Please read this page before joining our community.
Preamble
I. The way our (Regional Tour Package)booking package works at this time is a flat fee per month to book as much as possible at your request.
II. We like to help open new doors and keep things organized so you can focus on other things like your craft and content.
III. It is best to start booking a road tour about 3 months from the desired start date. Even though most bookings for new artists in new markets are sealed about a month out from the date, some venues that are also welcoming to new acts are booked out as much as six months in advance with full bills. Three months and two months out not much gets booked, but it starts contact and is worth it usually for the extra gig or two or three it lines up as anchor dates for the tour. Then, one month out, it’s time to get desperate and go ham on emails, calls, Facebook/website messages, and follow-ups.
IV. The whole process averages out to about 2 hours a day working on the bookings, with some being early and most being closer to the actual dates.
Touring Artist Commandments
I. Expect to lose a decent amount of money on your first few tours. You are trying to build an audience in new markets for the future of your career, not cash out a meager $1,000 paycheck for two weeks of sleeping in a van. You might actually not lose money with some focus and luck. Martin broke even his first tour, but he's half business-centaur. The next few items will help in bringing money back in.
II. Mitigate your losses, and shoot for profit with creative ways to let fans give you money. Mercy merch is great and will pay the travel bills for most first-time acts. If you're cool, some people will give you $50 for a free CD (click here for what a CD is) and be very generous to help you out.
III. The easier it is for people to give you money, the more money you will make back. So, the easier you make it for them to give you money, the more people will give you money. Be sure you can quickly take money on as many platforms as possible. And know your username, email address, or @ for each one to give out to people. This includes but is not limited to Zelle, CashApp, Google Pay, Venmo, credit card reader, etc.
IV. If a promoter, venue, or talent buyer treats you well, give them sincere thanks and gratitude. Their job is tougher than yours, believe it or not. And if they manage to put on good shows, pay everyone fairly, and not be a scumbag, they are a living angel. Don't expect them to be buddy-buddy with you, but when you come back around to book the next show, they will remember how much they enjoyed working with you--whether they like your music or not. And they will line you up with better supporting local acts whenever possible since it's good for everyone.
V. Safety is really important.
a. There's probably a 1 in 10 chance someone tries to rob your vehicle(s) on tour.
b. Drinking/drugging while driving is a good way to ruin your band, your lives, and the lives of people that love you.
c. Having drugs in the south is very dangerous--they're looking for you. Martin went to jail for weed on the first day of his first tour because Georgia is a backwards time warp state, so, believe us. He did fine in jail, but you may not.
d. You will drive tired. DO NOT drive sleepy.
e. If anyone offers you a shower, take it. Even if you just had a shower 8 hours ago.
f. Keep your feet clean and shoes/socks/feet/pits/body odor-free. Rank shoes in the trunk or back of the van will still smell up front.
g. If one person is always designated driver, they are the Queen/King. Obey.
h. Be careful. And have fun.
VI. If this is your first tour, it is best to be in it for the experience. You will enjoy yourself most of the time if you realize you are doing something bold that most people don't do and don't get to do. Your new fans will be energized from this and come to your next show in their town. And they will MAKE their friends come (if they have any).
Structure & Method
- First, we scrape the internet on multiple platforms to get booking contacts for you.
- Next, we import contacts for each area you're looking to tour into your tour's workspace (Usually Trello, Airtable, or spreadsheet.
- Then, we reach out to each booker on your behalf for first contact. This includes email, phone calls, FB messages, and website contact forms.
- If we get no response at all, we schedule a follow-up for two weeks later and follow up once.
- If we are asked to contact them again at a different date or time, or to call/contact a certain person, we do that and move this contact to a lead card.
- If we are welcomed and a conversation starts about booking the requested date(s), we move that contact to a lead card.
- Once we get a response, or have followed up at least one time, we check the contact off the Contacts list for that date(s).
- If a tour date is confirmed, we move it to a confirmation card for that date.
- At two weeks out from first tour date, we begin looking for open mics on your route that will have you as a guest feature. If we get contact and confirm, we put the information into a Confirmation card for that date.
- If we can not find a feature spot for you on a date, we look for a town on route to set up for an acoustic/busk set in public--usually downtown, at a beach, or other location that is highly trafficked. Then we add it to a Pop-up card for that date.
This is what the workspace looks like. We load the desired dates and locations, then import the scraped contacts, then keep track of contacting all of them until we exhaust every possibility. This made-up sample workspace has about 40 contacts per area, but in reality it's hundreds to thousands that we spend our time contacting and having conversations with.
