Digital music and online marketing may be the new black, as the fashion/marketing mavens say, but I continue to believe that old school touring is still the most effective marketing strategy for both baby and established bands.  Every facet of marketing is affected by touring - press, retail, radio and online visibility – and while it is definitely a grind to hit the road for extended periods of time, there is really no replacement for this brand of one-on-one direct marketing.

Once you really get your tour happening and have made it to the ‘Big Time’, it’s likely that you will be dealing with Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promotion company, somewhere along the way. Brad Wavra is the VP of Touring at Live Nation. In this clip, Brad talks about how the touring business has changed, from a business that primarily supported record releases, to records now supporting tours. Take a look here [0].

Speaking of revenue generated from touring, I wrote a guide [0] that might be helpful for bands that know that they should be optimizing their merchandise revenue on tour, but don’t know where to get started, how much to make, and when to make it.

Lastly, I find this video interview [0] with Fred Rosen, founder of Ticketmaster, completely fascinating. Ticketmaster has had a bad rep for years, most notably when Pearl Jam testified in front of congress against them. In this video, Fred talks about the fees and markups associated with the touring and ticketing business, and how Ticketmaster takes the heat for service charges that are not directly related to the company. 

This is just a hint of the material that we have on touring on the site. If you have time, I suggest you check out the rest of Fred Rosen’s videos (they are amazing), what Brandon Bush (keyboardist in Train, and Hired gun for countless other bands and Bob Jamieson have to say about touring, and George Howard’s touring and live show related articles.