A tour manager plays a crucial role in ensuring the success of a live concert tour. They are responsible for overseeing the logistics of the tour, coordinating with the venue, vendors, and crew, and ensuring that everything runs smoothly.
Without a tour manager, a tour can quickly become disorganized and chaotic, which can lead to delays, technical issues, and even cancellations.
Hiring the right person to join your team as the tour manager is one of the most important decisions you can make as a developing artist or artist manager.
A tour manager is very much the person at the center of your road operation who ensures that everything is taken care of. They are the liaison between multiple different spokes of your touring organization. They are an extension of artist management and act as the eyes and ears of the team while on the road.
In this article, we will explore the steps involved when it comes to finding and hiring a tour manager.
Determine Your Touring Needs
The first thing you need to determine is what your tour management needs are. This will help identify what kind of tour manager to approach.
Here are some questions to consider when determining your needs:
- What are the dates and routing of the tour?
- What is the room size of the venues?
- Do you need someone based out of a certain geographic location?
- Are there any international tour dates?
- Do you need someone with production manager experience?
- What is the budget for the position?
- Do you need someone with genre-specific experience?
- What level of tour accounting experience are you looking for?
Some other questions and information most tour managers are likely to be interested in:
- What budget is available for advancing?
- How will the tour travel?
- What accommodations are being offered on days off?
- What is the per diem rate?
- How many other band members and touring crew are on the tour?
- What other crew roles are on the tour?
- Has anything already been coordinated?
- Could this lead to more work? Are dates already on the books?
- Any other gig-specific information that could be useful.
Answering the above questions helps both you, along with any potential candidates.
There are a number of aspiring tour managers out there who are eager to start their touring career but might lack the experience to properly run larger-scale tours.
Someone who tours at an arena level would be overkill for a club tour, and someone who tours at a club level might not have the necessary knowledge to excel at an arena level. No two tour managers are the same.
Touring is a business after all, and you want to hire the right candidate that can successfully guide your road team.
Search for Tour Manager Candidates
Once you have a better idea of what your tour management needs are, you’ll want to create a job post that will attract qualified candidates.
Take the time to design a job listing that will accurately describe the position, list the responsibilities, and is easy to read.
From there you can begin the search for finding the right TM.
Referrals From Colleagues
With live entertainment and the music industry being a reputation-based business, seeking a referral from a friend’s band or someone in your professional network is likely the first place to start.
These often yield higher-quality candidates because people you know have already been on the road dealing with these folks and can vouch for their abilities as a tour manager.
Online Job Postings
There are a number of different online job boards available to the touring community. The most well-known is Bobnet.
Here, hiring parties can post anonymous job listings and quickly get their positions filled.
Professional Organizations
Reaching out to a company that specializes in tour direction is another option.
This is slightly different from a referral because tour directors will help build your tour at a cost, but it is often well worth the money for it.
They are often a turn-key solution with years of experience and contacts.
Conduct Interviews
Once you’ve gathered a stack of resumes, now begin the difficult task of conducting interviews and determining who is the best fit for your organization.
Don’t assume anything during the interview process and ask the right questions to discover if this is a mutually beneficial situation.
You are searching for someone who has a proven track record and can repeat results for your organization.
It’s important to be on the same page about their past experience, availability, and what kind of vibe they bring to a tour.
It’s important to do due diligence when hiring a candidate. Find others who can vouch for these people before ever putting them in front of the artist.
Pre-Artist Interview
A quick phone call or zoom chat without the artist on the line is a great way to get a preliminary feel for a potential tour manager.
Finding someone who can tour manage is one thing, but finding the right fit for your artist and organization is another thing.
Get a shortlist of qualified and vetted tour managers together to present to the artist.
Artist Interview
Once you’ve done the preliminary leg work, now it’s time to bring candidates to the artist.
Every artist and team is different and how you ultimately hire a tour manager is going to have to make sense for your organization.
Some other artists might want to meet with a candidate in person, while others are comfortable conducting interviews via Zoom.
Make Your Selection
Once you have conducted interviews, discuss the pros and cons of each candidate with your artist before making an offer.
Extend the offer, be prepared to negotiate, and confirm the terms of the agreement with the tour manager prior to informing the rest of the candidates of your decision.
Make sure to thank the others for their time, and also inform them of your decision in a timely manner. You very well may end up working with them in the future.
Conclusion
A tour manager’s job is one of the most important hires of any tour, so it’s critical to find and hire the right one. It’s a decision that can make or break the success of a live concert tour.
Tour managers start working on tours months in advance so it’s important to start the hiring process with plenty of lead time.
Ultimately, hiring the right tour manager can help ensure a smooth, successful, and enjoyable tour experience for everyone involved.
Are you trying to hire a tour manager? Be sure to check out this sample tour manager job template.