How a tour is organised?
2001-09-18
PLEASE COME TO xxxyyy!!
(or, the infamous WILL YOU EVER VISIT zzzwww?)
How a tour is organized:
1. The band Therion decides together with the management to do a tour.
2. The management deals with a touragency who have contact with many different promoters, both local and national. As they are in this case a German touragency, they have a direct contact with the german local promoters. The touragency are checking out the offers that are serious and that could make sense for the band to do. The serious offers are being put together and presented to the management who will take a decision regarding if it is acceptable. If there are any doubts, the band (in this case Christofer) is asked, if it is absolutely clear that it is good, all bandmembers and tourcrew (tourmanager, sound engineer, stage crew etc. etc.) are informed. However sometimes promoters pull out, change their mind or fail to fulfill what was agreed before a legal contract has been signed, in this case there are changes of the dates in the tourschedule. Some parts of the world are very reliable and once a date is set one can be sure it will not change, others are less reliable and the fans should visit the homepage regulary to see if there are any changes. However, the closer to the tour it gets, the more one can be sure that there will be no change of date or place, because then the contracts has been signed. The only reason for a change would be if there are too big or too small interest in the band, so that the show will have to be moved to a bigger or a smaller venue. This is however very rare.
3. The promotion for the show, the choice of venue, the sales of tickets etc. is done by the local promoter and/or a national promoter.
The "National Promoter" is someone who knows the country and who has contact with the local promoters. He is the one who is responsible of who will set up a show and where (what town and if multiple choices available, sometimes what concert hall) it will happen.
The "Local Promoter" is the one who set up the shows at the concert hall and sell the tickets to the fans. He usually works with one venue which mostly belongs to him.
In some countries there are national promoters who also are doing the set up of the shows. This is either because they are so big that they have their own network of venues, or if the country (or the market in it) is so small that there basically is only one promoter that sets up metal shows.
If you want to see a band in concert in your part of the world, wait until you know they are making a new album. Then gather as many friends you have that also want to see the band and try to contact someone that you know organizes concerts in the area where you live. It only makes sense to contact the management or the tour agency if you want to organize a concert your self.
To ask the band directly never makes any sense if it is a big band that has a management, as the band is not responsible for the bookings and as the band anyway have a contract with a management and therefore isn't allowed to book concerts of their own. Also keep in mind that booking a show isn't as easy as it may seem. The promoter need to have cash to pay the band in advance (one can not count on the ticket sales, in case the sales are bad, it is the promoter's problem). So the promoter is taking a risk of loosing money and therefore will only book bands where he see a low risk and also the possibility of making money, as that is his/her job.
Another thing is that it is not only to book a bunch of airplane tickets and have the musicians to grab their guitars and go. The show will need promotion in media, posters. There are also expenses for hotel, food etc. And certain technical things need to be fixed, a stage isn't enough. The promoter need a PA-system that holds the technical requirements, a sufficient lightsystem, electricity installations that can handle this type of high consuming electrical equipment, security people, distribution channels to sell the tickets through + many other things. So it is not easy to be a new promoter. The ones that have been around for many years have everything already, but are aware of the expenses and have to make a calculation on how many people they need to show up in order to break even. So if one or two persons would ask to have a show set up it make little difference. But if 20 would call and ask for a certain band and the record sales of the actual band is OK in the actual country, then it could make sense.
(or, the infamous WILL YOU EVER VISIT zzzwww?)
How a tour is organized:
1. The band Therion decides together with the management to do a tour.
2. The management deals with a touragency who have contact with many different promoters, both local and national. As they are in this case a German touragency, they have a direct contact with the german local promoters. The touragency are checking out the offers that are serious and that could make sense for the band to do. The serious offers are being put together and presented to the management who will take a decision regarding if it is acceptable. If there are any doubts, the band (in this case Christofer) is asked, if it is absolutely clear that it is good, all bandmembers and tourcrew (tourmanager, sound engineer, stage crew etc. etc.) are informed. However sometimes promoters pull out, change their mind or fail to fulfill what was agreed before a legal contract has been signed, in this case there are changes of the dates in the tourschedule. Some parts of the world are very reliable and once a date is set one can be sure it will not change, others are less reliable and the fans should visit the homepage regulary to see if there are any changes. However, the closer to the tour it gets, the more one can be sure that there will be no change of date or place, because then the contracts has been signed. The only reason for a change would be if there are too big or too small interest in the band, so that the show will have to be moved to a bigger or a smaller venue. This is however very rare.
3. The promotion for the show, the choice of venue, the sales of tickets etc. is done by the local promoter and/or a national promoter.
The "National Promoter" is someone who knows the country and who has contact with the local promoters. He is the one who is responsible of who will set up a show and where (what town and if multiple choices available, sometimes what concert hall) it will happen.
The "Local Promoter" is the one who set up the shows at the concert hall and sell the tickets to the fans. He usually works with one venue which mostly belongs to him.
In some countries there are national promoters who also are doing the set up of the shows. This is either because they are so big that they have their own network of venues, or if the country (or the market in it) is so small that there basically is only one promoter that sets up metal shows.
If you want to see a band in concert in your part of the world, wait until you know they are making a new album. Then gather as many friends you have that also want to see the band and try to contact someone that you know organizes concerts in the area where you live. It only makes sense to contact the management or the tour agency if you want to organize a concert your self.
To ask the band directly never makes any sense if it is a big band that has a management, as the band is not responsible for the bookings and as the band anyway have a contract with a management and therefore isn't allowed to book concerts of their own. Also keep in mind that booking a show isn't as easy as it may seem. The promoter need to have cash to pay the band in advance (one can not count on the ticket sales, in case the sales are bad, it is the promoter's problem). So the promoter is taking a risk of loosing money and therefore will only book bands where he see a low risk and also the possibility of making money, as that is his/her job.
Another thing is that it is not only to book a bunch of airplane tickets and have the musicians to grab their guitars and go. The show will need promotion in media, posters. There are also expenses for hotel, food etc. And certain technical things need to be fixed, a stage isn't enough. The promoter need a PA-system that holds the technical requirements, a sufficient lightsystem, electricity installations that can handle this type of high consuming electrical equipment, security people, distribution channels to sell the tickets through + many other things. So it is not easy to be a new promoter. The ones that have been around for many years have everything already, but are aware of the expenses and have to make a calculation on how many people they need to show up in order to break even. So if one or two persons would ask to have a show set up it make little difference. But if 20 would call and ask for a certain band and the record sales of the actual band is OK in the actual country, then it could make sense.
