Touring Internationally: Part 1 (feat. R. Ariel)
A guest post! Today we’re featuring the amazing R. Ariel, who’s got some thoughts on touring as an indie musician, based on her experiences touring internationally in both Japan and Europe. She’s got some very excellent music and writings available here:
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The first thing you are going to want to do is identify the venues that host your type of music. This means, if you are a full band, don’t send booking requests to a generally acoustic venue. You can do this by a simple google search “pop venues in _________ city.” Listen to a few of the bands that have been booked in the past week and if it aligns with your music, send a request.
Another good way to identify venues that would book you is by searching Bandcamp/Spotify for music that aligns with yours.
Again, simple google search “pop music japan bandcamp.” You listen to a few of the bands and if they align with your music, you can check out their pages and see where they have played recently, and then send a booking request to those venues.
Another big mistake I see a lot of ppl make is sending horrendous booking emails. Do not be so rude and entitled to send an email that just says “hi I’m ________ here is my music, book my band.” On the other hand, don’t send a four page essay on how you are a badass and everyone will love you.
A short paragraph describing your accomplishments as a musician, and a description of your recent release, as well as links to recent press if you got it is sufficient. Additionally, you can use Google Translate to add a note that you do not speak the language fluently and if they need help translating your email, you are happy to help.
A lot of countries that aren’t the USA have amazing collectives that work with smaller international bands and they are great to get in contact with. They are sometimes harder to find, but much more enjoyable to work with. Search in that countries language.
For example, if you are booking France searching “collectif de musique à paris” on Facebook or Google will help you find them. Sending a short request to work with them is normally a lot more fruitful, because that is their whole goal as a collective.
Harvesting info from pages like mine is also a great way to find venues. My music tends to be booked at indie/pop/chill-er venues, so if you do a search “r.ariel Tokyo” on Facebook, you can see venues I have played and hit them up.
Don’t ever say that I sent you their way tho unless I specifically gave you their booking email 😊.
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To be continued in Part 2!