Tour manager

A tour manager (or concert tour manager) is the person who helps to organize the administration for a schedule of appearances of a musical group (band) or artist at a sequence of venues (a concert tour). In general, road managers handle small to medium-sized tours, and tour managers are used on large-scale tours.

The performances on a concert tour are booked by the act’s booking agent, who works with concert promoters to place the act in suitable venues and festivals in a time frame and territory agreed with the act’s management. Individual concert promoters negotiate the financial, technical and hospitality requirements of the artist and make an offer to the booking agent for the show. The tour is announced and tickets put on sale when agreement is reached on the tour dates. As modern concert touring involves complex financial, legal and technical arrangements, the booking agent or artist manager hire a concert tour manager to organize the logistics. Concert tour managers are usually freelancers working on a tour-by-tour basis.

The tour manager is given the itinerary for the tour by the booking agent. Working from this itinerary, the tour manager handles the following activities.

The itinerary includes information about the potential ticket income (fees) for each show. Using this information the tour manager can produce a budget for the tour, calculating costs for crew wages, per diems, accommodation, transport, sound, lighting and video equipment, visas and work permits, rehearsals and other expenses such as booking agent commissions. Weekly reports are submitted to the business manager,

Advancing is the process of contacting each promoter and venue to ensure the entire artist's technical and hospitality demands (the rider) are met and to resolve any problems the promoter or venue can foresee. The artist's rider covers catering, production (sound, lights, stagehands needed), security, general show, and legal issues. During the advancing process the tour manager checks contact names and addresses, arrival times, equipment load-in times, sound check and performance times, any supporting/opening acts, and live music curfews.

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