Tour manager

A tour manager (or concert tour manager) is the person who helps to organize the administration for a schedule of appearances of a musical group (band) or artist at a sequence of venues (a concert tour).

Background

The performances on a concert tour will be booked by the band’s booking agent who will work with concert promoters to place the band in suitable venues and festivals in a time frame and territory agreed with the band’s management. The individual concert promoters will agree the financial, technical and hospitality requirements of the artist and offer the booking agent a "deal" for the show. The tour is announced and tickets put on sale when all the tour dates have been agreed. As modern concert touring involves complex financial, legal and technical arrangements, the booking agent or artist manager will approach a concert tour manager to organize the logistics of the tour. Concert tour managers are usually freelancers working on a tour-by-tour basis.

Finding Work

• Internships provide great entry point for road work. Some companies that always look for good interns: management companies, record label, music publishers, booking agencies, and publicity companies.
• Let people know that you are interested and will to go out on tour with new acts.
• Assistant road managers. Rare to find but are mostly large tours or with established artists.
• Sound production companies hire entry level get jobs ( roadie, technician)
• Multitask: sound engineering, lighting direction, tour accounting, musician, etc. These can increase your chances of finding work since lots of acts need the tour manager to also perform other duties.

Duties

The tour manager will be given the itinerary for the proposed tour by the booking agent. Working from this itinerary the tour manager will engage in following six activities: accounting, budgeting, advancing, artist rider, trouble shooting, , and on-the-road.

Accounting

Responsible for all touring financial matters which include submitting payroll for all tour staff, budgeting, road cash, per diems, bus drive float(hotel,fuel), and so on. Also weekly reports are submitted to the business manager.

Budget

The itinerary should also contain information about the potential ticket income (“fees”) for each show. Using this information the tour manager can produce a budget for the tour, calculating costs for crew wages, per diems, accommodation, transport, sound, lighting and video equipment, visas and work permits, rehearsals and other expenses such as booking agent commissions.

Advancing

Advancing is the process of contacting each promoter and venue to ensure the entire artist's technical and hospitality demands will be met and to resolve any problems the promoter or venue can foresee. During the advancing process the tour manager will check contact names and addresses, arrival times, equipment load-in times, sound check and performance times, any supporting/opening acts and live music curfews. This information will be collated in a 'tour book' which will be issued to all the travelling band and crew.

Artist Rider

This will be a roadmap for a successful event for everyone on the tour. The Artist Rider covers things like catering, production(sound, lights, stagehands needed), security, general show and legal issues. This document is attached to each contract and handed out to every promoter on the tour. It is important when advancing to make sure everything is read and understood. This contacts thing that the artist wants at the shows and special request.

Trouble Shooting

The Tour Manager must make decisions for all the unforeseen issues and emergencies that could occur while on tour. This may include bus breakdowns, artist illness, extreme weather, delayed flights, security issues, personal problems, etc. It is very important to remain calm and think through all options.

On-the-road

The tour manager will travel with the band on the tour. The job on the road varies depending on the type and success level of the act. The following activities and responsibilities are part of the band tour manager's day-to-day workload:

• Overseeing hotel departures on time
• Settling accommodation bills
• Overseeing travel arrangements; i.e. band and crew onto the bus or to the airport in good time
• Paying per diems to band and crew
• Overseeing venue arrival - double-checking hospitality and technical arrangements
• Arranging up-to-date running order with venue and promoter
• Overseeing promotional activities; i.e. TV, radio and press interviews at the venue or at other locations
• Supervising any support or opening acts
• Ensuring venue is ready to open on time by supervising sound check times
• Liaising with transport department regarding the next days' travel
• Ensuring all acts perform on time and for the allotted time
• Settling performance fee with promoter and collecting any due cash
• Ensuring all touring equipment is re-packed and loaded back onto tour transport
• Preparing band and crew schedule sheets for the next day
• Overseeing band and crew on to appropriate overnight transport or to next hotel
• Reporting this show's attendance figures to management and booking agent

Pre Tour, Tour Rehearsal, Tech Rehearsal (large scale tours)

A tour manager does not book shows. But it is useful if they can be involved in the dialog between the booking agent and artist management, during the booking process. This allows any potential logistics issues to be identified before contracts are signed. Once an artist signs off on a series of tour dates, the tour manager will start dealing with all of the non-creative aspects.

• Tour Advance - Promoter Reps: Tech & Non-Tech Rider Req(1)
• Tour Advance - Promoter Financial Reps: Settlement, Tax and Related Issues, Scheduled Cash Draw (Tour Ops Float, Per Diem)(2)
• Tour Personnel: Production Manager and/or Stage Manager, Backline & Vendor Crew, Additional Staff
• Tour Rehearsals: Rehearsal Venue, Travel, Accommodations, Backline, Etc.
• Tour Vendors: Sound, Lights, Staging, Freight, Transportation, Etc.
• Tour Travel Req. (Intl): Visas, Work Permits and Country Specific Req.
• Tour Documents: Laminates & Security Passes(5), Itineraries, Etc.

(1) Many tour managers opt to have tour technical staff conduct the tech advance.
(2) Applicable if the tour manager is also acting as tour accountant.
(3) Many tour managers will handle this in conjunction with a tour security director.

If the production is a large scale, arena setup, there may be a second set of rehearsals (known as “tech rehearsals”). This will normally be a short period, used mainly for putting up the entire show for technical reasons. Tech rehearsals can be in a separate arena, rented for that reason. However, it is more common for the tour to negotiate an early load-in at the first venue on the tour.