What’s the best way to organise a UK tour for my group. Do we have to approach venues directly or do we have to hire someone to do it for us? How can you make sure they’re good?
Most tours, even very small ones, need a lot of organising and logistics. There is nothing wrong with getting in a van and playing across the UK or Europe in several venues but be prepared. The planning is very involved. This is hotels, transports, insurance, food, load in times to venues along with sound check times , routes etc.
It is best advised to get a professional tour manager who would organise these things including putting a budget together. Our artist Bora toured with Beverley Knight around the UK on 2006, 26 dates. We had the advantage of record company backing so we employed a professional tour manager to organise everything, this took a lot of the strain out of the tour and meant everything ran smoothly. Tour managing is a highly skilled job and one that can be considered a serious job to aspire to in the music business. Often without a great tour manager most of the bands we love and admire could not exist on the road. This of course does not mean you cannot arm yourself with knowledge and go out and play, again seek advise with the Musicians Union.
Is having your record played on internet radio the same as getting it played on normal radio. Do you still get paid?
There is a huge debate and argument in regards to online income from internet radio stations. At the moment it seems you are unlikely to get any royalties from your music being played on most internet stations. But this is changing every day as lobby groups and Governments get behind the whole rights issue with online material.
Non pirate licensed radio stations have to pay a licence fee which is what is divided up amongst all composers whose music is played on these stations. The best way to secure your income from all sources new and old is to join PRS and PPL. Both these bodies are collecting money around the World and lobbying hard to secure more income from online and pod cast radio stations. But at the same time pirate radio is often the life blood of new music, so they also have to be taken into consideration although of course this is outside the law.
As an emerging artist you may have to accept the notion of giving your music away for a while to secure promotion and build a fan base. Our experience with our artists is this is becoming more and more common. Often the generation that want music for free are very young to late teens. They have only known free downloading online, so the notion of paying for music has to be taught to a whole generation.
The future in the music business is becoming based around new ways of generating income. from brand alignment to partnerships with non media music based companies. We recently signed one of our artists to a joint venture deal with several companies to secure the release and promotion of his next three albums.
The best way to succeed is to gain as much knowledge as possible about this business. Where ever possible try to compose your own music and own your rights, this way once those rights are protected income will come from various sources over time if you are successful, and if you do not compose try to again own as many rights, say in your image etc as possible these are all yours to exploit.
Kevin Reynolds