How To Book A Tour For Your Band Abroad

Welcome to our tips on how book a tour for your band abroad. This article is a guide on how to broaden your fan base, help with budgeting and give advice on how to make the most out of your tour.

I have completed several tours of Asia with my band with virtually no assistance from labels or management. I would like to share my experience in the hope that when the world opens up with the freedom to travel again you can share your music worldwide and have a good time doing it!

The key to touring successfully is preparation and persistence. Let’s take a look at what you need to think about before you strap on your guitar and jump on the plane.

How To Prepare Before The Tour

You will need to set some boundaries before booking your tickets. What countries do you want to hit? How long do you wish to tour? Is everyone in the band committed to this venture? What is your budget?

Don’t underestimate how exhausting it can be when planning the distances between venues. This blog is for acts that will be organising their travel and budget on their own, and you’ll be booking the shows and accommodation.

You should think clearly about the distance between countries and venues. You may prefer to concentrate on one country or you could decide that you want to travel in a continent like Asia (where travel is cheap) or Europe where countries connect via land. I would not recommend trying to travel for too long a distance as this could get expensive and tiring.

Tip – Map out your preferred cities and route before looking into venues.

What Should My Budget Be?

The budget for a tour is very specific on where you are going and how many members of the band are going. You also have to take into consideration the cost of travel, travel insurance, accommodation and the fees you’ll receive from the venues.

My advice is once you have decided on the country/countries you wish to visit look into to cost of flying to and from the country, the cost of trains, busses and taxis within the country and the cost of accommodation. You can then draft a budget with your desired number of gigs and fees from each venue, this will give you a better idea of what you will be able to achieve.

Tip – Remember things don’t always run smoothly so make sure each member has some backup money in case you need it.

What Fees Should I Ask For?

Firstly do some research into what other bands at your level are charging. You may want to look at some previous bands that have played at the venue and get in touch with them. Normally other bands are quite accommodating and happy to answer your questions. This will also help you gauge if your style of music will suit the venue.

In my experience, you should usually ask for a fixed fee. If you are playing multiple venues within one city keep this fee the same for each of them. If the fees differ then it can cause you issues (we learnt this the hard way so you don’t have to).

If the venue has a good reputation for being crowded you may want to consider taking a door split of 70-30 in your favour.

Tip – If you get to tour in China they will only offer door splits but they can be very profitable as live venues are often very busy and ticket prices can be relatively high.

Always take into consideration your travel and accommodation costs and make sure the fees will cover your expenses.

Tip – When speaking to the venues set your fee or agree on a door split then also ask for accommodation (even if someone from the venue will put you up in their house for the night), transport to and from the accommodation and an evening meal with a few drinks included. This can save you a lot of money throughout the tour.

Tim in Taiwan playing the drums how to book a tour for your band abroad

How To Contact Venues

So you have mapped out the route, timeframe and have the commitment from your band-mates, it’s now time to start hitting up the venues.

I will list in order how I did this as the bullet points should help make it clear when you decide the time is right to connect with venues.

Make sure you have an awesome digital promo page so you can send a link in your introduction email. Include a biography, pictures, logo, music and videos.
Look at each city you would like to play in, find the relevant venues and try to find direct contacts. This takes time and research, as I mentioned before if you can’t find a direct contact via their website or social media try hitting up some of the bands that have previously performed there.
Once you have a list of cities, venues and contacts make a list of from top to bottom of your preferred venues.
Compose a polite but direct email that you can easily adjust and personalise for each venue and contact. Here is a link to suggestions on how you may want to compose your email – https://flypaper.soundfly.com/hustle/how-to-write-the-perfect-cold-booking-email/
Once you have sent your email if you have any personal contacts in the area you may want to ask them for assistance in visiting the venue for you and talking to them directly.

Tip – Remember to be patient, it can take time to get a response and a follow-up message around a week or so later may just jog their memory into a reply to you.

What About Our Equipment?

One of the big questions is always “what about our equipment”? Well from my experience of playing abroad most live venues already have a backline set up that includes a drum kit but it is vital to check or request this with the venue. The venue should also provide a sound engineer. You will need your guitars and any hardware your drummer would prefer to use. This may require you to buy some extra luggage allowance on some flights so, make sure you check this and book accordingly before arriving at the airport. Pre-booking luggage allowance tends to be less expensive than doing it at the airport.

Tip – Don’t be too precious about the equipment, it’s not always going to be your dream backline but, on other occasions, you will be pleasantly surprised.