Case Studies

Case study – Promoter

A music promoter “organizes, publicizes, and promotes live performances and concerts, managing the booking of artists and functioning as a liaison between musicians, venues, and event organizers”. This role in the music industry is something that, to do full time, takes a lot of networking, gaining vast knowledge and education of the music industry and building a good reputation (Indeed, 2025).

I will be writing a case study on English promoter Lubi Jovanovic (also known as DJ Lubi) and his role of a being a music promoter in the Leeds and UK music scene. I got in contact with him via email (Appendix 1-6).

From Appendix 1, Lubi got into promotion in the early 1980s, by being in a band who started putting on their own shows in Bradford after they didn’t get many bookings. After a run of their own shows doing well they started to get asked to play at venues in Bradford, supporting bands such as The Fall and The Cure.

Throughout the 1980s, Lubi got into to other genres of music and started putting on his own Latin jazz band, which had got such a reputation it had passed Bradford and entered the Leeds scene. He met some friends in Leeds who asked him to help out with putting gigs on, so by this time he was putting on shows that weren’t just his band as a part-time job. During the mid-1990s he finally went full time into music and club promotion alongside DJing, stopped playing in bands and has done that ever since. (Appendix 2)

Lubi was able to get into the country-wide scene following his promotion work in Leeds, having made a name with as one of the “top Leeds acid jazz and global beats promoters”. This led to promotion opportunities in cities such as Sheffield, Manchester and London, which then led to him start doing tours around the UK. After the pandemic, Lubi now works solely in the Leeds music scene for venues such as Brudenell Social Club, and Leeds University Stylus (Appendix 5 and Appendix 6).

In music promotion, there are many skills and characteristics that one should have when being a music promoter, both mentally and when doing your job.

Firstly, resilience is and being prepared for tough times is a huge factor. If gigs don’t go your way, then huge amounts of money can be lost, but you need stamina and belief that the next one will go better. Also, if you get hit with financial losses then this can trouble family life and not being able to pay bills, while also largely impacting mental health. Promotion can be a job using very unsociable hours, while being on the move often. But recognising and battling these issues will help make promotion easier and better for you. Also, a good business sense is important. Understanding of budgeting, ticket pricing and how to promote effectively is very important. Have a good talent identification which can make you stand out from the rest of the crowd and be original (Appendix 3 and Appendix 4)

From Berklee (2025), the job of promoting starts with budgeting; determining the best amount of money for a show or tour is going to make sure that you get the best out of your returns. This must come with assuming all the possible financial risks that come with an event. The promoter must negotiate with venues and artists to work out the best contracts and fees for a show, and who is going to be the audience. If shows become tours, the promoter must engage with a tour manager or producer to arrange travel, accommodation and hospitality, and a schedule for the event.

Overall, a promoter is the first-hand manager of events, managing from budgets and contracts to artist and venue choices. The life can be challenging for you but, in DJ Lubi’s case, resilience and hard work can lead to a strong career at the front of the music industry.

Case Study – Tour Manager

Tour managers take care of nearly every aspect of the lives of musicians and crew while on tour, also providing organisational, administrative, and hands on work for the duration. These aspects can include transport and accommodation arrangements, communication with concert producers and venues to organise load in, sound check and set times, as well as potential media involvements. Furthermore, potentially most importantly, tour managers control the finances for the tour and keep every flow of money within the budget (Berklee, 2025).

I will be writing a case study on the English tour manager Callum Read, and the role he has being a tour manager in the music industry.

The Music Managers Forum (2020) suggests that Callum has been in music management since 2014, first individually, then setting up the project ‘Touchdown Management’ with co-manager Adam Harris in 2016.

In an interview with Leeds Conservatoire (2020), Callum first started tour managing “by accident” when he needed to drive an American band around the UK during a tour. As the tour went on, the driving developed into a process of organising, taking care of the logistics to make the gigs happen, then finding more work afterwards.

In this interview, Callum talks about the features of tour managing before tour and on tour.

Before tour comes large amounts of journey planning and travel schedule, whilst arranging production details with promoters, suggesting he keeps close contact with promoters of the events before the tour. Also, any press commitments that the band are involved in must be organised to fit in with a daily schedule, which can take a lot of waiting for responses.

On tour, Callum will wake up before anyone else, eat breakfast, prepare the allowances and schedule for the day and check any important emails, all after an average of four to five hours of sleep on average. The band van will be collected and filled with all the gear and depart on time with schedule. Upon arrival to the venue, everybody shall be fed and watered correctly to start the soundcheck on time. Callum helps run the lines off stage so the bands can arrive on stage and start playing immediately. Following sound check, any merchandise will be prepared before doors open, any press agreements will be coordinated and buyouts and location for dinner will be arranged if agreed. When it is time for the set, Callum will make sure the stage is set and the band are prepared whilst standing to the side of the stage making sure it runs well. Finally, any last merchandise will be sold, and then it is pack down and depart on time with the schedule.

This ‘on tour’ routine suggests that a being a tour manager involves sticking to a schedule to perfection, while also being efficient with their tasks such as selling merchandise while the band plays. Also, the health and wellbeing of the band, combined with the allowances for each member of the tour seems to be a big focus so that any possible health or budget issues do not arise.

Also, Callum talks about skills that are good to have when being a tour manager which include good time keeping, experience in first aid, being patient and having good organisation, but broadly, problem solving skills are “an absolute must”. This all suggests that being level-headed and fast thinking are important parts of being a tour manager.

In an interview with Andre Peine from Music Meek (2021), Callum talks about how his solo tour managing helped with the Touchdown Management project. He said that his strength and passion was “the personal management of artists, as people and performers” as well as making artists feel comfortable on the road. He found the trick for this to be in the level and timing of communication with the artist, as if he was “in the artist’s shoes”. This suggests that creating a personal bond with the artist while on tour is very important so they can make the best out of their time.

Overall, a tour manager has many different roles both outside of touring and on tour which require various skills to succeed. Being able to stick to a tight schedule in very busy days certainly takes nerve and can be very challenging, all while trying to create good relationships with all the different people you will meet on a tour. Outside of the tour, the planning and the communication with bands and venues is important, especially thinking about a budget.

Comparison

Role Comparison

I have decided to set up a hypothetical event in the basement at Hyde Park Book Club on 19/12/2025, the event being an indie rock lineup of student and local bands of which the format will be a headline act with two support bands. The basement of Hyde Park Book Club has a capacity of 150 (Appendix 7) (Hyde Park Book Club, 2025).

Given the capacity and size of the venue, it is great for upcoming bands but also is big enough to hold relatively established bands in the Leeds scene. Furthermore, being in a student area, can attract good crowds and increase popularity and reputation of student bands.

I have presented a show budget (Appendix 8 and 9) and a final settlement sheet (Appendix 10 and 11) for this event which show initial costs of the show and a possible outcome of the event respectively.

I have decided to set the initial ticket price at £7 (Appendix 8) which will be available online on Skiddle (Appendix 12) (Skiddle, 2025) and See Tickets (Appendix 13) (See Tickets), two popular ticket sites, which contain a good number of events for Hyde Park Book Club. I have chosen the online ticket price of £7 as it is a reasonable price for most likely a student heavy audience, but it also is a high enough value to that it can help cover the costs of the show. Furthermore, it matches with prices of other recent events there (Appendix 14) (Leeds Gig Tickets, 2025). Also, selling tickets on the door I think is very worthwhile, and their price of them to £10 (Appendix 10) seems a good way to decrease costs, and given the popularity of the venue as a pub, passers by may fancy coming to watch. Furthermore, holding some tickets for media or important people is standard from my experience of gigs, so I think five is a good amount for this type of event.

In Appendix 15, we can see the venue hire is £175, and to sell tickets on the door, I would make use of the box office staff for four hours, costing £56 (Hyde Park Book Club, 2025).

I think a guarantee for the headline artist of £250, assuming they’re the more well-known band is a good amount, so will likely get more numbers in. I’ve chosen the support bands to receive £75 each because that equals roughly ten online ticket sales just for that band each, which I feel is a safe bet for new bands onto the scene who may just get some friends along (Appendix 7).

Next down the budget sheet I have set aside £27 for posters for advertising. This can be done at the Leeds Conservatoire for £9 per sheet of paper, equalling three hundred posters, which can be stuck up around campuses and the city. Further on, £20 for miscellaneous costs would be set aside, in case of any emergencies such as instrument issues, which I have experienced, and that is a suitable figure.

Finally on the budget sheet, we can see the break even is 67% meaning the costs are worth 67% of the potential gross, which is a decent return rate, in a hypothetical scenario (Appendix 8).

However, on the settlement sheet (Appendix 10 and Appendix 11), I have written a possibility of what could actually happen on the night, where 115 tickets are sold altogether, including 20 at the door. This overall would decrease the profit earned, but I think this is realistic when having smaller and upcoming bands playing gigs.

As a promoter, leaving with £180 would still be a decent return, but this shows the advantages and disadvantages of a flat fee for artists. However, a flat fee is more certain than any percentage deals especially for smaller artists.

Finally, a promoter and a tour manager have very different roles in the functioning of live events. The promoter must make sure that the event keeps within their own budget, while also selecting the right venues and artist lineup for the event and negotiating contracts. The tour manager must organise what the promoter arranges with the bands and the venue when on a tour. Transport and allowances are the main things to organise when on tour. In general, they work with each other when on bigger events and must stay in close contact before and while on tour to carry out a smooth event.

Show Budget

Budget Sheet Download

Final Settlement Sheet

Final Settlement Sheet Download

Bibliography

Berklee (2025) Concert promoter. Available Online: https://www.berklee.edu/careers/roles/concert-promoter [Accessed 10/12/2025]

Berklee (2025) Tour manager. Available Online: https://www.berklee.edu/careers/roles/tour-manager [Accessed 09/12/2025]

Hyde Park Book Club (2025) Hyde Park Book Club venue pack. Available Online: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rCmGRzJr3eOcbA-jtts775Iny4yqm35P/view [Accessed 02/12/2025]

Indeed (2025) What is a music promoter and how to become one (with salary). Available Online: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/what-is-music-promoter [Accessed 10/12/2025]

Leeds Conservatoire (2020) The life of… a tour manager. Available Online: https://www.leedsconservatoire.ac.uk/about-us/progression-portal/musicians-survival-guide-articles/the-life-of-a-tour-manager/ [Accessed 09/12/2025]

Leeds Gig Tickets (2025) Hyde Park Book Club – concerts. Available Online: https://www.leedsgigtickets.co.uk/venues/926-Hyde_Park_Book_Club [Accessed 10/12/2025]

Music Managers Forum (2020) Manager spotlight: Callum Read and Adam Harris (Touchdown Management). Available Online: https://www.themmf.net/interview/manager-spotlight-callum-read-and-adam-harris-touchdown-management/ [Accessed 09/12/2025]

Music Week (2021) Touchdown Management on how they took The Snuts to No.1 and their US plans for the band. Available Online: https://www.musicweek.com/management/read/touchdown-management-on-how-they-took-the-snuts-to-no-1-and-their-us-plans-for-the-band/083545 [Accessed 09/12/2025]

See Tickets (2025) Tickets for events at Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds. Available Online: https://www.seetickets.com/venue/hyde-park-book-club/12466 [Accessed 02/12/2025] Skiddle (2025) Hyde Park Book Club – Leeds – upcoming events & tickets. Available Online: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Leeds/Hyde-Park-Book-Club/ [Accessed 02/12/2025]