Would you like to tour internationally?

This web resource can help.

Howdy, folks!

We’ve been away on tour for much of this year – in fact, we’ve been on the road for longer than we’ve been home. During 2007, we toured to Peats Ridge, Sydney, Tamworth, the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, Byron Bay, & Goulburn. Our  international touring experiences in 2007 included Japan (3 tours so far) the USA (LA, NYC, Connecticut & Nashville) and Fiji. In 2008, we returned to Fiji for our third tour (this time with DFAT & Austrade), and we are touring to Japan (fourth tour), Singapore, England, Poland, and Finland. Lots of interested musos and managers have been contacting us and asking how to line up tours. Thank you for getting in touch. While we sincerely wish we could help everybody personally, our own schedules are maxed out at this point, so we’re not able to set up a tour for you.

But here’s something even better – a resource to help you organise your own international tours for yourself. This includes everything we’ve learnt so far, in detail, exactly the way we’ve done it. If you follow through, and make it happen, you’ll be on a 747 headed somewhere cool in no time!

The single most important thing I can tell you is this: saving money is the name of the game, at every step on this journey. If you’re up to mega-star level and price is no object, (or if somebody like a promoter is paying for your entire tour, which has happened for us a few times) then this won’t be necessary for you – but then, if you’re at that stage in your career, you probably don’t need this resource I’m writing, either. If you’re traveling on a shoestring, you’ll need to plan ahead to be thrifty.

Where do you want to go?

A globe (even better than a map!) is the best planning tool you’ll ever find. You can go many places on your tour, not just one country. We got ours from Officeworks for $20 -- http://www.officeworks.com.au/owbd/b2c/init.do

The point is that Oz is a long way from anywhere else… so if you want to go to the continental USA, for example, you can stop off anywhere in the South Pacific on the way: New Zealand, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, Tahiti, Fiji, and Hawaii are some of the options. Having a globe handy will help you visualise exactly where you want to go, and will help you plan your trip much more efficiently.

If you’re heading for the UK, consider Hong Kong, Malaysia, India, and other European destinations for gigs. This way, you’re opening up several new markets every time you travel, and getting more for your investment in airfares. (Most airfares will allow stopovers at low or no cost.) This also helps you & your band to avoid severe jet-lag by making several shorter journeys, instead of one long one. You’ll arrive at your primary destination well-fed, well-rested, and with money already in your pockets from gigs & CD sales.

Insurance is important

If you can’t afford insurance, you can’t afford to tour – end of story. My advice is to buy an annual multi-trip travel insurance policy (covering health care & cancellations, etc.) – don’t skimp! Buy top cover. It will pay for itself in 2 trips. I recommend 1 Cover: http://www.1cover.com.au/

You’ll also need to insure your instruments, whether you’re touring internationally or not. We use Marsh: http://www.marsh.com.au/musicians.htm . They have great customer service.

Cheap airfares & hotels

Don’t pay full price! You should always do some serious bargain-hunting. You’ll save yourself thousands of dollars. This is true for domestic and international travel. If you go for airfare & hotel combined packages, you will save even more money. Even if you’re going at the last minute, you can get some really cheap fares that way. I recently booked a hotel & flight deal at 2 am, traveling at 8 am that day, and the package was cheaper than the cost of a hotel or a flight on their own.

Jetstar is genuinely inexpensive. They often have very radical sales. We recently booked return flights to Japan via Jetstar for less money than it would take us to get to Perth.  

www.jetstar.com.au

Virgin Blue is great, too (they travel throughout Oz, NZ, & the South Pacific):

http://www.virginblue.com.au/

Some of my fave sites for cheap flights & hotels are:

www.lastminute.com.au (try the Secret Hotels!)

www.wotif.com

http://www.okjack.com/

www.expedia.com

www.priceline.com (you can even bid on airfares here!)

And don’t forget, you can often stay in splendid 5 star luxury, often with breakfast thrown in, for the price of a cheap 2 star motel – just check out the Secret Hotels and Mystery Hotels offered on these last-minute websites. I just think 5 star accommodation is a whole lot nicer than no star, especially at the same price. If you’re under 26 or a full-time student, you can also get cheap fares via discount travel agents such as STA or Student Flights:

 http://www.statravel.com.au/

 http://www.studentflights.com.au/

Definitely join up to every Frequent Flyer programme you can find (and many hotels have similar bonus programs.) You can also get credit cards that help you accrue Frequent Flyer points. The reason why you really ought to do this is because you can use your points to pay for flights, upgrades (Business Class is nice!) and hotel rooms.

At the same time, it’s handy to have a Youth Hostels Association membership & directory, just in case you’re stuck out in woop-woop and there’s no 5 star mystery hotel in sight! You don’t have to be a youth to stay at a hostel.

http://www.yha.com.au/

http://www.hihostels.com/web/index.en.htm?linkid=980005

When traveling across country by car, I always keep a tent, sleeping bags, & some sleeping mats in the boot. You can get these very inexpensively at camping stores & disposal stores once you arrive at your destination. You don’t need anything fancy, just a simple pop-top dome style tent. The state park system in the USA is brilliant for low-cost camping (with amenities), or you can always just find somewhere off-road to pitch a tent. Of course, if you buy or rent a van or station wagon, you’re laughing. You’ll save heaps on accommodation. Most road-houses that service trucks have free or inexpensive showers.

Keeping healthy on tour

You need to eat, right? Well, if you want to stay healthy and save money, please forget about Macca’s. In fact, we have a “no junk food” policy when we tour. Here’s how to stay healthy & save money at the same time.

You’ll need to bring plastic bowls with snap-on lids, plastic cutlery, & plastic cups for each band member, plus one chopping board & sharp knife (don’t put this in your carry-on!), a Thermos, a can-opener, some paper towels, a cloth tea-towel, and a small bottle of dishwashing liquid in a Ziploc bag with you as your “kitchen kit”. If space is not an issue, bringing a stainless-steel electric fry-pan with a lid is an absolute winner. I’ve whipped up bacon & eggs, stir-fries, delicious soups, even steaks in hotel rooms! It’s best to cook in the bathroom with the exhaust fan on, though.

My biggest tips?

• ALWAYS CARRY FRUIT! (But never through Customs...) Be sure to visit local farmer’s markets for the best deals – it’s cheap and doubles as cultural tourism, too. Having fresh fruit on hand will stop cravings for fast foods. If everybody eats an apple or a banana every few hours, you will stay healthy and save big bucks. Stock up on dried fruit & nuts in Ziploc bags for snacks, too.
• TAKE VITAMINS! We find that a daily dose of Vitamin C, fish oil, B complex, and Echinacea will prevent you from getting sick on the road. This really, really works.
• BREAKFAST: Oats are cheap, healthy, and good. If you’re staying in a motel, use the electric kettle to pour boiling water on the oats, and snap the lids on the bowls – the oats will cook in their own heat in minutes. Of course, cereal & muesli is another option, as is toast, tea, and fruit.
• LUNCH: You can make sandwiches for the entire band for less than half the cost of feeding them junk food. Just get good quality bread, some spreads in squeeze-bottles, and sliced meat, lettuce, sprouts, & tomatoes for a great mid-day meal. I always serve raw, fresh carrots, cucumbers, radishes, etc in addition to the sandwiches. The more fresh food your band eats, the healthier it will be.
• DINNER: Instant noodles are a band’s best friends! You can get these in all kinds of flavours. Steam them in your plastic bowls with the lids on, then add anything you like – frozen peas (also steamed), chopped vegetables, meat, fish, prawns, etc. Some shops sell frozen cooked rice, so you can use this as well. You can make hot soup with boiling water from tins or packets. Other great (non-cooking) dinner options include a hot cooked chook with salad, hummous & tabouli on pita bread, etc. We sometimes use half-price dockets (look on the back of your grocery dockets) and go out to dinner at restaurants for 50% off.
• EXERCISE: Exercise is important – try finding the local swimming pool, or take a walk in the nearest big park, every day. You’ll all feel better, and sleep better, if you get some healthy physical activity in. If it’s just hotel-gig-hotel-flight-gig all the time, you absolutely need to get some daily exercise happening.

What about transport on tour?

Cheap flights are the go – try Priceline & Lastminute.com. If you’re going to be touring a lot via road, just buy a van or a station wagon when you get there (go a week in advance for logistics.). You can check out classified ads of most newspapers these days on-line, and/or ask your fans to help you find something suitable. The beauty of this is that you can always sell it back at the end of the tour – just go where backpackers congregate. You can even make money this way.

What about instruments and equipment?

Again, I recommend buying most of these second-hand in your destination country. It is going to be a lot cheaper than shipping over your PA, amps, drum kit, etc! The instruments we’ve seen in places like the USA & Japan have generally been much better quality and lots less expensive than here in Oz. If you are networking well, many bands will lend you a PA, drums, & amps if you’re playing the same gigs. It never hurts to ask.

How do you pay for all this?

Well, you can slog it out and save your money – some people get day jobs just for a few months in order to fund a tour. Personal loans (easier to get from a credit union than a bank) can get you the cash. But there are other ways of fund-raising, including garage sales, market stalls, special fund-raising gigs, etc. Additionally, you can explore grants as a source of funds. Please click on the “Music Industry Resources” link here at www.rootsbytheriver.com -- there are some great resources here for you to use. Finally, consider working with ABAF, the Australia Business Arts Foundation. You can sign up with them, and then get people to make tax-deductible donations towards your tour:

http://www.abaf.org.au/aboutabaf/contactus.html

Your most important friend in overseas touring is Austrade:

www.austrade.gov.au

They are specialists in helping Aussie bands to export overseas. There is a grant available which can help to repay some of your touring costs – it’s excellent. Austrade’s in-country advice is also very valuable. We have consulted extensively with Austrade for every tour.

How do you get the gigs and xlan the tour?

Facebook, MySpace and Google have revolutionised international touring. We have not yet found some magical resource that will book all our tours for us. We have recently worked with some agents and promoters (who are very helpful), but these are not people whom we approached – they contacted us, and only after we had already toured and gotten a positive reputation in their countries. I sincerely don’t know of any international agent or promoter who would just book you for gigs overseas without you having gone there first. We just booked our whole 2008 tour via contacts we made on Facebook (hot tip -- join Facebook groups related to the music industry in the country you want to tour to! I invest part of every day networking on Facebook. This is the best way to meet people who run venues and festivals. It really works.)

So, if you don’t already have these contacts established, I would strongly recommend that you do exactly what we did to get started – use Facebook, MySpace and Google to find like-minded people who enjoy your style of music, and build personal networks and friendships in the countries where you’d like to go. This is surprisingly easy and fun. Just use your imagination, a good attitude, and some lateral thinking – what kind of music do you play? Of course it’s unique, but is there any other style, genre, or artist you can think of who people already listen to, who might be in some way similar to what you do? Then you need to target these types of fans on-line. Be friendly, be yourself, and establish a good communication in your emails before you start asking any favours. And also keep thinking – what do you have to offer them? How can you be of help to them? What could you do to assist them (musos, managers, & fans) in achieving their goals? This leads to a genuine win-win in terms of helping each other. This is exactly how we’ve been able to book gigs overseas – directly through referrals by people we’ve networked with, in advance, on the Internet. Most have just been enthusiastic fans who wanted to get involved. Many have been radio DJs (particularly from smaller or community radio stations) in the countries where we want to go. They have become true friends and professional colleagues as a result. That’s a great outcome all round!

So to sum up – get on-line and meet some new people who love music just as much as you do. Don’t be shy about sending them CDs & T shirts for their efforts.  If you can think of ways to help them, they will want to help you, too.

How do you get publicity in overseas markets?

Think of what sets your band apart. You can be Australian as part of your marketing identity, but that doesn’t mean you have to extend this to wearing hats with corks on them, or dressing up in koala suits. What you do need is a new angle, a refreshing way of looking at your music that makes it new and exciting. Couple that with a well-written press release, written in the local language, and 300 dpi photos on a CD-ROM, and you’re well ahead of the game. We have found that having professional-quality photos will help you get the media coverage you want. I recommend approaching your local TAFE to work with students who can help you – international students to help with translating your press releases, music business students to help with writing your press releases, and photography students to take some great pictures.

Business etiquette

Business cards in the language of the country you’re visiting are a must. Having these can make all the difference between getting a gig, or not. It is not expensive to get them printed. It really helps to have double-sided cards – English on one side, the other language on the other. We recommend Squaw Media:

http://www.squawmedia.com.au/

You’ll also need to pay attention to business etiquette, particularly in places like Japan and China. This is extremely important. You could lose a gig if you don’t understand the way business is done in the place you intend to visit. Here’s a good site to get you started:

http://www.cyborlink.com/

Getting a visa

You’ll need to contact the consulate or embassy of each country you plan to visit in order to ascertain which visa you’ll need. It’s different for every country. Here’s a link to Austrade’s Australian Music Office (in the USA), which has a good list of contacts – this is just for America:

http://www.australianmusicoffice.com/US_Immigration_Attorneys/40/

Mailing things ahead

I recommend this. It’s the best way to get your CDs, T-shirts, and even some equipment where you want to go. (I always post heavy items, like our pedal steel guitar, ahead of us this way.)  Sea Mail (surface mail) is cheap and good – just insure what you send. Even Air Mail is cheaper than excess baggage! Buying a digital scale is a great idea – you can weigh your baggage and your parcels ahead of time. If you’ve done your networking properly, you can ask a colleague or fan to accept packages for you. You can also request that a hotel, venue, or hostel do this, but be sure to ask them in advance, and get the full name of the person who will sign for your package.

Communications

First and foremost—buy a mobile phone (pay as you go plan) as soon as you get where you’re going, and just buy credit as needed. Email the phone number to all your contacts as soon as you get this. We get all our domestic calls forwarded to a colleague here in Brisbane, who then emails us the day’s summary of calls. We then use an international phone card to ring them back. This is the cheapest way of keeping up with all your calls.

Walkie-talkies are not very expensive, and can be very useful when traveling with a band. The initial investment will be recouped in your first week – radios are way cheaper than mobile phones! Plus, they are fun to use, and a great way to stay in touch. We have a set of 8 walkie-talkies, all tuned to the same channel.

Your PR package

This is essential. The bare minimum you’ll need includes your latest CD, and press photos (2 printed, one horizontal & 1 vertical), plus a CD-ROM or DVD with at least a dozen good ones in 300 dpi resolution (make sure it fits the country’s format.) You’ll also need a well-written bio & a press release (in English, and translated into the other language on the reverse), copies of any press coverage, some business cards, and posters (which have blank spaces in which to write gig details of place, date, & time.) Your PR package is your personal ambassador, agent, and cheerleader, all in one bundle. It will go a long way to get you gigs!

Your image

Have you invested any thought into your image overseas? Showing up at an Australian gig in torn jeans, T-shirts, and joggers might be acceptable to your local audience, but international audiences expect much more. You’ll need to invest some genuine energy into image development, particularly in Asia. American audiences also expect that you’ll really put on a good show for them, and that includes costuming. A professional-looking backdrop will really help, too. You should keep your colour scheme & graphics unified as a whole package. Having T-shirts for sale, with your band logo and website on them, will help to raise money and provide you with top publicity. We also reproduce our press photos very inexpensively (15 cents each), and sell them with autographs to fans at the end of our shows.