Hello, everyone! We hope your final week before Christmas is going well. The post your about to enjoy is actually a guest piece from our friend Andrew Jones, founder of Checkered Owl Media. He helps us out from time to time, and in turn we hope you’ll check out his work. He’s quite possibly our favorite Canadian.
This site exists to promote the future of the entertainment industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your entertainment-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
No matter how you slice it booking a tour, is a lot of hard work. It requires time and dedication. However, there are certainly things you can do to make it a little easier on yourself. Here are 6 tools I use on every tour I book:
1. Spreadsheet
Adding a spreadsheet to my workflow has been one of the most helpful things I have ever done for increasing efficiency on booking a tour. Many computers have software built in, if yours doesn’t you can always grab “Open Office” for free. I personally use “Numbers” from the Apple iWork suite.
I have 10 columns in mine: Date, Weekday, City, Venue, Promoter, Style (club, coffee shop, church, theatre, etc.), Pay, Confirmed (yes or no), Notes, Media Contacted
It is such a huge help to have that all sitting on one sheet.
2. Google maps
This may sound obvious but Google Maps takes an ENORMOUS amount of hassle our of routing a tour. Put in your target markets, check the distances between them if it’s over 6 or so hours, zoom in look for markets in between your targets, re-arrange until you find a solid route, use that as your template. https://maps.google.com/
3. Indie On The Move
This has probably become my most indispensable tool for booking a tour (US only). It’s super simple to search any decently sized city in the US; when you do, you’ll see a bunch of venues, click into them, see their calendar, contact info and even ratings from other bands. You can even e-mail the talent buyer right from inside their site. I can’t recommend this site enough; check it out! http://www.indieonthemove.com/
4. The Indie Venue Bible
This has long been a favourite of mine and have built several circuits from it. It requires a little more effort than Indie on the move, but includes Canada, it also costs you a few dollars. However you get a GREAT pdf directory organized by state (or province) of a ton of venues, with a small guide to what genres they book. Click on the venue and you are taken either to their web page or contact info. Make the phone calls, and make it happen. http://www.indievenuebible.com/
5. Database
Once you have interested contacts, you don’t want to lose them. A database lets you keep all your contacts well organized for future contact. Some people use the spreadsheet for this, but I find a database to be much more robust. I personally use Bento, everything goes in there, from show evaluations, to promoters, to media contacts, I even print my contracts from Bento. I think it’s well worth adding to your arsenal.
6. Hustle
Ultimately it all comes down to this, if you want to book a tour, get ready for more phone calls and emails than you have made before, don’t give up. Hustle is what separates the pros from the garage bands. If you want this, work harder than everyone else.
This post was written by Andrew Jones, editor of Checkered Owl. It originally ran on his blog, but we loved it so much we felt it deserved to shared once more on ours. If you like his work and want to read more of his writing, or if you want to be super cool and offer him full time industry employment, reach out and connect with him on Twitter.
