What is SMART music touring?
Have you heard the phrase “Don’t work harder… Work smarter”?
Usually you hear such phrases from successful businessmen or entrepreneurs who know for sure what they are talking about. What’s funny, is that often people understand it in the wrong way. We start thinking it means to chill more and work less… As a result, it sets a certain attitude toward the way we approach tasks at hand, our time, careers and businesses, if we own one. What makes things even worse is headlines, catchy slogans and social media profiles hyping all over the web picturing perfect, careless, no-worry, and to be honest — lazy life! Going back to those same business experts, if you ask them a bit different question: “how much do they work?” Guess what the answer is… A LOT!
So, what are they implying when they teach us to work “smarter”?
Working smarter — is about being smart about your time and being able to prioritize and choose the right tools to grow your business, and plan your music career. As we talk about music world geared around music streaming and the culture of “free” music consumption, artists and musicians have to be smart in the way they manage their music business — getting their music on the right platform and monetizing it in the most efficient way. It’s time to talk about SMART MUSIC TOURING!
Tours and concerts can be the biggest source of revenue for bands and artists. Usually, as a touring artist, what you do is — plan a route, book a venue, find all the needed equipment, take care of transportation, notify fans, promote your events, sell tickets & merch, book hotels and try to plan a few minutes here and there to grab a meal during the tour days. In a few words, it’s planning, planning, and planning! Successful touring career — it’s where smart touring preparation and music opportunity meet.
Below you can see five simple steps required for smart touring.
Smart touring Step 1: Plan a route
First, take time to carefully plan your routing. You want to make sure the routing makes sense and you are not skipping all over the place, because it is a waste of your time and money to travel to those destinations. Playing multiple shows in a row and always being on the road is exhausting physically and mentally. So, to plan smartly, arrange your concerts in the right sequence — city after the city that are located near each other first, and only then moving further to the more distant places.
Smart touring Step 2: Book a venue
Fans won’t probably remember your fabulous outfit, your super expensive new guitars, and keyboards or even how expensive concert tickets were… What they will remember though is how you made them feel and the atmosphere you’ve created at your music event. Booking a perfect venue — is essential for creating the right atmosphere. Choose the place carefully, estimating the number of fans in that particular city, the venue size, and settings.
For musicians, it is critically important to start small and perceive it in the right way. In the beginning, it is natural to start performing in small venues and slowly progress to larger venues with wider audience.
On Show4me, you can create your personal business account, Artist club, that allows you to put on more tours without any financial live event risks.
In this account you will be able to notify your audience about the tour you are launching and evaluate responses. Based on this, you will plan your next move in a smart way. Visiting little towns and cities all over a country is the best way to start your music career with. A concert tour that consists of small but filled venues is far better than a more ambitious one that totally fails or leaves you and the venue with many empty seats. Show4me offers concert crowdfunding tool so you can raise money for promoting your music. You will need to actively interact with your fans for that. It is you rjob race their response and analyze it.
Smart touring Step 3: Organize your crowd and sell tickets
How do we estimate the number of fans and the number of tickets sold? How to get the word out that you’re coming to the city to play live for your local fan club?
It is always a challenge to evaluate how many people are interested in visiting the concert and how many of them have in fact bought the tickets. If you are trying to estimate the number of potential show-goers in each town using social media accounts, you would rather hire a fortuneteller who can read coffee grounds. People who press “I’ll come” or “Like” your page on Facebook does not mean that the concert will be successful.
The Music Interaction Network suggests the other approach that makes a musician free from the financial risks caused by the empty music hall. The Artist club, the business account of a musician on the Network, includes all the needed information about the artist’s music projects, both albums and live shows and tours. It gives an opportunity to launch a campaign aimed to raise the sum required for tour organization. The fans pre-order the tickets with a 40% discount. If they pledge, it demonstrates their direct interest and willingness to visit an event, which is totally different from likes on Facebook.
Smart touring Step 5: Get the merchandise ready
Another source of revenue for every artist is merchandise sales. Putting enough time and energy into your merchandise creating the right designs, logos etc. will definitely pay off and your fans will have not just memories of your music events but also souvenirs — little reminders and a personal touch from the artist.
Smart touring Step 6: GO ON TOUR!
When it comes to smart touring, network like Show4me comes in where you can actually book your own shows zero-loss and risk free with concert crowdfunding. You can organize your crowds and interact directly with your fans. You can plan well by being aware of numbers with Show4me stats on your fans, all done at the same time and in one place. With Show4me, you can be the event organizer, promoter, the band or the artist, and you have complete control over your music activites, which defines your successful future. It’s all in your hands!
