Losing money on a tour beats staying home every time
[The following article was written by our friends at MusicSubmit. It originally appeared on their blog.]
Last month the DIY Musician Blog posted “Do traditional tours still make sense for independent artists” by guest blogger Jason Schellhardt.
The blog post states that booking cross-country tours no longer makes sense for newer independent artists. Mr. Schellhardt suggests that since the advent of the Internet, touring is no longer the best way to build a fanbase; you can get more fans via the Internet and social-networking. If you do tour, he writes, you should go where your fans are by using “geo-specific data” gathered from social media. He ends with the disclaimer “every band is different and what works for some might not work for others.”
From the article, a new band might think that there’s no reason to hit the road and spend a bunch of money just to play in front of half-empty clubs in small towns, since no one develops a fanbase that way anymore. While this idea is mostly true, it ignores the most important reason for new bands to tour in the first place: to get the real-life experience of touring, performing, and being a band. Bands shouldn’t tour with the purpose of gaining a fanbase, so much as to develop the vital skills necessary that you just can’t get from banging away on your iPhone for new Followers and Likes.
For new bands, here are the real benefits of touring, regardless of the fanbase you will or won’t build up on the road:
You’ll Get Used to Going thru the Paces of a Tour.
Here’s the thing. When you tour, you don’t usually hit the same town more than a few times in a year. It would take …read more
Source: The DIY Musician
