3 Answers

• Reputation: 42 Q&A: 1 0 0 24 2 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Expert: 1 topic Music Panel Follow Following 0 Ben London

  2 0 The first question I would ask is why do you want to go on tour? What level is your band at? How well do you do locally? If you want to go on vacation (spend a bunch of your own money) and play some music then sure, try to go on tour but if you are going to go on tour to try to build your bands career, then you want to be as smart as possible about doing it. Here are a few realities- 1) There are more bands on tour right now than ever. Playing live is one of the only consistent ways for bands to make money so almost every band that is bigger or more well known than your band is already touring a lot. 2) There are only so many venues, so many slots per night and so much audience in every city 3) What does it get you if you drive 600 miles to play for the bartender and the sound person because you had no promotion? The bottom line is that if you are going to go on tour, you need to have started building a story about your band. The booking agents are looking for bands that have some sort of promotional support behind them. That could be anything from being on a label (big or small), press/blog coverage, extensive social networking or more well known band association. They are trying to put bands in their room every night that will draw a crowd to sell drinks. If no one comes to the show, no one drinks and they lose money. Now, agents will take chances based on how much they like the music or if they think the band is growing and they are making an investment on making money with them in the future. So you are thinking WTF? How am I ever going to get out on the road? Well…here is what I would suggest. Rather than trying to set out on a west coast or national tour, I would focus on what ever you can do within a 300 mile radius of Seattle. If you have anything happening here in town at all then it will be easier to explain it to agents in Bellingham, Vancouver BC, Portland, Eugene, Spokane, Tacoma, Etc. You can do all of these shows in quick shots. There were a number of times back in the day where my band would play Portland and drive down after work and come back that night to go to work the next day. You try to set it up where you’re playing once every month or 6 weeks in each of these markets and you try to build an audience. If you’re good (always the most important part) then word of mouth will spread along with the other bands you’ll meet in every town. Use that internet machine to reach out to as many people as possible in every city as well and try to get them to com out to your shows. IF you can build up the Northwest circuit, you’ll be in a much better position to either attract a booking agent that can help put a national tour together or have more of a story to tell to book it your self. The Exceptions… If your best friend plays guitar in the Cave Singers and they want you to come down and open for them in SF and LA or wants to take you on tour…sure! Go do it. You know you’ll be playing in front of people and it’s worth the trip. If your band gets into SXSW or CMJ, it’s probably worth spending the money to go down there just to meet as many people as possible and have access to the majority of the music industry in one location. Doing all this stuff is a lot of work, but hopefully a lot of fun as well. If it’s not fun, then you should ask yourself why you are doing it? Remember, if it was easy, everyone would do it. Good Luck. Ben London answered in Music Panel over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 23 Q&A: 0 0 0 26 3 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Expert: 1 topic Music Panel Follow Following 0

  1 0 You have to be flexible when you are booking a tour. Period. Unless you are U2. I bet they aren't super flexible. I always think that the best way for an out-of-town band that does not have agent to get a show is to join forces with an in-town band with some local connections. Venues the size of the Croc most likely have a pretty large overhead so taking a risk on the unknown can be hard with our hedging your bets with a solid few locals. Be open and flexible and get in touch with some like minded bands in in each city on your tour route. Eli Anderson answered in Music Panel over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

  Share this answer with a friend:

• Reputation: 5 Q&A: 0 0 0 6 1 0 Classifieds: 0 0 what's this? Expert: 1 topic Music Panel Follow Following 0

  0 0 Julian, I think the best first step is to work on bands you would like to play with in various cities. That way you can have ideas to present to a booking agent at a club. I always ask touring bands (unless they are huge and will bring people in on their own) to give me ideas of locals. I don't even confirm a band from another city who is unknown without a local anchor. It's best to focus on just few clubs you deem the best for your style of music. Many bands don't do research on clubs ahead of time and invariably I get blink 182 or dave matthews style bands asking to play the comet and I am dumbfounded. You are better off playing a house party in a city to a few appreciative souls than a crappy club date. Good timing on booking August. I am already holding dates for touring acts in that month right now! Good luck mammac answered in Music Panel over 2 years ago | Report Comment on this answer Enter your comment or ask a new question New comments are not being accepted at this time.

  Share this answer with a friend: