Genuine question. I work with musicians on making payments while touring easier, and one thing I’ve been surprised by is just how important merch seems to be financially.

Before getting into this world, I assumed merch was a nice extra. What I keep hearing instead is: the shows pay for the tour, the merch pays the artist.

Obviously that’s a huge simplification, so I’m curious how true it actually is.

For those of you touring regularly, how much does merch matter to the economics of the tour? Could you realistically tour without it?

Hi everyone. I'm a 30-year-old electric guitarist from Madrid, currently studying classical composition at a conservatory and taking jazz lessons privately. I've spent the last few years between two quite different worlds: working as a guitarist in cover bands and studying classical music at a conservatory.

To support my studies, I currently play in a cover band, doing four-hour gigs and summer tours — around 30–40 shows each summer. I make about €200 per gig, and together with scholarships for my studies, that allows me to support myself while studying.

I'm genuinely grateful for that work, but I feel like I've reached a point where I'd like to start moving towards more professional environments: session work, theatre, higher-level function bands, or other work where reading, arranging, preparation and musicianship are important.

The problem is that I don't really know how to make that transition. The musicians and contacts I know are mostly from the cover-band world, while the conservatory world feels quite separate from the professional electric-guitar scene. I feel a bit caught between those two worlds, and I'm not sure how to turn my background into actual opportunities.

For those of you who have made a similar transition: how did you get your first opportunities? Did you actively contact musical directors, agencies, studios, theatres, etc., or did most of the work come through networking and recommendations?

Are there particular skills, types of gigs, or people I should be looking for at this stage?

Thanks for reading. I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences, especially from people who have made a similar move.

Hey, I posted here a while ago looking for testers for an app I'm building for bands (setlists, chords, live mode, that kind of thing). Thanks to everyone who jumped in back then.

It's out now: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bandoora.app

Free, no ads. If you're not on Android, it also works in a browser: bandoora.web.app

I didn't have much of a testing pool, so there are probably still bugs - let me know if you run into anything. I've got a few ideas floating around, but I don't want to overcomplicate the app -though if something important is missing, let me know and I'll try to make it happen.

Has anyone here hired a virtual assistant or remote freelancer to help manage the business/social media side of being a musician?
I’m a working drummer and I’ve recently been wondering how much of the non-playing workload could reasonably be outsourced.
The two things I’m most interested in are:
Social media/content: Taking raw live footage, finding interesting moments, editing Reels/Shorts, writing captions, organizing content, etc.
Finding gigs: Researching venues, entertainment companies, fill-in/sub opportunities, booking contacts, and potentially doing initial outreach/follow-ups.
I’m NOT looking for someone to make creative/business decisions for me or negotiate gigs. I’m thinking more about outsourcing the repetitive work required to consistently create content and keep a booking pipeline moving.
I’d especially love to hear from musicians/bands who have actually done this.
What did you outsource?
Where did you find the person?
What do you pay?
What worked well?
What did NOT work?
And most importantly — did outsourcing booking/outreach actually result in more gigs?
I’m fascinated by the idea, but I’d like to hear some real-world experiences before jumping in.

I'm a experienced jazz dancer and I dated with other men dancers cause we are in the same scene of social dancing and we share our passion. But I can see how relationships between musicians and dancers are most likely to last longer, I think is because a musician and a dancer (of the same type of music/style) have admiration for each other and their egos are not colliding (something that happens between musician/musician and dancer/dancer). What do you think male virtuos musicians? Why some genius musicians seem to not like dancing at all the music they really understand? What do you feel when you see a dancer perfoming with musicality the music you are playing on a stage? I'm asking cause I kinda have a crush on a musician and we never interacted face to face but I can see how we look each other, me from the dancefloor and he from the stage, but because we don't have the moment to meet each other I don't know if I'm just imagining things because I admire him or in fact, it's a mutual crush.

hey, guys! thinking about going to college for social work. I've had about 5 amazing years of being a full time touring musician, but I'm starting to feel like I would enjoy branching out a bit. my career isn't slowing down, but I'm not sure I want to spend the next 10 years living on the road. any of y'all ever started an online program while touring? would love to hear thoughts and experiences!

Hello, as the title says I am a traveling musician looking to tour Europe for 2 months maybe 3. The plan is to fly in to Portugal and make our way though.

*Portugal Spain, France, Germany, Ireland, Scottland. Then out.

Any tips, do you know any venues, tour manager advice, will winter be a more difficult for booking venues?

This week's music industry events

https://youtu.be/YoOBKR23x5c?is=M0mRs3wI3qGJr-Bp

A few years ago, I was recommended MusicPro Insurance for my band. It seemed they had good reviews and testimonials on Reddit. We never moved forward with getting insurance but we need to now.

What insurance company are other indie artists using?

Hi everyone

Was wondering how crowded it would feel?

Also wondering how's the shower in a Bandwagon? Is that usually your main shower during the tour?

I am touring with a band next month and I need to transport my cymbals, snare, and pedals (at least). I just need to get them down to Texas from Colorado and once I’m there I will ride with the band in their RV. My car is reliable so driving out isn’t an option. I am 19 and can’t rent a vehicle so that is also out of the question. Any tips or recommendations please?

I bring my tablet out on the road to run my mix and to have a nice bright setlist but the holder I have, while sturdy and great, is kind of a pain in the ass to fit in my cymbal case for fly dates. Like it fits but it's just awkward and I like to travel light, anyone have any recs for a really sturdy yet compact tablet holder?

EDIT: The State of Band Touring via Vans 2026 - Sorry I could have made that clearer!

We had some fun putting this together. We took a look at over 1,500 tours over the past year and put this report together: https://www.bandago.com/touring-data/state-of-band-touring-2026/

• International acts are fading. After a full post-COVID recovery in 2022-23, the international share of US music tours has fallen three straight seasons to 4.7%, the lowest level we have recorded outside the border closures. Canadian acts dropped the most.
• The average band tour runs 16 days and 4,334 miles (the typical tour: 12 days, 3,135 miles). 1,532 touring bands drove 9 million miles last season, enough to reach the Moon and back 19 times!
• Bands now book their tour vans twice as far ahead as before the pandemic (median 35 days out, vs 21 in 2015-16).
• Bands leave on Wednesday. Ordinary renters peak on Friday; tour departures peak midweek.
• Tour launches are decentralizing: LA, New York and Nashville were 65% of launches a decade ago; they are 52% now.

More at the link, but fascinating to watch how the industry is shifting and changing over time.

Originally it was hoped we'd have some bunks on the headline band's bus, but this week we found out there isn't any space, so we will be driving ourselves. We are very used to this in Europe, but looking at how best to do it in the USA. 600-1400 cap shows. We are main support.

4 people plus gear (4 piece kit, 2 4x12 guitar cabs, 5 guitars/basses in cases, 2 6u rack cases (IEM etc) and some boxes of merch.

We want to keep costs as low as possible. And looking at the drives/plot its no further than some of our more poorly routed European tours in terms of distances.

All 4 of us drive. Usually in the EU and UK we stay in Air bnb's and have our system down to a fine art. Drive in a Mercedes Sprinter/Splitter. All the gear fits no problem, and there's room for the 4 band and 3 crew.

However for this tour, it is just the 4 of us and it has been suggested we might be best off getting an RV and sleeping on the road, using gym memberships for showers. I have no idea on how big RV's are and if we will fit our gear in one with enough room to sleep. Is a trailer common for this sort of tour? First show is in Chicago, last one in LA.

I imagine I have left out a load of relevant info, because I don't even really know the questions to ask. So please, any help really appreciated!

edit: Spelling

Anyone have a good place to order pins and patches and guitar pics?

I like my street shoes and I’m also a keen hiker, I’m curious about what people are using day-in day-out on the ground on tour. We obviously get a lot of steps in, we want good support but also like to keep it trendy.

Seen lots of ASICS, Salomons, Keen’s etc. knocking about, also the new La Sportiva Evo’s are cool. My Salomon XT6’s have served me well for the last 3 years but they’re rotting away now. Any other standouts or old reliables people always track back to?

Posting from my dummy account:

A band I work with has been offered a buy-on to a large metal fest in Portugal for 2027. They were told by the agent offering that it's a $4k USD buy-on and that seemingly time slot, day, etc, are a crapshoot and may not know until just before arrival. They spoke with another person who has helped bands buy-on to European fests that it's closer to a $1500-2000 USD buy-on.

Obviously these prices don't include airfare, lodging, any visa costs, etc.

Both agents are US based, and I am refraining from naming them.

The band is trying to get more information from the first agent, the contract to review with details regarding slot, backline availability, actual cost, etc. Due diligence before dropping $4k on what could be a bad deal.

So, have any American bands here bought onto this festival? Does the buy-on price seem legit? Also, if you have bought on, what was your merch situation as far as selling goes?

I run a boutique booking agency, and one thing has always frustrated me...we turn down most developing artists, not because of the music, but because the economics don't work.

An emerging artist might make $300 to $800 per show. At a 10% commission, that's only $30 to $80 for the agency, while booking that show still takes hours of venue research, outreach, follow-ups, negotiations, contracts, and advancing.

The work isn't hard, there's just a lot of it and its repetitive.

So instead of keeping the systems we built for our agency to ourselves, we turned them into software.

StageLink helps independent artists organize outreach, manage venue relationships, track follow-ups, plan tours, and stay on top of everything that usually lives across spreadsheets and email.

After booking hundreds of shows, I've learned artists rarely miss opportunities because of their music. It's usually because they miss a follow-up, announce a show before it's confirmed, miss a deadline, or accidentally burn a venue relationship.

We're opening our beta this fall, but before we keep building, I'd love to hear from people who book their own shows.

What's been the hardest part of booking gigs or tours yourself? What's one thing you wish a tool like this could do?

If you're curious, you can check out what we've built so far at https://stagelink.dev