How Much Money Do Tour Managers Make

The chore of a Tour Manager is to make sure that life on the route runs smoothly for everyone involved. This ways getting the band safely to venues and hotels, managing money coming in and money going out, and dealing with Promoters and Venue Managers.

Tour Managing director David Norman says that his "day consists of moving the creative person and the band from city to city. Along with my Travel Agent, Tour Coordinator, Tour Bus Commuter, Tour Publicist, booking flights, ground, hotels, etc. Doing day sheets (info on what your day will exist like including departure times, showtimes, soundcheck times, travel after the evidence, etc.)"

Tour Managers also work with Band Directors, Travel Agents, Band Members, Sound and Lighting Techs, Instrument Techs (Guitar Technicians, etc.), Sound Engineers, Bout Motorbus Drivers, Tour Coordinators, Production Managers, Tour Accountants, Advance Person, Festival Directors and the Route Crew.

On average, Tour Managers earn approximately $54,300 annually. The average salary range for Tour Managers runs from $46,000 to $71,000.

Tour Managers are paid calendar week-past-week, and payment varies based on the tour budget, the length of the tour, the stature of the band, etc. Usually, a Tour Manager gets a base salary, plus expenses (meals, for example), and sometimes a per diem for incidental expenses that come up on the road.

Tour Managers have a lot of responsibleness, and not a lot of days off. Norman says, "I generally work at to the lowest degree 8 – 9 months out of the year. I'thousand a workaholic and demand projects to go on me motivated."

The best fashion to advance in this career is to accept a handle on several different aspects of touring then that you lot can work in varying capacities. Norman says that "when I was coming upwards, my mentor advised me to learn EVERYTHING virtually touring, so I did. I can bout manage, production manage, [do] bout accounting, Promoter Rep, etc. Learning all of these different things will make your telephone ring with more jobs over being merely one dimensional.

"For example, this year I was the Tour Manager/Tour Accountant for John Legend (finished in February after five ½ years touring with him). Then I filled in as Tour Managing director for a one-off date for Aaron Neville and so was Bout Director for the Brit Floyd tour and and so Production Manager for Prince.

"In two weeks, I'll leave as Tour Auditor for Avicii (filling in for a friend) and then I go out with One Direction as Promoter Rep August – October." Advancement also comes from experience and building connections; most Tour Managers start with smaller, lesser-known bands earlier hitting the road with Grammy-winning, millionaire Rock Stars.

Like and so many music manufacture careers, networking and word-of-rima oris recommendations are the best manner to go a job as a Tour Manager. Many Bout Managers get-go off by working with a friend's band or in another music industry career.

United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland-based Tour Director Bob Slayer says, "There are so many ways to get into a career in music but like whatever creative field most of them involve working for next to naught for quite a while, this is because a lot of people desire to follow this path, so if you won't work for nothing there are plenty of other people who will and they will get the breaks.

"If you take some aptitude for what y'all practice so there comes a time where the experience and knowledge you have picked upwards working endless complimentary or low paid hours brainstorm to make you a scarcer, more valuable commodity.

"Back in 2002/2003, I was trying to get into music journalism. I was reviewing bands for a bunch of fanzines and just starting to get the odd bit of piece of work from magazines. I interviewed a band by email – Electrical Eel Shock, a Japanese band who were touring America at the time.

One of the questions I asked them was "Do you lot take whatsoever plans to come to the UK?" and this was the only one they answered! 'You go gig; we come.' And and so I did.

"A few weeks after they came and stopped on my floor and did a few gigs around London. They blew a few people away and were asked to support a couple of larger bands.

The band then, impressed with what I had set up, invited me to go dorsum to [the] The states with them and to SXSW. There I fix an interview with MTV for them and managed to go the caput Booker from Roskilde Festival in Denmark to come meet them live.

"She immediately booked them to headline a stage… This sealed it and they asked me to be their Manager. This I did for the adjacent 6 years solid equally well as tour managing and also acting as Agent in some territories.

I still work with them and just ready upwardly a European tour with them. Working and touring with Electric Eel Shock led to working with a number of other artists such every bit The Bloodhound Gang, Public Enemy, MC Devvo, etc."

• Outset at the bottom. Go experience in different facets of the live music industry.
• Network. Become the discussion out that you're bachelor to work equally a Tour Managing director.
• Be willing to work for complimentary or very little.
• Brush upwardly your budgeting skills.
• Stay responsible and don't get sucked into partying! Yous're the one who needs to run into that everyone gets to the next location safely and on fourth dimension.

Norman, like many Tour Managers, started off as a musician himself. This feel gave him an understanding of what tour life was like, and what band members would need from their Tour Manager. He also has experience equally a recording studio Audio Engineer and Mixer.

Subsequently working with the S.O.S. Band on an anthology, they asked him to come along on tour with them as a Front end-of-House Engineer and Tour Manager. In full general, Tour Managers have experience in one or more music manufacture careers before heading out with a ring. Skill-wise, they must exist able to handle finances, stay on schedule and handle all kinds of people with varying temperaments.

Working as Bout Director isn't for everybody. Norman says this is a skilful career for "someone who's patient, is proactive instead of reactive and is a forward-thinker and tin multitask!"

"Learn everything y'all tin," Norman says. "Read everything you lot can and above all, find a mentor to help guide you. Higher would exist great to learn people and life skills." Although higher instruction isn't a requirement, an understanding of finance and budgeting is.

At that place are no unions for Tour Managers, although U.k.-based Tour Managing director Bob Slayer recommends the Music Managers Forum for those interested in artist direction.

David Norman & Bob Slayer

David Norman is a veteran Tour Manager who has worked as a musician, Recording Engineer and Mixer, Tour Auditor, and Production Manager. From 2008-2014 he worked as the Tour Manager/Tour Accountant for John Legend and recently worked with Prince on his European/Great britain tour. Norman has worked with stars like Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Toni Braxton, Arcade Fire, Joss Rock, Alicia Keys, Greenish Day, and They Might Be Giants.

He has been profiled on Roadies of Color United, FOH Online, and Billboard.

Bob Slayer is a Bout Managing director in the Uk, where he has worked with Snoop Dogg, Electric Eel Stupor, Iggy & the Stooges, Public Enemy, The Bloodhound Gang, and the Magic Numbers. In addition to his work with live music, he also now works with Comedians. He has appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every year since 2008 and is himself an accolade-winning Comedian.

Source: https://www.careersinmusic.com/tour-manager/#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20Tour%20Managers%20earn,stature%20of%20the%20band%2C%20etc.

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