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Smart Touring for Emerging Musicians: Keys for a Lucrative Tour
Submission by Mike Wright, Founder and CEO of SongCast
Touring the Right Way – Six Tips for an Effective Tour
Most bands would count a successful tour as one where the band members all get along (for the most part) and the band connects with fans. While both of those outcomes are great, a tour also needs to make money, especially if the band is planning future tours.
Bands that are starting out or don’t have massive followings can’t really negotiate pricing with club or concert hall owners. There’s no leverage on their side, so they’ll be paid the typical amounts for each show. So for a band to protect their profits they have to carefully manage expenses. You want to develop a fan base, and spend money when necessary, but the band has to survive.
Following these six tips can help musicians enjoy their tour and hopefully bring home some case when the road trip is finally over:
- Stay for cheap. Lodging costs eat up a lot of your budget, but you can’t all sleep in the van, so you need a decent play to rest for the night. Consider booking rooms before leaving on the tour, and then checking rates frequently to see if you can find a cheaper alternative. Sites such as Expedia and Hotels Tonight offer good last-minute rates, which can help you grab a nicer hotel for less money. Also look for free Wi-Fi and take advantage of free breakfasts if available. Going out for pancakes for five people can easily cost $60 or more, so grab any freebies.
- Bring your own food. Even if your food tastes are Chipotle and Arby’s, you still want to avoid a constant stream of fast food. The costs will add up, and you’re going to feel sluggish after a while. Eating out is a massive touring expense, so try to bring your own food (within reason) to help avoid a constant drain on the budget. Buy some snacks at Costco, and bring your own water bottle and fill it up whenever you can. Dropping $20 on snacks and water at every gas station will really add up over a long summer tour.
- Sling that merchandise. Selling merchandise isn’t just about earning some extra money, it’s a way to create “walking billboards” and grow a fan base. You should always have merchandise on hand while you’re on the road, both at the gigs and during any restaurant or gas stop. Never miss an opportunity to pull in some cash.
- Embrace efficiency. A long road trip means a lot of fun miles traveled, but that also means costs in terms of gas and maintenance for your vehicle. Pick a van/SUV that gets decent mileage and try to avoid a trailer unless absolutely necessary, as it will drop down your MPG. Have the vehicle inspected and fixed before the tour begins and set aside some budget for any unexpected issues.
- Avoid the bar tabs. Unless the club lets you all drink for free, then you should avoid knocking back drinks before, during, or after the show. It is fine to have some celebratory drinks every once in a while, but if the whole band has 15 drinks a night, you’re looking at $150 or more just in bar money. BYOB if you need a beverage to loosen up before a show, but don’t burn all of the money you received for a gig on pricey cocktails and craft beers.
- Contact the local press. Local TV and radio stations need to fill dead blocks of time – there’s simply not enough news. Contact local stations about your upcoming show and they just might give you a free plug. Be sure to talk about what makes your band unique so the news has a decent “hook” for your story. Hustling for this type of publicity can get people in the door, and more money in your pocket.
These six tips aren’t meant to turn an amazing tour into a penny-pinching and painful odyssey. However, making money is important for the band’s success. The bandmates need money to pay their bills, you need to pay for better mics and equipment, and you need to reach more fans.
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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