SHR5E018P~001 24102500 Case Study

Case Studies

Case study – Promoter

DJ Lubi

Primary Research

DJ Lubi got into music when he bought his first record at 9 years old. Soon after he ‘started buying records every week with pocket money.’ Lubi’s epiphany in music came when he listened to the first punk record released in the UK. Lubi had never heard of this music before and soon after… ‘music went from something in my early teens to the central thing in my life.’ Lubi went on to buy a bass guitar and start a band in 1979 and a year after Mephitzo Waltz (the band) performed at the Palm Clove Club. Fast forward 2 years and Lubi’s music taste had changed from punk to jazz. He started putting on local jazz bands as a promoter. In 1994 Lubi made the difficult decision to go full time as a promoter. Lubi made it clear that ‘music income can fluctuate.’ This makes it more risky than being employed for reliable income.

Lubi is a independent music promoter. When not working for an employer, you have to do multiple roles yourself, whereas venue’s have promotion teams with employees who have designated roles for putting on gigs, such as logistics or social media. ‘As an independent that team is me, however I have people who work for freelance for me, designers, videographers and show reps.’ ‘I book the bands, book the venues and get the ticketing done.’

This a lot of work and responsibility but DJ Lubi enjoys working independently. He is his own boss and so has more freedom than an employee, however there are drawbacks to being self employed.

-You must use multiple venues.

– It’s a longer booking process as he does not work directly for the venue he wants an event at.

Secondary Research

DJ lubi is a UK DJ and promoter with a substantial amount of longevity in the industry, shown by a career span of 30+ years across multiple genres. These include salsa, soul, funk and world music. DJ Lubi built his reputation as a gig and club promoter in Leeds and the north of England, promoting club nights, concerts and festivals. (Element Arts 2025)

DJ Lubi has worked with popular Leeds venues such as, The Wardrobe, Brudenell Social club and the Hifi Club. His work doesn’t stop there with collaborations with festivals like the Leeds Jazz festival.

DJ Lubi acts as a connector between these UK audiences and international artists. The UK people are less associated with international artists due to language, location and culture. DJ Lubi uses this to his advantage to generate an audience of people who are looking for perhaps a new sound. This gives him a niche audience to work with. (Element Arts 2025)

This Leads to how DJ Lubi promotes his events. He operates with niche expertise and authority. With his decades worth of experience, trust has been built between him and his audience. This attribute increases the reputation of the event before people have even experienced it. His expertise helps him choose acts and frame events that resonate with the audience.

In the current day and age, there are multiple ways to promote events. He promotes through DJ sets, radio shows and social media. This gives a broad range of potential customers and onlookers. (DJ Lubi instagram, 2025) Another way he builds his audience is through the regular collaborations with trusted local venues. This lowers the amount of barriers he may face setting up the event, and builds on his reliable audience. (See tickets 2025)

These examples given create his hybrid format of promotion, which broadens appeal.

However, promoting a niche genre has its drawbacks. With a niche segment in the live music industry, smaller amounts of sales follow. DJ Lubi mitigates this by curating events that appeal across sub cultures, such as dancers, jazz, and afrobeat listeners. To do this he can pair live acts with DJ packages to increase the value of his tickets. This leads back to his ‘hybrid format’ techniques.

On top of this challenge another is bringing international acts to the UK. This is much tougher logistics wise for the promoter. The harder the logistics the more expensive it costs and time it takes for the act to arrive. DJ Lubi helps avoid these costs coming from his own pocket by working with festivals and established venues. These businesses help absorb the production/logistic costs. (Leeds Jazz Festival)

Case Study – Tour Manager

Kim Hawes

Primary Research:

I interviewed Kim Hawes on the 6th November 2025 over a zoom meeting to talk about her career. Kim started off by talking about how there was only “6 women in the entire world” doing the tour managing job. Even with this small amount ‘2 of them were actually just girlfriends of band members who did the job’. She made it clear that ‘everyone always used to say women couldn’t do it’ and how ‘times were different.’

Kim achieved getting into the tour manager role despite the odds through working in the merchandise department of motorhead for multiple years. This gave her an opportunity to fill in for motorhead for one night after a tour manager wasn’t available last minute. Kim snatched the opportunity as she always had the aspiration to become a tour manager. Kim found that after filling in for Motorhead as a tour manager, within a week of the event, ‘everyone was going there was this woman who’s tour managing.’ This was a big thing due to the rarity of a woman in the role. The opportunity gave Kim an advantage to continue her career. Due to Motorhead’s reputation and stature, this gave Kim respect from other bands and showed she could handle herself in the role. This helped her further her career by gaining more bands to be keen to work with her.

With Kim’s change in career from merchandise to managing, touring came many responsibilities. Tour managing was ‘risky.’ Kim highlighted how she had once carried ‘3/4 of a million dollars of cash’ on her at one point. This was money given in advance from agencies for the band to perform. The bigger the band the more the money, and the more the money, the more the risk. However, this wasn’t the only thing she was responsible for. Kim spoke on how mental health is a big part of touring with ,’missing family,’ ‘missing friends’. She had to manage relationships with people on tour, which included managing fallouts and issues involving people who ‘didn’t pay’, and others who ‘hated touring.’

Kim expressed how in her career, she couldn’t ‘make mistakes.’ You couldn’t afford to. If you made a mistake as a tour manager everyone else working there was going to get you, because they all wanted that role.

Secondary Research.

Kim Hawes emphasises the gritty side of touring. She would have to demand receipts for all purchases and track expenditures carefully. This was important due to the cash economy at the time. She would have to make sure there was always enough cash to run day to day operations. (DJ Monk, 15/02/20)

After each show there would need to be reconciliation to check whether the income from the gig matches expected figures. Kim would have a budget sheet to base this off with. This involved allocating and tracking merchandising income. With her previous experience this was an easy task.

As her career continued she became known to maintain control during chaos with great problem solving skills. This was through her approach of emphasised preparation and communication. She prioritised the well being of the crew and performers with a people centred management style. (Leela Brunsdon 15/11/23)

Kim Hawes achieved a fruitful career despite her challenges. She was recognised a pioneer for women in tour management for having four decades of experience in a man majority field. (Launchpad 25)

The challenges Hawes faced were broad. From drives through Scandinavia and the mosquitoes that came with it or pulling over and missing ferries, before being given a police escort to a venue. This shows that being a tour manager isn’t glamour. Dealing with the broad range of responsibilities includig dealing with cash settlements, touring with cash, dealing with broken trucks, security and managing downtime. This kept Kim Hawes alert always anticipating problems which can be exhausting whilst travelling with the band. As an example, Hawes had to deal with a currency shortage in Paris for Motorhead as one of her steps into tour management. (Murray Scougall 15/06/2021)

Comparison

Primary Missions

A music promoter’s primary mission is to get shows planned, booked, marketed, and attended. Their focus is on creating successful events by selling tickets. This means they book suitable venues for the act they are putting on whilst negotiating contracts with artists and their managers, (can be a tour manager.) They create marketing campaigns to attract an audience and handle the logistics for the event. However, when a music promoter is working independently they they risk of loss if ticket sales don’t cover the costs of the show. (Berklee 2025)

A tour managers primary mission is to ensure the tour runs smoothly for the artist and the crew. Once a tour is booked (through a promoter) the tour manager takes over on its day-to-day execution. (Berklee 2025)

This includes, arranging logistics and creating a schedule to follow. Budgeting the tour and keeping track of the spending for the event. Communicating with promoters and the venues to make sure the needs of the band are met. Problem solving is a key aspect of tour managing and team leadership is an essential trait to overcome these problems.

This overview shows how a music promoter primarily works before the tour or a show is put on, where as the tour manager works as part of the band crew, ensuring it runs smoothly after being organised. (Berklee 2025)

In reference to my budget sheet and final settlement sheet, a music promoter is likely to have a much less detailed version than the tour manager. This is because the music promoter does not have insight to the details the tour manager does of tour expenses. (Andy Reynolds 2025) For example, in my budget sheet, it only includes Hotels, Crew, P.A., Lights, Catering and Misc totalling to £2950. Whereas a tour managers budget sheet will include these but also, rehearsal costs, equipment transport/hire, travel, fuel etc. This could see the costs go up to much more. A much more detailed budget sheet will give more accurate results in the final settlement sheet. However, it is expected that budget sheets will differ between the two roles. The tour manager will not have marketing, venue rental or ticketing on their budget sheet. (PRS, 2025) This likely leads to the music promoter to have higher expenses than the tour manager overall on both the budget sheet and so therefore also on the final settlement sheet. The promoter is paying a heavy price for the act whilst including venue hire and supports totalling to £8,500 where £7500 is income for the tour manager to record. This number must match on both budget sheets except they will be in different locations.

It is in both the promoter and manager’s interest to stick within a budget, and so is essential for both their roles so they don’t lose money. If calculated wrong the tour manager may risk being fired, and the music promoter losing trust, reputation and personal losses due to unlimited liability. (PRS 2025)

Due to the differences in budget sheets and their aims, there will be very different conclusions in the final settlement sheet. The total Profit for the music promoter in my sheet comes to £12,221. For the tour managers sheet, they know they’re making £7,500 guarantee before merchandise sales. With an attendance of 850 advance sales, 19-20% of the audience will buy merchandise. (atvenu, 2022) This gives figures to be predicted lower than £12,000 but not far off, which is expected for a mid-level band for profits to be similar. For this reason, it is likely that the tour managers sheet will come to slightly less of a profit than the promoter. The £7500 fee shows that this band are not huge. This means the leverage will typically be with the promoter since tickets don’t sell themselves.

In conclusion it is clear that both a music promoter and tour manager differ in responsibilities but come together to create an experience for the audience. They both must be aware of budgets and their final results, but results differ from both perspectives due to different aims and conclusions. Similarities between the roles are the important aspects of communication, accuracy and accounting.