The concert tour manager (CTM) is a specialised role in modern concert touring. The CTM, a freelancer, works for the music artist. The tour manager generates budgets for the artist’s touring and festival activities, and organises transport and accommodation for those events. The CTM will also be involved in the hiring of other touring crew, as well as overseeing applications for work permits, visas, record company tour support, and tax mitigation. The concert tour manager will then travel with the artist for the duration of the tour, dealing with the day-to-day activities, issues, and challenges.

I use the term ‘concert tour manager’ so as not to confuse the subject with travel tour managers – people who help tourists when they travel.

The following is a guide to the work you should expect from every concert tour manager you work with.

---

1. The Work of the Concert Tour Manager
2. Budgeting the Tour or Festival Performance
3. Pre-production
4. Advancing the Concert Dates
5. Going On-The-Road
6. Post-Tour Administration and Accounting

The Work of the Concert Tour Manager

The concert tour manager does not book the concerts or festivals for the artist. A booking agent will book these appearances for the artist. The agent will produce a ‘date sheet’, which lists all the confirmed concerts or festivals, along with the details for each promoter and the agreed performance fee.
The concert tour manager usually gets involved after the booking agent produces the date sheet and confirms all the appearances.

A CTM’s work then falls into five areas of activity:

1. Budgeting the tour or festival performance
2. Pre-production
3. Advancing the concert dates
4. Going on-the-road
5. Post-tour administration & accounting

There are no regulations for CTMs. Concert tour managers do not need to sit exams or hold related qualifications. Anybody can call themselves a concert tour manager.
I am not aware of specific courses that deal with concert/band tour management, although there are related academic and vocational courses such as theatre stage management and event management courses.
I mention this as a concert tour manager is supposed to relieve you of the stress of organising and administrating your concert tour. It is therefore important to know that the concert tour manager you are retaining has some experience in the role or can offer you a good, non-conditional guarantee. Or both.

Budgeting the Tour or Festival Performance

Touring is expensive. Four- or five-figure concert performance fees can still turn into a loss for the artist, especially for one-off and festival performances. Someone on the artist’s team should therefore create a tour budget for the activity before confirming the show with the promoter. Because of their experience, this budgeting is best done by the concert tour manager.

It is worth getting a concert tour manager’s opinion before you confirm the show. See using your concert tour manager before the tour for what that consultation should cover.

The CTM creates a list of predicted expenses for the activity; the total of the income, minus the expenses, will give the profit (or loss, also called the ‘shortfall’) for the tour or festival show. The artist’s management should review the costs before agreeing to the tour by studying a tour budget.

I use the following categories when I am producing a budget or list of predicted expenses:

• WAGES
• PER DIEMS*
• ACCOMMODATION
• TRANSPORT
• PRODUCTION – SOUND, LIGHTING, BACK LINE, VIDEO, STAGING & SET
• REHEARSALS
• OTHER EXPENSES**

The CTM should present the costs as she perceives them and offer solutions if they are too great. A loss can be mitigated by either cutting costs and/or applying for record company tour support, if the artist contract allows.

*Per Diems is a daily amount paid to touring crew to cover living expenses, food etc. From the Latin ‘for the day’. Apparently.
**Other expenses would include any visas, work permits, foreign artist taxation, and booking agent’s commission.

Pre-production

Pre-production involves looking at what needs to be organised, quoted for, booked, and paid for, to fully execute the tour or festival appearance. At the basic level, this involves:

• the concert tour manager getting quotes for transport – splitter vans or tour buses – for instance
• establishing what payment terms are needed from those vendors
• running everything past the artist and artist management
• and getting confirmation from both artist management and the vendors

Beyond this, the CTM will look at the logistics, anticipating how driving regulations in some countries will affect the planned travel, for instance.

Advancing the Concert Dates

‘Advancing’ is the process of contacting each venue or concert promoter for each date on the tour. Once contact is made, the concert tour manager will check with the promoter for:

• the relevant contact names and addresses of the venue
• arrival times
• equipment load-in times
• soundcheck and performance times
• the details of any supporting/opening acts
• catering arrangements
• parking

and other matters relating to the concert.

The advance process can highlight common problems such as:

• incorrect venue addresses listed on contracts
• limited physical access (e.g., many stairs to carry gear up)
• conflicting sporting or other musical events
• sound level restrictions
• inadequate or unsuitable technical equipment (this is exactly what the contract rider exists to prevent)
• lack of on-site parking

And so on. The CTM should also ask the promoter about ticket sales.

For a more detailed breakdown of this stage, see my guide to concert tour pre-production and advancing.

Experienced concert tour managers have an encyclopedic knowledge of all types of issues and challenges in concert touring. At the same time, venues and professional concert promoters organise this type of event for a living. It is fair to expect that they will anticipate any situation the incoming production may present.

The CTM collects the details of the venues, contacts, schedules, parking, catering, merchandise, concession fees, and everything else for each date on the tour as part of this advancing process. This information is entered in one of the many apps available for touring teams. Master Tour, DaySheets, and Road Ops are all designed to give everyone associated with a tour, not just the people on the road, access to the schedules and other pertinent information related to the tour.

The CTM should distribute tour schedules to record company and management staff, the booking agent, and public relations people, as they also work hard for the tour’s success and require updates.

Going On-The-Road

The concert tour manager accompanies the music act on the road. The day-to-day work of the CTM varies according to the capacity of the venues and the status of the music artist. It’s fair to say, though, that the following activities are part of a band CTM’s day-to-day workload:

• Overseeing hotel departures on time
• Settling accommodation bills
• Overseeing travel arrangements, i.e. band and crew onto the bus or to the airport in good time
• Overseeing venue arrival – double-checking hospitality and technical arrangements
• Confirming an up to date running order with venue and promoter
• Overseeing promotional activities, i.e. VIP, meet and greets, TV, radio, and press interviews at the venue or at other locations
• Supervising any support or opening acts
• Ensuring the venue is ready to open on time by supervising sound check times
• Liaising with the transport department regarding the next days’ travel
• Ensuring all acts perform on time and for the allotted time
• Settling performance fee with promoters and collecting any due cash
• Ensuring all touring equipment is re-packed and loaded back onto tour transport
• Preparing band and crew schedule sheets for the next day
• Overseeing band and crew onto overnight transport or to the next hotel
• Reporting this show’s attendance figures to the artist’s management and the booking agent

Post-Tour Administration and Accounting

The last date of a concert tour is not the last day of work for the concert tour manager. Post-tour administration is a big part of the modern CTM’s job; the CTM should be paid accordingly for this extra, post-tour, work.

This work includes, but is not limited to:

• Ensuring rented transport returns to its base
• Getting the touring personnel home quickly and safely
• Making sure rented equipment gets back to the suppliers or into storage
• Also ensuring that the artist takes care of storing or forwarding their own equipment (backline)
• Finalising the accounts for the tour
• Working with the artist’s financial team to get invoices generated for remaining tour support
• Ensuring full payment for the crew, session musicians, and dancers

The Work of the Concert Tour Manager – What Do You Think?

Thanks for reading. This is my take on the work of a concert tour manager. I have not included the concert tour managers’ responsibilities regarding the selling of merchandise (‘merch’) – t-shirts, hoodies, vinyl, posters, etc. in this article.

What do you think? An easy life, or stress and responsibility at every turn? Please let me know in the comments!

For more on the job, read What Does a Concert Tour Manager Do – Part Two.

Further reading: Tour Manager Cheat Sheet, SoundGirls.org and Advancing Your Show With a Promoter or Venue, The Efficient Hustle.

You can also read my book about the live music business and concert production industry – The Live Music Business – Management and Production of Concerts and Festivals