Since I also want to share information beyond my own experiences (and keep my posts clean enough), I’ll post separately some resources related to my touring blog posts. These resource posts are directly linked to the equivalent touring posts so you can always revert back to them if you don’t remember what I’m talking about – here’s the original post.
Here are some resources I think both music business students and professionals might find interesting and beneficial related to tour planning and budgeting:
- UCLA Extension offers a course about touring, tour accounting, and merchandising that anyone can take. I was taught by Richie Gallo, an industry veteran, who also brought along various guest lecturers, such as booking agents and merchandisers for the students to learn from real life professionals.
- Richie used the book “This Business of Concert Promotion and Touring – A Practical Guide to Creating, Selling, Organizing, and Staging Concerts” by Ray D. Waddell, Rich Barnet, and Jake Berry as his course material. The book provides good basic information about touring. However, it is somewhat old already (published in 2010) considering the changes and turmoil going on in the industry. It also concentrates mainly on bigger tours. When being on a tour with a small supporting act the information doesn’t necessarily fully apply and you need to figure out how to cooperate with the headliners and other support acts and their crews.
- I used a program/app called Master Tour to plan the imaginary tour for the touring class. Unfortunately, my free trial period expired and I wasn’t able to use it during the tour. However, it is definitely something to look into. It allows tour managers to organize information related to a certain tour in one centralized place that can then be shared in real time with the whole touring crew. Eventric, the company behind Master Tour, is about to do some major updates to the program in the near future and I’m really interested in seeing what they come up with. Another similar program that I’m not that familiar with but worth considering is Artist Growth.
- Indie on the Move offers a venue database and information related to different venues such as music genre information, cap sizes, and user experiences from crews that have worked at those venues.
- I used Spreadshirt to set up a merch on demand store for the band. It allows artists and bands to sell their merch without having to deal with stock, shipping, or customer service.
What resources have you used when planning a tour?
Erika's Rock Universe 
Hey, really glad that you did the design, since we were practice this las semester. I like what the merch looks, a bit surpriced that you have the baby cloth though. I like the cup the most, and the hoodies. pretty good in price.
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Hi Tiantian! Thanks for your comments. One of the reasons I chose Spreadshirt was their wide selection of products, incl. baby and kids items and even doggy bandanas! I think band merchandise can also be fun and there should be something for everyone. The good thing about a merch on demand store is that you can sell as many items as you want without having to worry about inventory.
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