5 Tips to Optimize Your Tour
- Consider The Costs
- Establish The Team
- Construct an Action Plan
- Rep Your Best Work
- Network, network, network!
- When you go on tour, the first question that may come to mind is… where will you go? This may be based on where your fans are, or it may be based on the venues you have locked in for a certain period of time, or it may be based on other excursions that require travel, or you and your band’s schedule outside of music (do you have a job you have to return to a week later? Or can you dedicate a month (or more!) to the tour?). The list goes on and on!
This being said, it’s important to know your budget (even if it’s a rough estimate) so that your dreams can be a reality… that is fun, and NOT STRESSFUL.
How much will it cost to book hotels and/or Airbnbs? Will you need to rent a van? How much for gas? Is airfare necessary? Don’t forget food? Etc etc etc
In need of some $ for the road? I recommend making a crowdfunding campaign!
2. NO, the team is NOT just the band! Well, sometimes it is. If that’s the case, what will each member do to accomplish the many responsibilities you’ll have when touring?
It’s always a good idea to consider hiring a manager (or even letting your *hardworking* buddy be a manager for free), because the manager can keep you organized when you’re worrying about your performance and aesthetics- which are definitely quite important!
If your budget calls for it, you can consider having even more staff on the road with you. If not, maybe consider having some remote promoters/publicists who can help you out in general. You’re never really alone in this business unless you make yourself alone.
3. Okay cool so now we have an idea of prices and we have a team (hopefully) that’s working with talent buyers, finding support acts, and pitching to press for each tour stop. Now what?
Set goals for each week leading up to the tour. This is a helpful way to check progress as it’s an effective way to make sure you’re actually getting things done and not saving things for the last minute the way I do with my homework (haha).
4. When you put yourself out there as an artist (or band, dj, etc…), you’re making yourself a public figure and every impression means something and that means each song you release, post you make and word you say can make it or break it for you.
It may not be as intense as I made it sound just there, but this is the mindset you should have if you’re striving for stardom (or to have enough of a following to pay the bills/feed your family). So why not put your best foot forward?
5. When you put your best foot forward, people NOTICE and that’s what makes people want to work with you! Not just because you sound good but because you CARE and you’re motivated and happy with what you’re doing. & you should want to work with others, because we cannot grow if we’re always alone.
I know this was a long post, so I just want to say (if you’ve made it to this part) thanks for taking the time to read through my thoughts on tour prep! Comment for some rad discussion 🙂 Peace out!
