Set Your Touring Preferences

– Posted in: Biz Booster Hot Tip! Touring Strategies
Set Your Touring Preferences

Set Your Touring Preferences - by Jeri Goldstein     

Have you set your touring preferences? Do you simply follow the crowd?

So, everyone of the acts you know is playing at the club down the street. But you don’t like starting your gigs at 11pm. And, if you play that club, you have to start at 11pm. If you don’t play that club, then where are you going to play? That’s the place you know about so that must be the place you have to play? Right?

Wrong! You don’t have to follow the crowd.

In fact, you will do yourself and your art a great disservice if you do follow the crowd. So what’s the first thing I would suggest you do, if you told me you were confused about where to play? I would suggest you set your touring preferences first.

Make a list of your touring preferences. Oh yeah, you should have touring preferences to help you target your audience and your performance venues.

Touring Preference List:

  1. Best times for your performance
  2. Best environment for your performance: dark smoke-filled bar, soft seat theater, intimate coffeehouse or house concert, private event, large concert shed, library, school, festival, daytime event, etc.
  3. Best stage setting for your performance
  4. Optimum age group
  5. Optimum ticket pricing
  6. Best method for customers to buy tickets such as in advance, through reservations, at the door, tipping, pass the hat, subscription series
  7. Best time of year to tour
  8. Best climate in which to tour
  9. Best mode of travel for touring or playing single dates
  10. Best touring format, solo, duo, trio, quartet, etc.
  11. Optimum amount of time to be on tour, solo dates, weekends, one week, two weeks, a month or more.
  12. Optimum amount of time off between tour dates.

Now once you have set your touring preferences list, you can immediately rule out certain types of venues, times of year, places and the way in which you are willing to do your tours.

Now you can begin to focus on the prime venues or types of gigs that YOU want to play.

Once you can whittle down your options, you can be much more targeted, focused and strategic in planning your tours. You will begin to accept offers and zoom in to the best opportunities for you and your act.
Take a few minutes this week and set your touring preferences list. Then update this list once a year since things may change along the way. It will serve your for your entire career.

Have you set your touring preferences? Has it made a difference in the way you select potential gigs? Have you found yourself being more selective when booking your tours? Has that helped your career growth?

Leave me a comment below  or on the Performingbiz Success Strategies Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/PerformingbizSuccessStrategies.

I can’t wait to hear about your success.

Thanks to Carol Ehrlich for this week’s Biz Booster graphic image, “Set Your Touring Preferences.”

Now, Thanks to the Band Curfew from the UK for providing the Biz Booster theme Music, Future Dance. Check them out at www.curfew.co.uk

And for more career boosting tips, articles, books, resources, tele-seminars and online courses, visit me at Performingbiz.com

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