Some roadies also get into it because they love traveling all over the world, seeing new cities, and meeting new people. Being a roadie is a lifestyle rather than just a job. Because they travel so frequently for work, roadies often struggle to maintain relationships with loved ones. Technology such as FaceTime and Skype has made keeping up with family, friends, and significant others easier, but it can still be a challenge to find privacy to make phone calls.
Most awful promoters or venues, though, are usually due to simple misunderstandings. BY Suzanne Raga. Roadie is an outdated term. Roadies work insanely long hours.
Roadies get used to roughing it. In fact, most of the ticketing strategies aim to sell as many seats as possible before putting the show on the general sale. Ticketing platforms like Songkick, BandsinTown or Seated allow promoters to reach the widest audience but they also puts the show at risk of selling out to the scalper bots in a matter of hours. This is especially true for the biggest artists out there — the more the demand for the show, the more attention it's going to get from the scalpers.
At this point, the tickets are on sale and the date is coming up, but there are still a lot of details to cover to make the show actually happen. Carrying out a show tour means getting the artist and his tour team to a hundred different locations across the globe — all while staying on a tight budget and an even tighter schedule. Then, you have to make sure that every step of the way the artist has the infrastructure to do the actual show. Big tours are extremely complicated logistics, that require a lot of planning usually carried out by the tour manager, affiliated with the tour promoters.
Plane tickets, car rental, backline equipment shipping — this is just a fraction of what needs to be taken care of before reaching the venue. The venue is hopefully sold out, the material is well-rehearsed, the equipment is delivered to the club — but the show is still to be done. Someone has to set up the sound, check tickets at the door, take care of the security, prepare the guest list and set up the bar. This routine can seem insignificant at times, but in fact, a solid on-site setup is a must if you want the audience to enjoy the performance.
Surely all of us can remember that one concert with that hour-long queue, delayed performance and warm beer at the bar — a poor concert organization can ruin even the best of shows.
Making sure that the concert goes smoothly is a group effort of the tour crew and the local promoter's team, from tour managers and technicians to local sound engineers and the venue stuff. Finally, one year, tens of thousands of kilometers and thousands of man-hours later, the artist will go on stage. Then, the team will get back on the road to repeat steps 5 through 7 over and over again, until the final row of the tour announcement is crossed out.
The artist will eventually get back in the studio and start working on the new material, while tour promoters and agents will begin planning the next tour. To conclude the Mechanics of Touring, we want to share with you an example of how the tour budget and profits are structured. Below, you will find a somewhat simplified yet accurate at its core budget simulation of an averaged tour. To go forward with the simulation, we will assume that the shows of the tour are all booked at the same price which is never the case due to the difference in the local ticket prices, venue and market capacity, and other specifics.
However, to simplify things, we will use the following revenue structure:. Then the time comes to divvy up the profits. That would mean that, although the tour itself will break even on a 24th show in the Song Out scenario, the tour promoter will start making money only after the 47th show once the agent is fully compensated.
It might seem that the promoters get the short end of the stick here, but in fact, they will often make quite a bit of money in the venue itself on things like bar and parking. Of course, the actual tour will be much more complicated than in the simulation above.
However, it should give you a good idea of how the tour is structured and budgeted. If you liked this article, take a look at our Mechanics of the Music Industry to get the overview of the topics we covered so far — and the ones we plan to cover in the future.
Content creator for Soundcharts. Deciphering the music business so you don't have to. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more Got it! All Mechanics Music Markets Insiders. Log in Get Started. Get Started. By Dmitry Pastukhov Published April 28, Finding the Talent 2.
Building the tour strategy and producing the show 3. Booking the tour 4. Selling the tickets 5. Preparations 6. The Day X 7. The Live Music Industry: An Overview Despite the rise of digital streaming platforms, make no mistake, live music is still the cash cow of the industry. Key Players in the Touring Industry Artists and Managers Artists and their managers are the crucial elements of the live business.
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