You mentioned you were on tour last year. For our reading artists, what kind of professional personnel would an artist need in order to execute a successful tour?
If you ask me, a whole team! But my genre is pop, so I put on a show as an entertainer would, involving multiple backing musicians, sometimes dancers, sound and lights, etc. It really depends on your touring expectations. It is absolutely possible to do everything yourself, but I would strongly recommend hiring an assistant if you do it that way, because it is a lot of work to keep track of the many venues you need to follow up with. Booking a tour is mostly that - follow up, follow up, follow up. Then once you start to get a route laid out, all of the other details fall into place, for example, your tour support (other artists on the bill), possible needed vendors, sound guys, and of course your travel and hospitality needs. Everyone has to eat and sleep somewhere, and then you gotta figure out how you are going to lug your band and your gear all over the place and still come out even financially. I would strongly recommend touring with a booking agent and using some of your budget on promoting your concerts ahead of time so you can guarantee a successful show.
So to sum it up if you can afford it: a booking agent, concert promoter, a sound guy, an assistant/merch support (someone to tour with you and keep track of your merch table so you can enjoy making new fans after your shows), a driver or friends that can come with you and agree to share the driving, and a handy accountant if you are like me and need help with your business expenses, because you will have MANY. Plus, these days blogging and posting quality photos is more important than ever, so I would consider asking a talented friend to tag along and capture the whole thing on camera. It may make more sense financially to hire a professional branding and marketing guy and work with him over the internet, sending him photos and videos from your tour so he can put together quality posts, rather than bringing him along if you have to feed him and house him too. Most people automatically assume that this is one of the last things to spend your money on, since most people do their own social media, but you won't have as much time and energy as you may think to do this while on tour.
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