Touring is an important way for an artist to not only make a connection with their existing fans and gain new fans but also can be a good source of revenue from ticket and merchandise sales. Touring also has a proven direct effect on music sales (both online and retail sales in the markets where the artist plays) and radio airplay.

Promoting a tour is critical to getting fans to attend the show and can be the difference between a tour making and losing money. Tour promotions basics include making sure the venues have posters advertising the artist and show date up prior to day of the show and getting flyers distributed around town announcing the venue, date and time of the show. It’s important to communicate the artist’s tour dates to their fans by posting the dates on the artist’s website and MySpace page, record label website, and venue website plus regularly email tour dates to the artist’s fan email list.

A well publicized tour will have artist interviews, articles and new release reviews in the local press in the days leading up to the show and arrange on air interviews, in studio performances, ticket or CD giveaways at the local radio stations. It’s also important to coordinate tour stops with the distributor to make sure the artist’s CD is available in the area music stores and that there is adequate retail advertising.