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Having a string of performances and general touring knowledge under your belt, this article focuses on details on how to go about putting it all together.
A tour isn't something that just spontaneously occurs, there is a lot of planning involved and a lot of "pre-action" required to make it a success.
When you start getting regular attendees to your local shows, you should start thinking about making a tour, yet the time between thinking it and doing it could be at least six months to a year before you are actually doing it.
The reason you want to give yourself enough time is to be able to find that "murphy" guy and shoot him down...
There are countless of things that will go bad so you always want to have more time than less, especially if money and reputation is on the line.
So you have your fans, you have your album and you have the drive to put a tour together.
If by now you don't have Google Analytics then I suggest you sign up and hook it into your website.
You'll have to watch it for a month or two to see where the greatest flow of people is coming from.
These hotspots will be your target cities to hit on the tour as your fans are there.
In some cases you'll find out that most of your listeners are coming from some small Scandinavian country that you can't pronounce; and if this is the case you might have to plan to visit your fans.
So before you plan anything you need to know where your fans are.
Take a good 2-3 months just analyzing and playing with the data to see if you can generate other spots in the area.
The more you target your music to specific cities the more you'll have the ability to create a bigger tour.
Now that you have the data collected it's time for some more research.
You could however not wait for 3 months before doing this step and just do it as the data comes in.
You will need to investigate local clubs or venues in the area where you could play, something central and easy to access by your fans.
You might even go ahead and ask your fans if they know of a place where you might be able to play at.
Use your fans to create venues for you: Now with the data of your listeners and the potential venues you will need to start working on PR kits you can send to each of the potential venues.
Try to get the name and number of the owners or managers of the club to be able to speed things up.
The PR kit will also contain a page explaining the purpose of playing there and how it would benefit the venue hosting your event.
In many cases the clubs will allow you to play for free, but in some cases they'll say you'll have to pay.
You really should try to get profitable deaks when going on your tour, in order to make it viable for the time effory and upfront money you spend.
Note that getting in touch with the clubs should happen at least 4 months before the time and if you can 8 months even better.
The earlier you can book an event the surer you'll be that you'll be the only one playing.
The HOW Checklist: - Google Analytics (data research) - Venue Research - PR Kit to venues
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