SHR5E018P~002 24101042 Tour Plan & Commentary

Tour Schedule/Planner

Tour Schedule/Planner Commentary

This tour is for an Alternative/indie-folk band from Leeds and would coincide with an EP release. The band consists of: Vocalist/Acoustic Guitarist, second guitarist, banjo player, violinist and backing vocalist. The audience consists of fans of contemporary folk and Alternative/Indie music but also the tour could draw in fans of traditional folk/folk music nights due to the blends of genre in the music and instrumentation. The tour consists of six shows and takes place over 8 days, that being the 5^th to 12^th May. I chose May so that it occurs in late spring/early summer when live events are building up in frequency/normality so people are more likely to go out for gigs, but early enough that it doesn’t clash with the busy summer festival season where it would likely get drowned out amongst the number of other shows and reduce ticket sales. It also is in a period where student audiences would still be at Uni so they would be an available demographic. The route is: Dublin, Manchester, Leeds, York, Birmingham and ending in Nottingham. This means the tour starts with the show outside the EU which is more complicated in terms of travel as they would have to travel via ferry, and it minimises backtracking as much as possible. It also stays predominantly in West Yorkshire as that’s where their audience is primarily based, with some reach in the midlands towards the end.

The tour plan is accounting for six people, the five band members and a tour manager who doubles as the driver and merch seller.

Travel will occur in a hired van from Pro Tour Vans that will be picked up in Leeds and then driven to Liverpool to take the ferry. As it is a band with relatively minimal equipment one van should be able to hold both the people and the equipment.

All the venues are around 150 – 250 capacity due to the independent and somewhat genre specific nature of the band meaning they have a more niche audience than other bands. I was originally going to put the Leeds date at either the beginning or end of the tour but decided to put it in the middle to coincide with a two-day break on the tour as accommodation would be free due to living in Leeds so they wouldn’t have to pay for multiple nights in a hotel. The two-day break could also allow for smaller intimate record store shows or signings, likely in a shop like Crash records that frequently holds those types of events.

Ensuring there aren’t too many tour dates consecutively is important in ensuring the prevention of burnout and decreases friction between bandmates and crew on tour. Musician’s union states that “The emotional highs and lows of being on and off stage, or of working intensely on music projects like recording, composing and producing” can lead to “Depersonalisation of people you view as causing the problem (feeling cynical, negative or insensitive towards people around you, or simply feeling like you ‘don’t care’ anymore)” [Musicians Union]. Guest lecturer Tristan Bryant brought up how he uses his break day on a tour, suggesting finding a laundrette in order to wash your clothes but also to get a break from crew/bandmates that you have been around almost 24/7. It also means you aren’t carrying too much luggage as you won’t have to bring as many clothes, which would make travel more convenient. Another reason I decided on a two-day break is because too big a gap between shows could lose momentum in morale of the team and lead to boredom.

Cash Flow

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Financial Commentary

When looking for accommodation in places other than Leeds the cheapest option was almost always to get two 3-person rooms in a nearby Travelodge. The typical cost of this was around £70 for one night. Dublin was the one exception as it was much harder to find a cheap hotel. The cheapest option there was a Travelodge plus that would end up costing £332. In terms of places cost could be cut on the tour finding a non-hotel alternative could be a very efficient way to save money. Potentially the band could ask around for any one with spare rooms in Dublin, or if absolutely necessary they could spend the night in the tour van. To save on accommodation costs the band spends the night in Manchester on the travel day but then drives over to Leeds after the Manchester gig as it is fairly nearby and means they aren’t paying for two nights in the hotel.

I got a quote from Pro Tour Vans for the cost of hiring one of their standard splitter tour vans (£120+VAT per day) so worked out the cost of hiring it for the 7 active days it would be needed, which worked out to £1008. I then started calculating the petrol costs by finding that the MPG of the vehicle was 29.5. From here I worked out the total distances between each date and worked out the amount of petrol required, multiplying it by the average petrol cost of 136p per litre. The overall cost was £160.66.

Due to the smaller nature of the band they should only need one van for them and their equipment. This also means they wouldn’t need to pay for an ATA carnet when travelling by Ferry to Dublin as ‘Government guidance states that one option for moving musical instruments or equipment which are ‘accompanied’ (carried in an individual’s personal baggage or in a vehicle and transported by that individual throughout the journey) is to use temporary admission to pay no duty on them by going through the green ‘nothing to declare’ channel.” [ISM] However I supplied a carnet list for the equipment just in case they would need one. [Appendix E]

On active tour/travel dates I set aside a £90 per diem, meaning everyone gets allocated £15 for food etc. On the rest days in Leeds I lowered it to £60 giving everyone £10.

I decided to set most ticket prices at £12, a reasonable price for an indie band building an audience with a support act that ensures the tickets are still at an accessible price. However, in the shows in Dublin/Midlands where there is less of a concentrated audience for the band, I decided to put two supports on (with a local audience) so that there would be a bigger audience draw. This means the support act fee is more expensive as I decided it would be one band who would receive the usual £100 fee and then a local solo singer/songwriter who would receive £50 as they have a smaller audience and wouldn’t have to split it between a band. Because of the larger lineup I increased the ticket price slightly to £14 due to the riskier nature of playing in these locations and the higher support fee cost.

Venue hire fees (including VAT) have been put in as provided, except for Bodega Nottingham which was estimated based on the size of the venue.

I calculated PRS fees for each date at 4.2% of the estimated ticket sales (that being 80% tickets sold).

The band would be selling three types of merch: T-shirts for £25; Vinyl for £25 and CDs for £10. The total merch costs would be £2559.72, with 150 T-shirts manufactured and 200 records produced. For the cheapest production I decided the band could just burn special demo CDs to sell especially for the tour, producing 150 CDs for a cost of £149.85. With these costs the maximum profit that could be made back would be £7690.28. Calculating the estimate of 80% sales for this tour allows for a profit of £5640.28 (subtracting the total cost of production from the £8200 that would be made from selling merch)

Due to the folk nature of this bands set-up, there would be little need for any equipment hiring costs. All that is required is the acoustic guitar to be DI’d and then the rest of the instruments, main vocals and backing vocals to be Mic’d. This would require 5 microphones and one Di box, which all the venues should already have allowing for no expense needed to cover equipment hiring.

Technical & Logistics

Stage Plot

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Channel List

Channel List Download

Promotion/Marketing

I set aside £30 for marketing on each tour date. 5 days of Instagram advertising costs £18.71 which would allow for a push for each date on social media with some money left over. These ads could also double as advertising for the EP as well and could possibly tie into a helpful marketing tactic of ticket bundles, where people can pay to get a record/merch alongside a ticket.

The marketing for the EP with gradual single releases and announcements will build momentum for the EP but also for the artist in general, which can be carried over to the audience momentum for the tour.

The money left over would be allocated to typical promotion methods of postering, which could be easily done cheap due to the nature of having different local artists as supports allowing for contacts to help in each city. The posters will contain QR codes to allow people to quickly find tickets and encourage sales.

The nature of the supports could also double in another way of promoting the tour by doing a call out on social media looking for artist support submission in each city. This would bring wider attention to the event by asking people to submit their work and asking fans to tag who they would like creating much more direct fan-to-artist engagement about the tour.

Physical tickets would be distributed to record stores as well such as Crash and Jumbo to allow for a wider reach.

Rest days on tour allow for further marketing/promotion opportunities. For example, the rest days in Leeds could allow for more intimate record store shows/record signings which both add profit to the tour and acts as promotion for the EP and tour. Other promotional pushes such as radio slots and interviews (e.g. BBC introducing) would further the promotional push and audience engagement for the tour. These slots could happen both before and during the tour.

Logistics

One potential issue is that of Gear Theft. The band would likely get all their gear insured and the tour manager would research safe parking spots for each venue/accommodation beforehand so that they could store it in the van in as unassuming a way as possible.

Sudden illness could also be an issue. Hopefully the rest days ensure adequate time for regaining energy/wellbeing but potentially the tour manager could work with the band to contact people they know in each city as back-ups/ could even incorporate members of the support-acts as fill-ins. Unfortunately, sometimes illness may just happen in a way with no solution, and the tour manager would have to work out the most financially sustainable workaround, e.g. rescheduling/cancellations.

Other things such as weather delays for travel could also play a role in this, hopefully with travel days in-between long journeys it allows room for adaptability.

The ticket prices have been set low enough that if necessary to ensure financial profit they could be raised slightly and still be accessible for a wide audience to pay (e.g. could be raised from £12 to £15)