Case Studies
Approximately 1400 words
Case study – Promoter
The Role of a Promoter
A promoter’s main role is publicising and creating traction around a gig/tour. They closely work with venues, artists/bands, and other industry professionals to ensure the gigs that they put on are successful (CareerExplorer, 2017). A famous example of a live music promotion company is Live Nation. Live Nation promote both grassroots level gigs and bigger gigs at arenas for example. (Sulley, A, 2022). Live Nation also owns many music venues varying in size around the world (Sulley, A, 2022).
A typical day as a music promoter (according to Richard from 360 promotions) involves responding to emails, listing gigs on ticketing websites, confirming dates and sorting out details, talking to bands over the phone, invoices and announcing gigs (Richard, 360, 2025). 360 Promotions are a well-respected promotion company based in Leeds. They work with up-and-coming indie, rock and alternative bands and put on gigs around the many grassroots independent venues in Leeds, such as, Royal Park Cellars, The Lending Room and Oporto. Promoters also help venues when they put on gigs with them, as it helps drive bar sales and helps the venue survive (Richard, 360, 2025). Not only do they have a responsibility towards the venue, but also the artists. They fulfil their responsibility to artists by ensuring they put on a good show, by booking a good engineer, rep (+team), having sufficient advertising on social media and ensuring everyone gets correctly paid at the end (Richard, 360, 2025). Music promoters working on a larger scale sometimes have multiple gigs on at the same time, which means that at the event there will often be someone called a ‘rep’ (promoter representative) as the promoter cannot be at two places at once (Sulley, A, 2022).
Promoters face challenges regularly, such as dealing with new acts that don’t understand what they’re doing. It takes more effort to drive these shows as nowadays, most people go to gigs to a band they know, not just because it’s a local venue (Richard, 360, 2025). To overcome these challenges, Richard from 360 works directly with bands, to build their following by giving them advice, and building up press and reviews. This ultimately means more people will come to their gigs and in-turn, help everyone involved such as the band, the venue and the promoters themselves. According to Richard, his impact as a promoter on the Leeds music scene is that he focuses on unsigned artists and helps them get gigs, where they’d struggle otherwise (Richard, 360, 2025). A promoter needs to have a passion, even if they’re not making much money, they do it for the love of the industry and to help bands become successful. (Richard, 360, 2025). For example, Richard gave Alt-J their first gigs, and they turned out to become massive. It’s about encouraging development (Richard, 360, 2025).
A big part of being a promoter is negotiating contracts. These contracts involve, performance fees, transport expenses, hotels, technical requirements and venue accommodation (CareerExplorer, 2017). Alongside contracts, there is legal requirements that a promoter must abide by, like health and safety and copyright. A promoter needs to ensure that all performers have the right licences and permissions to perform (CareerExplorer, 2017).
Promoters use social media to advertise the gigs that they put on. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are all useful forms of social media that are regularly used to promote gigs. On Facebook, a promoter can tag artists to an event, which is useful for both the promoter and the artist as it shows up on the artists page that they are attending that event. Instagram and Twitter are good for sharing and building exposure through the use of ‘reels’ and short form content. Promoters can also use posters to spread awareness for a gig. You would normally find these in the venue that they are playing at, record shops, clothing stores and often round the city where the gig is at.
Case Study – Tour Manager
The Role of a Tour Manager
A tour manager has some similarities to a promoter. Both work with planning, venues, financial transactions, crew, organizing accommodation and much more. Normally, tour managers and promoters even work together with publicity for the artist/gigs with things like media appearances, interviews and other promotional events (CareerExplorer, 2023). Where Tour Managers differ to Promoters is the fact that they focus on a whole tour, rather than typically just one gig. “The best tour managers are well-prepared for the issues and crises that sometimes arise on tour, and deal with them resourcefully and efficiently” (Berklee, 2019) Famous tour managers include Patrick Stansfield (The Rolling Stones, Barbara Streisand), Gus Brandt (Eminem, Pearl Jam), and Marty Hom (Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles) (Walker, M, 2014)
Tour managers “Develop and manage the tour budget, covering travel, accommodations, meals, equipment, and other expenses” (CareerExplorer, 2023). They must keep records of all financial information throughout the tour and handle the unexpected challenges of a tour, for example equipment getting lost/broken, vehicle breakdowns, or issues with travel such as weather or traffic. Alongside this, communication is a huge part of being a tour manager. They need to inform everyone involved about anything that happens due to problems as seen above, let everyone know about schedules to ensure that everyone is at the right place at the right time and any important details (CareerExplorer, 2023). This is all extremely important to make a tour run smoothly. Production riders include all the technical equipment needed, such as backline, audio, lighting, stage plots, input lists etc. (Tour Manager Info, 2023).
Time management is a big part of being a tour manager. Tour Managers need to have good interpersonal skills to ensure that people are where they need to be at the right time. They need to consider geography (route planning), artist preferences, rest days, performance dates, load in and load out times, and curfews (CareerExplorer, 2023). Tour managers are mostly working “on the road” with a band or artist for a tour, moving from city to city (CareerExplorer, 2023). This means they spend a lot of their time either on a tour bus, hotel room or backstage area. Regardless of where they are, they are making sure that the timings of the tour are in order, and it all runs smoothly (CareerExplorer, 2023). To correctly ensure that deadlines are being met, tour managers create day sheets that outline the events of each day and then share these sheets with the band and members of the crew (Berklee, 2019).
Their job doesn’t end when they arrive at a show, they are constantly communicating with sound engineers, crew and staff and artists to coordinate the set-up, performance and pack down each night (CareerExplorer, 2023). Tour managers also oversee conveying the artists needs backstage and in the dressing room, such as riders and rehearsal equipment, and ensuring that their requests are sufficiently met (Berklee, 2019). It’s important to cater to any allergies or dietary restrictions on any hospitality riders. A bigger tour is likely to have a touring caterer, as a band and crew will likely perform better on an important tour if they’re well fed. (Tour Manager Info, 2023). It’s the tour manager’s job to correctly resolve any issues that arise with this. “A tour manager ends up being the human resources department while on the road” (Tour Manager Info, 2023). On smaller tours, a tour manager might take up additional roles, such as lighting, sound, working the merch table or being on the door checking tickets (Berklee, 2019). On bigger tours, a tour manager can expect to have a much more specialized role and the responsibilities that a tour manager on a smaller tour would perhaps have can be delegated to other crew members on the tour (Tour Manager Info, 2023).
Comparison
Approximately 600 words
Role Comparison
Hypothetical Gig
The gig that I have planned will be a hypothetical ‘Cab Driver’ gig at Hyde Park Book Club on 12/03/2026. The venue has a capacity of 150 people which I predict to sell 105 tickets for (90 online and 15 on the door). I will introduce a tiered pricing system on the door to encourage more people to come for the start of the gig and see both the support acts. The tiers will be £11 tickets online, £12 on the door, and £14 on the door after the first support act. Cab Driver will be receiving £250 for the gig, and the 2 supports will receive £75 each. I believe these rates are fair as it is a similar fee that each band have received from their previous gigs around Leeds, with a bit extra added for Cab Driver as they are the headline act and they will have done most of the organising and promotion. The whole gig will be completely independent, with the bands promoting the gig themselves. This is due to the substantial following that all bands involved have around Leeds, and since this will be an exclusive gig for all bands in the month of March, we believe it will pull enough people to the gig.
For this size of gig, neither a promoter nor a tour manager will be needed. While both hold extremely important roles in the success of modern live music, all the promotion can be done by the bands themselves and there will of course be no need for a tour manager as this is a one of gig. It will also heavily effect the budget if either of a promoter or tour manager were to be employed.
Promotion of the gig can be very easily done by the bands involved themselves, as each have a big enough social media following, and regularly pull a big crowd to their gigs in Leeds. Since all the bands are based in Leeds Conservatoire, each can utilise the resources at hand, such as the printers in the library, which costs 9 pence per A4 sheet, making 100 A4 posters cost just £9. These posters can be put up in and around the conservatoire and around Leeds in general, making use of the record shops, vintage shops, and any bars/restaurants that will accept them. We can also expect to see posters put up in the venue itself. This makes the distribution of the posters completely free, as many shops accept them, and we can go round delivering them ourselves. Social media will also be used as a promotional tool for each band, with regular posts put up on Instagram, Tik Tok, and X. For the poster itself, we will pay a local Leeds Arts University student to design us a substantial and eye-catching poster as we believe this is a key part of a gig’s success.
We will set up a budget of £900 for the entire gig, including band fees, cost of the venue, box office, promotion and even food and drink for the band. Hyde Park Book Club basement is £140 to rent which includes a sound engineer according to their online venue pack. The standard box office rate for the venue is £12 an hour for a minimum of 3 hours, which we will utilise from 7pm at doors, until 10pm, which is more than enough time due to the final band starting scheduled to start at 9:15. I have budgeted £150 for the catering/rider as this allows for each 4 piece band to have a meal worth £10 each, with £30 left over for beers/any other drinks in the green room. None of the bands need a hotel booking as they are all based in Leeds. There will be £50 budgeted for any miscellaneous costs such as emergency equipment like guitar strings.
On the settlement sheet, I have suggested that we will sell 90 tickets online (average 30 per band) with 10 tier 1 door sales and 5 tier 2 door sales. This leaves us with £1,180 gross ticket sales. The total profit at the end of the gig ended up being £395. Due to the significance of the gig being completely self-promoted and, a lot of money was saved in the marketing areas. I decided to use a flat fee rate for all bands involved as I thought it would be safer to give each band a guaranteed payment, and then could split the profits evenly in the end.
Show Budget
Final Settlement Sheet
Bibliography
Bibliography
Berklee (2019). Tour Manager | Berklee College of Music. [online] Berklee.edu. Available at: https://www.berklee.edu/careers/roles/tour-manager. (Accessed 10/9/25)
CareerExplorer (2017). What does a music promoter do? [online] Careerexplorer.com. Available at: https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/music-promoter/. (Accessed
9/12/25)
CareerExplorer, 2. (2023). What does a road manager do? [online] Careerexplorer.com. Available at: https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/road-manager/overview/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2025].
Richard, 360. (2025). Primary research interview. (4 Dec 2025)
Sulley, A. (2022). What Does A Live Music Promoter Do? [online] Groover Blog. Available at: https://blog.groover.co/en/tips/live-music-promoter/. (accessed 10/12/24)
Tour Manager Info. (2023). Tour Manager Job Description: What Does a Tour Manager Do? [online] Available at: https://tourmanager.info/tour-manager/. (Accessed 10/12/25)
Walker, M. (2014). Tour Managers of Foo Fighters, Rolling Stones & Fleetwood Mac Swap Wild Tales From the Road. [online] Billboard. Available at: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/tour-managers-of-foo-fighters-the-rolling-stones-fleetwood-mac-swap-wild-tales-5915668/. (accessed 10/12/25)
