Booking A Tour For Your Rock Band In 2022

In today's video I discuss how to book a tour for your rock band by yourself. i go through everything from making a route for the tour, to best practices when sending messages to other bands and music venues, as well as organizing yourself to keep track on booking a DIY string of shows.
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[@ShakeoutNY]

Hit me with any questions or anything you want me to talk about in the future!

[@raven_glass]

As a touring musician who also just booked a tour for this year ourselves, the most important thing you can do is to work on your band first, before touring. A lot of bands make the mistake of trying to book shows without having music recorded and released to the public first. Also build your brand with a website and social media channels. Have promos such as good photos, logo etc. Touring is fun but there is no point unless you have music released. You are 100% better off having a music video and (at least) an EP out before booking shows outside your home area. You also want something to sell (cds etc) at your shows. Now when you contact a booking agent or venue, you can send them your website which links to all your pages and shows them that you're a legit, established band. In the age of the internet and social media, unless you have an image and music available, you don't exist. The fantasy of playing a bunch of shows, getting noticed by a label and THEN getting paid to make an album/video is never going to happen. You have to have all of those things first and touring is to support the music you have already made.

[@adoran_ball]

Another thing that I would like to add is that it’s a good idea to create a business email to only use for booking gigs because it could really help you stay organized with your emails. I knew I couldn’t use my personal email cause I get spammed so much from all these different companies so I made a new business email that I only use for gigs and shows that way it’s easier to sort out.

[@TheCorruptModification]

great video - thank you for sharing all the input!

[@FatherBeforeMe]

This is probably the best video on a diy tour book, some great advice!

[@dreammachine432]

This was so helpful, thank you!

[@baileyholmes8985]

I spent 3 hours writing emails and have booked 30 shows, may have overworked myself only live 17 of them are payed aswell

[@ShakeoutNY]

heck yeah!!!! that rocks

[@kcpro4542]

Super helpful !

[@Popunkwillneverdie]

I had the gig bagged but nope my kids weren't happy

[@yoiamhere4737]

My scenario: It's January and I want to plan a week long tour around the Maritimes this summer. How would you go about planning a small handful of dates? Especially when things are still unsure with Covid going on?

[@ShakeoutNY]

it is tough with Covid, but just like I talked about in the video! Make a route of where you want to go, start looking into bands and venues around those places and just start sending messages out. The sooner you start the better. Expect to not get answers from everyone all the time and figure out a plan b and even plan c for the dates that dont work out. But yeah, first thing is pick which dates you want to go and where.

[@yoiamhere4737]

@@ShakeoutNY That sounds great to start thanks a bunch for the help!

[@mikevswrld3426]

look who I found by accident. lol its mike from captain Lawrence .. So your the reason I get 30 request to perform every week.

[@grayeagle1972]

great info

[@ShakeoutNY]

Glad it was helpful!

[@LoganRides]

What if you just contact the promoter of the venue you want to play at? I did that with my local venue and he brought other bands for me to play with my band. Would that work when booking shows in other towns?

[@Popunkwillneverdie]

Managing my own band vs managing my sons acting career .... my kids lack of understanding is painful

[@vincentalessi2648]

So, about playing in a venue. I have yet to do so but when I play for my neighborhood, I don’t use any PA system, monitors or mic up my amp. It’s just straight from the amp and my mic is ran through a mic/acoustic amp but works as well as a PA. Would that set up be “inappropriate” to have that set up in the venue I’m playing at?

[@vincentalessi2648]

And should I send in a file of my music to the venue I would like to play at? So they can get a feel of what they’re gonna have that night as one of the artists performing

[@ShakeoutNY]

depends on the venue! But there's a good chane that they have a PA system there I would imagine!

[@Popunkwillneverdie]

I canceled on dave ghrohl because my kid threw an adult tantrum