More Tips and Tricks

More Tips and Tricks.

In my previous blog “Tips and Tricks for Touring”, I have written about charting a route for your tour and booking your shows in advance. In this blog and some blogs to follow, I am going to cover as many crucial tips and nuances of touring as possible, to help indie artists.

Booking Shows

While sending out an email to potential bookers to book a shows in advance, remember, it is very important for not-so-famous indie artists to prepare a good pitch for the email. The pitch should typically include your genre and style, link to your website and other social media accounts, preferably the ones that have reviews, likes and followers. If you do not have a website yet or don’t know how to get one, there are companies like Hyper Effects that make it very easy for you to own and maintain a website. Hyper Effects is one stop for your website, marketing and cyber development requirements. It helps you to create a website to display your talent or sell your indie music or indie art. Their websites are easy to navigate and help you connect with your target audience and bookers efficiently.

Always send follow up emails if you haven’t heard back after sending a booking request. After playing, remember to send a thank you email to the host for having you. If any of the guests go as far as exchanging emails, write to them for their appreciation. These contacts help you establish a residency, which should be3 the goal in many places if you plan on touring through the area again. They chose you over your competitors and that’s an awesome start!

It has been suggested as a good idea to call unconventional music venues after the performance to thank them. However, most traditional music venues do not want this.

Try to make your tour as packed as possible. When you have no time to spend money, you’re only working and making money. The more you plan in advance, the more bookings you can get for your preferred dates. Many bookers will ask you to find local acts that draw a crowd and combine your performance with them. It is not very difficult to find local acts online. You might need other acts or have to rearrange a show and need bands. All of these can be found online. Just do your research well while planning the tour.

Another tip is to find a tour partner. Two is always company. It helps a lot to have someone to split up driving and food and lodging charges, to solve problems, carrying gear, navigating and most importantly, safety. See if a relationship of interdependence ca be formed with such partners and if this can be done often.

Advertise Your Tour

This is a lot of work!

In my blog “It’s Difficult to be Indie”, you will read that while your listeners are happy to see you out and performing, constantly, for the young indie artists touring is not easy. When on a self-sponsored music trip, the indie artists are paying for their food, lodging and other travel costs. Some have jobs to keep, others have families to run. Indie music does not earn enough money to finance tours. So when you have decided to make a tour, do your best to market it.

Synchronize your website to bands in town and other platforms. Facebook, Instagram and flyers are all extremely important. Another important thing is to make sure the venues you are playing at are displaying your info on their social media accounts. Send friendly reminders if they haven’t done it.

Send flyers to venues. Some venues ask for a physical copy and others a printable digital file. It is a good idea to print flyers where date and time can be filled in with a marker. This enables you to use a base flyer. There are often changes in schedule, and such flyers save you the money and effort of reprinting.

In my next post I am going to cover some more points to help indie artists plan a tour. Please leave your experiences or opinion in the comments section and I will add it in my future posts.