at TourSavant:

How can we find a place to crash if we’re broke?

Finding a free place to stay is a great skill, but within your grasp if you've the personality and likeability of a successful performer. Try this trick (from personal experience): towards the end of your set, have a little crowd interaction thing like, “Hey, thanks! We’re Speckled Spectacles and we just have a couple songs left, so please come check out our shirts and CDs after the show, and hey, we kinda need a place to stay tonight, so…” At this point, if the crowd likes you, even a little bit, they’ll laugh at that last statement. You then say, “No seriously, we actually kinda DO need a place to stay, so if anyone has an open floor we can crash on, we’ll love you forever. Thanks!” 99% of the time, there will be someone waiting for you by the merch table.

Can we expect a guarantee from an out-of-town club if we’re self booking? How much should we ask for?

Unless you've built up a pretty decent following in the towns you’re playing in, don’t expect a guarantee. A Door Split is what you’re looking for, which is a percentage of the cover charge customers are paying at the door. Depending on the show, clubs will usually give between 50 and 80% of the door money to be divided among ALL the bands playing that night. The headliner, or whichever band booked the show and drew the most people, will get most of the money. The openers, who are just grateful they got to play, will often get somewhere between $50-$150 for playing support (depending on how much the total door cash was and how many paying fans the openers brought to the show).

When you’re booking your dates and trying to establish how much you’ll be making a night, just ask the club owner or promoter if they can give you a cut of the door. They’ll usually have a set percentage amount they usually do, and it’s usually best to accept their offer. You don’t have room yet to negotiate. Be sure to mention you need “at least enough to pay for gas to the next show." Most club owners and promoters understand the difficult life of a touring musician, and when you put your financial needs in such tangible terms, it’s easier to make sure they’ll get you at least the bare minimum amount that you need to carry on. Incidentally, I hope you like ramen.

Should we buy a van? Do the SUV/Trailer combo? Rent a van?

1) When you’re just starting out, rent a UHaul and tow it on your mom’s SUV.
2) Once you get a little more serious, buy the cheapest cheapest, cheapest van you can find and a buddy who knows how to fix them. This van will NOT take you on your massive eight-week tour of the continental United States, but will help you rock the mic on every stage in the four-state area.
3) When it’s time to go big, it’s time to rent. The cost to purchase a decent, reliable van, do all the maintenance and repairs you’re going to have to do after putting 3,000 miles a week on it, to keep it insured, and to replace it after less than a year because you’re going to run it into the ground just doesn’t add up to a good use of your money.

What are the most basic Do’s & Don’ts of the road?

DO: Organize. Know where you’re going, where you’re eating, where you’re staying, how much you’ve been paid, how much merch you’ve sold, how much you need to sell to stay afloat. I can’t stress enough how much money this will save you. Don’t burn gasoline for an hour trying to find a place to eat, when you could’ve sorted it out in advance or get stuck discovering that you’ve got just two CDs and three t-shirts left.

DO: Pre-tour bargain shopping. Go to Costco before you leave, while you still have money in your pocket, and buy a ton of water, granola bars, dried fruit, something to get you home if you run out of money.

DO: Make Friends Every single person you meet, from the club owner to the promoter, the other bands, the kid at the record store, the desk clerk at the hotel and the girl at the coffee shop, is your new best friend. You’ve heard the saying, “it’s not what you know, but who you know”: make sure you know as many people as possible. You never know how it’ll pay off.

DON’T: Lack in gratitude. The easiest way to make sure a band or promoter won’t ever have you back is to be ungrateful for any part of what they’ve given you. If you don’t feel like you’re being paid enough (unless they’re shorting you on a previously agreed-upon amount, that’s a whole other sack of lobsters), if you don’t feel like you’re getting a long-enough set time, if you didn’t get the soundcheck you wanted, if you don’t have a dressing room, just deal with it. You’re going to be okay.

DON'T: Bitch and moan. Touring is tough, but touring with a complainer is absolutely intolerable. You’re all in it together, it’s tough on everyone, so keep spirits light, help each other out. Be gracious and courteous to your band mates (no matter how long they take in the shower), and remember that you are working as a team.

How one fan changed the fate of a band (a.k.a. why you really must tour)

TourSavant’s first band ever came from Nashville Tennessee. The Cactus’s self-booked their first tour of the East Coast through MySpace, and, luckily, had our number on hand. They got stuck at the Canadian border trying to make their Toronto show. TourSavant was able to get them the documents they needed to legally cross over.

As it turns out, several major music industry figures happened to be at that Toronto show, and one of them started marketing Cactus’s in Canada. From that one show, the band has now been featured in three online magazines, in several radio interviews, played the historic El Mocombo theatre where the Police, U2 and Elvis Costello played, and are in regular rotation on Toronto radio, ALL FROM ONE SHOW, which they would have missed if not for the service TourSavant is offering. Of course, the band was fantastic live and did their part to make it happen, but the point is, until you get out there, you have no idea how far you can go.

You can do it! The music industry is ripe for artists like you who want to take the power back from corporations and make your own mark. Let TourSavant help you make it happen!

Comments

[music. marketing. management.]

I think in this day and age you're silly if you're not taking a video camera. Getting footage and creating content on the fly is almost as important as the gigs themselves.

[Bobby Peru - Milwaukee, WI]

Gasoline prices have made touring for most independent bands prohibitive. Right now unless you have unlimited time for social networking, the crowds that are showing up to shows are thin. There is a general apathy toward live music unless it has some type of buzz/hype around it, at least in America. People aren't going to shows to discover new bands anymore, they are going to Myspace, Ourstage, iLike, etc. 4 Years ago it was much different. Also your advice about renting vans is incomplete as it typically costs $200 to rent a van for 1 day if you plan on crossing state lines. The story at the end of the article is sensationalized and only disillusions people. The scenario you layout happens like people win the lottery. There is also a general disrespect from promoters, because there are so many bands trying to tour. The bands I encounter that tour in general, most doing 40-100+ shows a year end up with 10% of their shows cancelled, because of LAZY promoters who double book, get lame locals who don't bring anyone, don't put up flyers etc.

[Robert]

I never got past the first sentence. I don't think I need any "touring tips and opinons" and I certainly don't need anyone "hepling" me. Re-write and I might give it some thought.

[doubleagame]

Yes, I agree with Bobby Peru. Renting a van is not a viable option for an indie band. Neither is just hitting the road when you don't create demand beforehand. Bands would do well to play first locally, then regionally, and finally nationally and internationally. Some bands/artists can maintain a career in one town, or online exclusively. It surprises me that I'm finding such a naive and generally misguided post on Tunecore, which I regard as one of the top sites for indpendent artists.

[modularman]

doubleagame, I can't help but notice that you're basically restating what the article said... you obviously aren't going to go on a national tour when you've just recorded your first demo. That's why it talks about only renting once you've outgrown the suv and the shitty van. it also isn't addressing where you're playing, if its regional, national, whatever... its saying once you've outgrown your hometown, how to approach getting out to some other cities.

i thought this had some good ideas, and i definitely agree that bands shouldn't abandon good old fashioned touring. i've been playing around for 15+ years, and i hate that touring has become such a 'its too hard' idea.

i agree with bobbyperu that social networking has replaced concerts for finding new bands, but i like the point in the article about using social networking to connect with other bands to basically mooch shows, and therefore crowds, from them. i've tried that a few times around the southeast, and so far its been decent. it at least gets me out somewhere new.

Of course I'm not getting my hopes up that Rick Rubin is gonna be at a show and decide to give me a million bucks... That IS like winning the lottery.

But i agree with the basic idea here... we shouldn't abandon touring as a way to get out there and make fans.

[soshush]

I used to be in a band, who after expressions of interest from a few record companies did a little tour – at the weekends hiring a van and sleeping in it.
It’s a nice romantic notion of what a band should be about but an utter waste of effort. Despite trying everything to promote gigs you usually ended up playing in front of other bands and paying for the privilege.

Besides - we grow up and get good careers - should that exclude us from making and wanting to sell music?
I put an advert on face book the other day for £50, as a result ¼ million more people now know our name and over 300 more have played our music when it sounds its best – i.e. recorded in a studio – who needs touring!

[Professor Kliq]

As an electronic musician, putting on a show is next to impossible, done by one's self, at least to any degree of entertainment. Otherwise, you'd hardly know the difference between an electronic musician and a DJ - and I'm of the the firm belief that there is and should be a very pronounced and obvious difference.

I'd like to see an article talking about different ways and methods for electronic musicians to do this: and no, not just standing in front of a Macbook with Ableton and pointing and clicking.

I did read the article though. That's a big help, but I have to jump the hurdle of the previously mentioned, first.

[Luna's Ceiling]

I'm in the same boat as Professor Kliq: a one-person wizardtronic outfit that's got the not-insignificant hurdle of putting together any sort of live act at all, to say nothing of taking it on the road. I agree that solitary-geek-with-laptop performances just don't work in terms of audience involvement, but sometimes it's hard finding the right people to put together live versions of your material. Even modest goals like mine (a stand-up electronic percussionist and a second keyboardist, with either or both contributing vocals) can be hard to reach, especially if you're playing an obscure subgenre in a relatively low-population area.

That said, having come FROM a traditional analog-instruments-and-live-shows background before going (almost) all digital, I can vouch for the advice in the article. Today more than ever before, a band venturing beyond local venues for the first time has to get everything about a tour just right in order for it to make any money (or just break even). Wasting gasoline, spending too much on food, running out of merchandise...any of these things can slide you into the red so quickly you'll never know what hit your bank balance.

Still can't wait to start doing it again, though!

[Andy Zipf]

Absolutely. I agree 100%. Who cares if you have a million friends on any social networking site if you don't tour? Live is where the connection happens. Period.

[Redfaggot]

I highly appreciate your tips and encouragement. I regard them as roadmap into the musical industry. I am going through them and digesting them, I will fully utilize them as soon as I start generating some fund with your help. I am sure we shall do a lot of talking over time and we shall do a lot together accordingly.

Let the communication remain open therefore.

Thank you.

[Geoffrey Clay]

One thing that's important to remember here... make sure you don't suck before you go on tour. You should be certain that have talent first and foremost before you tour. Do people in your hometown constantly tell you "you're gonna make it," "don't give up" etc? You should really think about this before you invest in a tour.

[Aron Gibson]

I think the idea here is to do things smarter than in days past. You don't just "hop in the fan" and hope for the best. You have to have your ducks in a row, playing great local shows before touring regionally, aggressively networking on myspace/face book and, I like what soshush said, why not spend a little on marketing to create the "buzz" people are looking for? Bottom line: myspace can't ever replace the thrill of seeing a band live, meeting the musicians etc. I think you just have to be smarter about touring...you need to run a tight ship, on the business side, so a tour doesn't hurt you more than it helps you.
~Aron
www.myspace.com/theswaggersticks