Promotor Case Study

What are the main things a promotor needs to think about?

The answer to this question varies a fair amount depending at what level of audience/venue the promoter is working with. For example, in his article ‘The Role of the Local Promoter vs The Local Band’ Lance Tobin (an independent concert promoter in Boston) stresses the different roles he has to play with Local Bands compared to well-established headlining acts. He mentions that the average person doesn’t really care about how they find out their favourite band’s show as they’re ‘going to that show regardless of how [they] found out about it’, therefore ‘the context of the promotional push is much less important’ (Tobin, 2012) and much less thought has to be put into which methods would be most effect at getting ticket sales. In contrast, Tobin emphasises the need for a much more collaborative process between the promoter and band when working with local acts still trying to get their foot in the door. He states that at this starting level it’s almost always people who know the band personally that are most likely coming to the show so therefore ‘it makes much more sense for the band to reach out to these people rather than the promoter’ (Tobin, 2012)

A common issue that promoters often seem to bring up in relation to putting smaller shows on made up of local acts is ensuring how they can pay the artists and earn a profit themselves due to the riskiness of putting on relatively unknown artists. Tobin states that his typical split is ‘80/20’ where the local artist receives 80% of the total ticket sales. He states that even though the local act has to put a lot into promoting the show, the 20% fee the promoter takes is fair as ‘the promoter is taking a risk on [the] band’ and ‘the room rental fee must be paid’ by the promoter. Krystian, a promoter for Yeah Buddy! DIY events in Liverpool have a slightly different approach, particularly as she says they ‘do the shows mostly out of our own desire to see our favourite bands live’ (Krystian, N.D). They don’t particularly make money off their shows so will often see how much they’ve earned in order to see how much they’ll pay the bands, though she states traveling bands ‘will get money to at least cover their petrol’ (Krystian, N.D)

The introduction of social media has massively effected the focus of a gig promoter’s job as well, helping in some ways by providing more clear cut data/pathways to finding the right niche to target when attracting an audience to a gig, but also adding more of a workload to the job as many promoters will now have to consider content creation with most gigs in order to make the event known. DJ Lubi mentioned in a guest lecture that paying for sponsored posts has added on another cost that can make keeping down break even sales harder.

What Issues might they face?

• Having to deal with impolite bands/artists, particularly in terms of gig running orders and how they can rub up with artist’s ego’s: “one of my pet peeves is when bands argue over what place they play on the bill” (Krystian, N.D)
• Figuring out suitability of venues for many different levels of artists.
• Moral Issues around practices like Pay-to-Play
• Balancing multiple jobs: “The fact is that the majority of promoters starting out won’t make enough to live on from promoting and typically will have ‘day jobs’ that allow them to enjoy the passion of music promoting.” (Humphrey, 2020)

Salary

The UK Governments National Career Service website lists the average salary as £24,000 a year for a starter salary and £65,000 a year for experienced promoters.

Tour Manager Case Study

Roles

In terms of a tour managers day to day, they will likely have to: plan out travel schedules and routes; coordinate any Press Agreements that the band have; get everyone to and sometimes oversee soundchecks; coordinating the entire team “including band members, roadies, and technical staff” (Grammy Go, 2024); carry out admin tasks including managing contracts/legal documents and keeping “detailed records of expenses, receipts, and other important documents to ensure a smooth reconciliation process after the tour.” (Grammy Go, 2024)

Whilst on the job they will also be networking with lots of other people working in the music industry, both to develop the work and opportunities for themselves in their field but also to get connections for the artists they work with.

There’s an idea of tour manager as ‘Tour Mom’. With all the exhaustion that comes with a tour, emotional turmoil/disagreement is inevitable, so a tour manager often adopts a somewhat parental position. Though less easy to define as a clear occupational role, they essentially have to ensure everyone is on track, happy and fed. This is reflected in an interview with Callum Read (an independent tour manager) when he states that one of his roles is to “tell anybody off who is late” (Read, 2020). Also further emphasised by Nathalie Candel (a tour manager who has worked with Artists like PJ Harvey and Laufey) who aims ‘to create a culture where wellbeing for the touring party and for the planet is at the forefront… the artist needs to feel good and be in the right mindset to give a spectacular performance.’. (Candel, N.D). She is an interesting case study as she also includes in her role the additional consideration of how to tour in a way that is environmentally friendly.

Read also brings up in his interview that many of the “transferrable skills” (Read, 2020) he has gained from these roles has allowed him to also begin working in artist management as well, a job more specifically geared towards representing a musician/band.

Indie Vs Big Tour Manager

There is a large contrast between the roles of tour managers when at different levels of the industry. An indie manager will often have to adopt more roles such as confirming reservations, confirming show times, looking after equipment and managing finances. These roles would likely be split across multiple on a larger budget tour, e.g. a tour accountant to handle finances. On an indie tour the manager could likely also be a member of the band themselves, or the same person as the band manager or they may often double as the driver.

What Issues might they face?

• Sleep deprivation from working mostly nights and being constantly on the road. E.g. Callum Read states he gets about 4-5 hours sleep on most nights during a tour. Alongside this they also have to manage the exhaustion of all the artists/other members of the tour team on top of their own.
• Struggling to find a work-life balance and maintaining a healthy social life. Those with families may not be able to earn enough from it without being away from home too much.
• Having to work for very little when starting out in order to slowly build experience and reputation. Also, bands you’ll be working with at the beginning will probably be fairly small so won’t have the budget to pay you a large salary.

Qualifications

• Not strictly necessary but a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as music business is helpful.
• Practical experience in the music industry.
• Financial management skills
• Gig Production skills.
• Likely need to have first aid experience in case of emergency.

Salary

The UK Government National Career Service website does not have a salary listed for Tour Manager, likely due to how much it varies due to being an occupation made up of many little jobs. Careers in Music mentions how “Tour Managers are paid week-by-week” so a lot of their salary depends on “tour budget, the length of the tour, the stature of the band, etc.” (Norman and Slayer, 2024). They also mention a a “Per Diem” that tour managers often get, basically meaning a daily allowance for each day on the tour.

Hypothetical Gig

The initial role the promoter would be involved in once they had local artists to put a show together for would be to decide what venue would be suitable. In this scenario, one of the supports are a student band, meaning that getting the attention of students is incredibly important in a city like Leeds. The most obvious first choice would be a venue like Hyde Park Book Club, as it is situated directly in the heart of student areas but still has a wide demographic in Leeds outside of students. and is well renowned. It’s hire fee for the basement venue is £174 + VAT (£210), which would be the more suitable of its stages as it has a standing capacity of 150 compared to the Snug’s 50 capacity.

For this gig, there are two local supports, one of which is an especially new up and coming act. Therefore, the promoter’s role for these acts (especially the latter) would be to ensure they reach out to friends and family in the area as they are the most likely audience these bands will be able to pull, and the personal connection they have makes it make more sense for the acts themselves to reach out rather than the promoter. The main band at this event is still a fairly indie underground band but they have started building a reputation for themselves, enough to a small tour around areas of North England. This means that the promoter would also go the typical promotion method of postering/social media ads for this event as well so that people who recognise the name of the artist become aware of it. A five day Instagram Ad campaign with a medium reach would cost £18.78.

I’ve allowed 20 holds for artist guest lists etc. which is typical of a gig this size. That means that there are 130 tickets available at a price of £11 (which seems suitable for an indie show with a three-act bill) will allow for a potential gross of £1,430 if it sells out (before subtracting any costs to calculate profit). The promoter could then decide on flat fees to pay the artists. For this I decided on £300 for the main band as they are the main draw for this gig, being an alt-rock indie band made up of four members. I decided on £150 for the main support, who are also a band of four members but are slightly more experimental and less well known/will be playing a shorter set. The opener for this hypothetical event is a solo act (still making alternative/experimental music just more focused on folk stylings) giving the lineup variation but I decided they would be paid the least (£100) as they are known the least and wouldn’t need to split the payment with any other members.

As two of the acts are just local up and coming bands, they very likely wouldn’t have a tour manager. However, the Headline band could have someone acting as a Tour Manager (possibly a member of the band), most likely also doubling as a driver for them as they’re still a relatively small band on a low-budget tour. In order to transport equipment they may use a service like Bandvanman, which Grace Stubbings of the band Venus Girls recommended during a guest lecture. They would also have to communicate with the venue, and possibly the promotor, about timings and ensure that they get the band to the venue on time, planning out the route, food stops, and the budgeting of all the expenses that would involve. Beforehand, they may have been the one in communication with the promoter in order to agree on payment percentages and check/fill out any administrative legal documents, and afterwards they will likely go over the settlement sheet to ensure they have been paid fairly etc.

With the broad reach from the varied acts on the lineup I predicted that 105 tickets would be sold, leading to a total gross of £1115. I then subtracted the total costs of paying the artist flat fees, venue hire and additional costs such as £30 I’d allocated to get artwork made, and then the costs of distributing posters and running ads in various forms. I also set aside a miscellaneous £50 for any unpredictable incidents that could arise (e.g. damage to instruments/minor injury) for. With 105 people in the audience, the PRS cost would be £12.40. I put no cost for things such as crew/runner as the bands would most likely be the ones loading in their own gear at a gig this size. This took the total cost up to £910.98 and allowed for a profit of £244.02. The promoter could then have an already agreed upon split to spread that profit amongst them and the artists. Using a typical 80/20 split would leave the promoter with £48.80 with these hypothetical sales.

Bibliography

Candel, N (N.D) Tour Manager Bio. Available online: http://nathaliecandel.com/#contact [Accessed 28/11/25]

Grammy Go (2024) Becoming a Tour Manager: Responsibilities, Skills, and Salary. Available online: https://go.grammy.com/music-careers/tour-manager/ [Accessed: 28/11/25]

Humphrey, L. (2020) How to Become a Successful Local Music Promoter. Available online: https://www.horusmusic.global/news/how-to-become-a-successful-local-music-promoter/ [Accessed 27/11/25]

Mcdonald, H. (2019) What Does a Music Tour Manager Do. Available online: https://www.liveabout.com/what-does-a-music-tour-manager-do-2460643 Accessed [28/11/25]

Musicalities Limited (2020) Organising a free concert or gig? Did you know that the venue might have to pay extra PRS?. Available online: https://www.musicalities.co.uk/when-venues-pay-prs-for-a-free-gig/ [Accessed 28/11/25].

Norman, D and Slayer, B (2024) How to Become a Tour Manager. Available online:https://www.careersinmusic.com/tour-manager [Accessed 28/11/25]

National Careers Service (N.D) Music Promotions Manger. Available online: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/music-promotions-manager [Accessed 27/11/25]

Reed, C (2020) The Life of a Tour Manager. Available online: https://leedsconservatoire.ac.uk/about-us/progression-portal/musicians-survival-guide-articles/the-life-of-a-tour-manager [Accessed 29/11/25]

Tobin, L. (2012) ‘The Role of the Local Promoter vs The Local Band’. Available online: https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/07/the-role-of-the-local-promoter-vs-the-local-band.html [Accessed 27/11/25]

Wood, R. (N.D) Gig promoters: their role & how to book gigs for your band. Available online:https://www.theunsignedguide.com/blog/644-gig-promoters-their-role–how-to-book-gigs-for-your-band [Accessed 27/11/25]

HPBC venue pack: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rCmGRzJr3eOcbA-jtts775Iny4yqm35P/view

Budget Sheet:

Settlement Sheet

Instagram Ad Costs