BTTV BLOG

We see a lot of touring tips but these are few originals from How to Run a Band. Take a quick read here and click through for details on each. I’d pay attention to #6 specifically. Know your rights!

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Here’s a few pointers I’ve picked from the few small tours I’ve been on.  These are things that no one tells you, but you end up learning the hard way.

1. Dont’ open a tab

2. Listerine has multiple uses

3. Take of your shoes and socks

4. Avoid hand cramps

5. Buy a case of bottled water

6. You have the right to remain silent and say no to searches

Read more @ How To Run A Band.

The good people at Indie Ambassador have got a good thing going on and a solid series of DIY tips/tricks/advice/ideas. They’ve summed it all up in an end o’ year list that you should peruse. Topics covered…

Mike Gill: Music Videos on a Budget

Luke Garro: Saving Money on the Road

Ben Hoffman: Tour Management 101

Ben & Aidan: Make Your Local Show Count

There are 10 total so be sure to check them all out.

Read more @ Indie Ambassador Blog

Hey, hey. We love numbered lists and WAMM has a good one about touring. Good stuff that takes a little planning and leg work but will make your tour/shows better, bigger more bad ass as it were. We give you two, and click through to WAMM for more.

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Every time a band has a gig, there are certain guidelines they should follow. This checklist of 10 items will help bands ensure each show runs smoothly and is as successful as possible.

Advance The Show

There is a lot of information that trades hands when setting up a show, and sometimes that information gets jumbled and isn’t communicated correctly. Make sure you are on the same page with the venue by advancing the show 1 to 2 weeks before your date. That way, no one gets surprised when the band asks for its $200 guarantee and the venue thinks they only owe $125. Print out those advancing emails and bring them to the gig, just as back up.

Show Your Promotion Efforts

As one might expect, venues love bands that promote hard, so make sure your hard work gets noticed! If you get a plug about your show on a blog, send it over to the venue. Use all of your social networks to link up with the venue online so both of you can cross promote. It is okay to toot your own horn in this situation.

Get 10 more tips @ We All Make Music

Lots of end of the year stuff coming down the line right now. Big lists and “things you’ve missed”. This one comes from CD Baby and recaps some interesting ideas on how to mount and pull off a tour. Remember, it’s all about the prep work. Do your homework and work hard BEFORE you get in the van. Then you can have a good time.

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With so much upheaval in the music industry, there has been a lot of talk lately about how “indie bands are now in the business of selling t-shirts.” Well, while we don’t think that is exactly true CD Baby’s physical CD sales are UP from this time last year!, it does raise a good point: Everything is changing, even touring.

Without tour support from a label, DIY artists have to make sure they’re getting maximum return on their time, financial investment, and effort when they go out on the road. After all, touring is one of the main ways musicians grow their fan base. And for the following bands, it is working!

1. Blue Cranes Go By Train-In one swift move, Portland’s favorite jazz rock collective teaches us 3 valuable lessons: garner massive press attention by embarking upon an environmentally & economically conscious national tour and have your fans pay for it all. Blue Cranes is a busy band. They gig often. They’ve toured often. But when it came time to consider a national tour, the cost of the undertaking was tough to wrap their heads around. But rather than be deterred, they took the challenge to their fans, successfully using crowdfunding site Kickstarter.com to raise enough money to mount the tour.

Read about 2 more @ DIY Musician

This is more on the consumer side of things but helpful all the same. 8 interesting sites/apps for staying on top of what shows are coming to your town. Worth checking out and from Make Use Of too!

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Thanks to the web, you should never have to miss a beat. There are umpteen ways to follow your favorite artist, band, or even get advance notice of an upcoming concert. There are apps like Songbird or Last.fm which keeps you updated if any favorite band is playing in the area. Now, ever since Google mashups gained ground, I have become bit of a map freak. So I am heading to these eight websites which help to track bands and upcoming concerts with some help from maps.

Gruvr
Effingmusic
Last.fm (music map)
Gigzee
Tourtracker
Folkjam
Popbot

via Make Use Of

It’s time for tour! Just getting to this point takes a ton of work and doesn’t happen for every band on the planet. You’ve got some shows booked (hopefully) and maybe more on the way. You’ve got your merch ready to sling and of course your band is crazy-tight and ready to kill it. Now it’s time to gas up the van, head out and let the cards fall where they may. Right? Wrong. You’ve got more work to do.

Last week we jumped a plane and headed to the city of lost angels for the Scion Music(less) Conference. A little ditty put on by Scion to bring together all kind of minds from the music world to talk shop, present their ideas and listen to the RZA throw down about the music industry. It was a small affair and we were please as punch to be invited. We met a lot of great people and found out what happens in LA when the Lakers win a championship (see definition of urban chaos). We took some pics and you can check out all the happenings at Scion AV in a couple weeks!

Airborne refreshments.

A little Bollywood in a Hollywood cab ride.

Wu Tang! The RZA talks Bill Murray and why he sees spaceships.

The Scion content creation machine.

BTTV on the big screen.

Hummers and hotels.

We met a lot of great people from cool companies like Nimbit (direct to fan merch and music), Sonoma Wireworks (turn your iphone or ipod into a four track), Tunecore (digital distro giant), Reverbnation (you know), mTraks (curated download store) and one of my favorites Sound Exchange (an awesome nonprofit that finds money owed bands and musicians from online radio and streaming sites. you fill out a few pieces of paperwork and they hunt down what’s owed you.)

Fall brings some great things. A relaunch of the site with tons of new features and the return of Better Than The Van Happy Hours. We’re going big and we can’t go home. That’s it. Be well. Go on tour.

“I have always tried to do whatever I can to help musicians out, since I feel like they give me a service I wouldn’t want to live without.”

Well said by BTTV’er  Kate Battle out of Chicago. She and a couple others  were interviewed for a story/interview that’s running today on the ABC news site.

You can get all the action right here.