PLANNING AND ROUTING: SAVED BY GEOGRAPHY
[Madalyn's Note: this article is from this week's Atlas Plugged newsletter. Enjoy!]
Excerpted From Chapter 3 of Tour:Smart And Break The Band by Martin Atkins.
“Do not go into battle unless you are certain of the outcome.”- Sun Tzu
AMERICA IS BIG...
...really, really big. In a business where there are so many things that will derail you, it seems silly spending years mastering sampling , drumming, singing, or improvised guitar techniques, but not spending a little bit of time understanding elements that will affect your life on the road every day—Geography and Demographics. Look at a map. Keep looking at it. Think about how long it is going to take to drive from Minneapolis to Seattle. Imagine yourself playing the board game of “Touring USA!” What would your strategies be? Because, for some reason, when someone shows up in a van or buys a guitar, all common sense flies out the window!
Before you do anything, assemble information that will help you communicate with an agent (if you have one) or directly with a venue. If you see a gap between two groups of places that you want to perform in, reach out to a local band to bridge that gap. Understand that any show will be poorly attended unless you use some of the strategies outlined in this book, or make up some of your own. Developing new markets is costly and time consuming, but you must allocate resources accordingly. Suggest a free show for these dates, get involved in an established evening, play every day, twice a day if you can, or better yet, get involved with an established evening with a cheap ticket and a popular local band.
FACTORS TO BE AWARE OF BEFORE YOU PLAN A TOUR
*Size of city and proximity to other cities and secondary markets.
*Mileages.
*Best locations for your specific niche.
*Established events that can help you.
*Other tours within the same time period to use and avoid.
*Weather patterns.
*Your goals as a band.
*Your past history.
*Touring patterns.
Read the rest of the article here...
Excerpted From Chapter 3 of Tour:Smart And Break The Band by Martin Atkins.
“Do not go into battle unless you are certain of the outcome.”- Sun Tzu
AMERICA IS BIG...
...really, really big. In a business where there are so many things that will derail you, it seems silly spending years mastering sampling , drumming, singing, or improvised guitar techniques, but not spending a little bit of time understanding elements that will affect your life on the road every day—Geography and Demographics. Look at a map. Keep looking at it. Think about how long it is going to take to drive from Minneapolis to Seattle. Imagine yourself playing the board game of “Touring USA!” What would your strategies be? Because, for some reason, when someone shows up in a van or buys a guitar, all common sense flies out the window!
Before you do anything, assemble information that will help you communicate with an agent (if you have one) or directly with a venue. If you see a gap between two groups of places that you want to perform in, reach out to a local band to bridge that gap. Understand that any show will be poorly attended unless you use some of the strategies outlined in this book, or make up some of your own. Developing new markets is costly and time consuming, but you must allocate resources accordingly. Suggest a free show for these dates, get involved in an established evening, play every day, twice a day if you can, or better yet, get involved with an established evening with a cheap ticket and a popular local band.
FACTORS TO BE AWARE OF BEFORE YOU PLAN A TOUR
*Size of city and proximity to other cities and secondary markets.
*Mileages.
*Best locations for your specific niche.
*Established events that can help you.
*Other tours within the same time period to use and avoid.
*Weather patterns.
*Your goals as a band.
*Your past history.
*Touring patterns.
Read the rest of the article here...
Madalyn Sklar is a music business coach & consultant, blogger, social networks expert and author. She has spent over 15 years helping independent musicians and music business professionals achieve greater success. Her motto is: working smarter not harder. She also founded GoGirlsMusic.com, the oldest + largest online community of indie women musicians.
"Madalyn not only gives me marketing strategies during our consultations, but she gets me thinking in a whole new direction."
"Madalyn’s high-energy, can-do attitude was the shot that I needed to get me going!"
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