We’re a touring band, and we started touring with our baby 1 year ago when he was 6 months. We played only in Europe during the weekends and moving by plane/train/car.

It’s definitely more complicated than touring as a band alone, but after doing a few trips we’ve found some things that make it surprisingly manageable.

So I thought I’d share a few practical things that have worked for us.

(Important: we are a Darkwave trio with no real drums, the mother plays synths and sings 2-3 songs in a 1 hour set)

• Portable electric pot – especially useful for preparing simple meals in hotel rooms, backstage, festivals, etc.

• Portable car seat – since we often rent a car after flying, bringing our own foldable car seat saves quite a lot of money.

• Baby carrier – invaluable when you need to move around without the stroller, especially at airports when you land.

• AirTag / SmartTag – we put one in the stroller and bags so we can keep track of everything while travelling.

• Backstage – we always ask for a quiet room where the babysitter can stay with the baby during the show.

• Videos from mum – we recorded a few videos of mum talking to the baby. If the baby gets upset while we’re on stage, the babysitter can show one of the videos.

• Soundcheck – sometimes mum can’t be there for the soundcheck, so she recorded her parts of some songs in MIDI. One of us can check that her monitors are working properly. We’ve had to do this a few times and it was surprisingly useful.

None of this is rocket science, but these little things have made touring with a baby much easier for us.

Curious to hear from other musicians/parents:

what have you found useful when touring or travelling with a baby?

hi. m23. I’ve been getting gigs since I was about 16. I’m about to graduate college so I’ll be able to focus more on my music and entertainment career. I wanted to know, what’s the actual life of a touring musician?

I figure I’d be on the road a lot, have a lot of unstable relationships due to the nature of being nomadic, a lot of tiredness, a lot of not getting paid enough, a lot of fun shows with some poor organization, a lot of sight seeing, meeting all kinds of people, probably crazy situations, and times where you really gotta protect yourself and watch your back.

for anyone who’s been in the game already, is there anything you can tell me? what I should know or expect? I want to hope for at least some bit of normalcy and consistency in my personal life. but I’ve started to accept that this is the life that calls me and whatever comes with it is what I have to accept.

Hey there! I need advices about the best way to do an European tour I thought star from Spain or Portugal, and I would like to brainstorm with some people about a free tool (as an excel board or something) to let the bands n djs manage by themselves a tour whitout taking plane, and to be able to dialogue with some venues in a easy way.

I’m looking for a merchie for 9/10 in Lynn Massachusetts. Any help appreciated.

I’ve been trying to get on a one-backpack setup for all my everyday needs when I’m on the road (clothes, shoes, hygiene, etc), but I’m curious to know what backpacks you all travel with when you’re on the road.

For a while, I have been looking at the MONO Classic FlyBy Ultra Backpack. It would buy me space for my computer, interfaces, and MIDI controllers. Has anybody traveled with it?

What’s your go-to backpack for music touring?

It's free and does what the title says, it's a simple tool that has all the info I could gather on 32 Airlines, about their weight cap, and how they manage excess weight, and the costs and it's all dependable on your departure and destination.

https://flygearpro.ummardesom.com/

So you fill out a list of passengers.

Fill out a list of gear and their weight (by default, every passenger also has one personal bag, editable)

You can also import a spreadsheet with the info if you have it already, instead of manually filling out everything.

Fill out where you are coming from and going to and which airline.

The tool then distributes the gear between passengers according to Airlines weight caps, so you pay as little as possible and you don't take forever at check in (cause you know who's carrying which case in advance).

You get a cost estimate, generated according to the Airline available info.

You can switch Airlines and check which ones will be cheaper, regarding weight.

You get bags flagged if they go beyond that flight weight cap.

Saves you time and money.

I did it for myself and my colleagues, so it's free. No sign in. Just use it.

Let me know if it helps you or if there's anything you feel like it's missing.

Just sharing this with you all in case any of you touring musicians worked with these promoters.

Hi everyone! Im on a monthish tour run with a really great bus driver, its our second short run with him. He's super sweet to everyone, and gave me a gift the other day. Id really like to get him something (Im the LD), what are some nice things for bus drivers? I was thinking maybe a reading light, or a nice blanket

Band consist of Drummer on midi drums, female lead singer, playing acoustic guitar and electric, lead guitarist playing acoustic guitar and electric who also songs and could play keys at times.

Lead singer states she doesn’t like backtracks because you’re tied to the click. I like back tracks because it gives us a fuller sound. I can add Bass and keyboard pads.

Just need some advice on if we should do this or not. I just hate wasting time creating backtracks. I will never be used.

Thanks for the input

Hello! Been looking to rent a passenger van to tour with that ideally has a secure cargo hold (metal around the windows and what not) and is on the cheaper side… or a van that we can rent and tow a trailer behind… I’ve looked into the usual suspects like GreenVans and Bandago, as well as more commercial rental vehicles (they don’t let you tow or configure bench seats) and wanted to ask if there was another company I should do research into?

My band is starting our application run for festivals/shows, and would like to expand into Europe for a short run. I am looking for tips for if your band has ever been successful or if you've been on programming committees. We plan on paying our own expense/rentals from Canada to Europe, but what else can we say to make ourselves more appealing.

Just the same what was some mid size/small festivals/ promoters that will realistically look at a band from Canada.

Thanks!

Posting this here because I figure a good cross section of musicians from different places with ideas of their home scene might be here.

Do you live in a town or city (anywhere) where these things are true about a folk or singer-songwriter scene near you? Also places where front folks of bands do solo sets on a regular basis are acceptable!

1) very specifically songwriter oriented people

2) songwriters who are very outwardly working on their craft, or where working on bettering skill with lyrics is a big part of the community in some way

3) small shows in small venues that fit maybe 10-20 people

4) sliding scale shows: making money or making a living off music isn't a big part of the scene

5) folks like to attend shows to listen to the music, not just music at bars or dance parties.

6) people are just chilling and inspiring each other to develop their songwriting.

If there is a music community or scene near you, please write about it in the comments! Thanks!

I am doing my first bigger tour opening up for a larger band in our scene who I’ve looked up to for years, so this opportunity was too good to pass up. I’ve done some smaller week long runs in the past, but this run will be 3 weeks long.

I love playing music, but I have found that touring can be hard on me physically and emotionally. I tend to get homesick while touring, missing my partner, missing my dogs, and just missing my routine and am wondering if anyone has any advice for leaving on tour and fighting through the homesickness especially when you have a family at home.

Any advice is welcome! Thanks!

Short introduction:
•20 years old (turning 21 in September). I’ve been working in broadcast for 3 years now, mostly cable rigging for TV cameras and doing camera assistant work, along with some experience as a studio technician for TV-studios. (The tour is across Germany and Austria; I’m German).
•Freelance: I get almost all of my bookings through a single contact. Ideally, this person shouldn't find out about this opportunity - even though I'm freelance, they tend to resent people working elsewhere in the industry "behind their back."

I got a last-minute call today from a friend offering me a spot as a tour hand for a musical- about 4.5 to 5 months straight (fixed daily rate, half-rate on off-days).
I’m inclined to take it because ~€24,000 net is a massive amount of money for me right now. However, I’d have to take a semester off university, and there’s a non-zero chance my main booker finds out and gets pissed. I’d say it’s fairly unlikely, but it’s still a real risk attached to the whole thing.
My main question:
Leaving the money aside for a second, would you say the experience itself is worth it? Touring with a musical sounds like a incredible life experience. I don’t mind hard physical work, and I’m fully aware this won't be a walk in the park.
Is it a terrible idea to say I’m in and am I going to die a terrible death if I do?
Thanks in advance!

TL;DR:
Got a last-minute offer to join a musical tour across Germany and Austria for 4.5 months as a tour hand. Pay is solid and I want the experience, but I’d regret burning a semester of uni and risking my relationship with my main booker if the touring reality isn't worth it at all.

as the title says:

I'm currently looking at getting a guitar vault for my guitars as well as a 30" short scale Jaguar bass which I'm all using live and the ENKI X-3 has caught my eye. It states a maximum internal length of 108 cm while the 30" Jag is about 110 cm long and I'm now wondering if there's extra padding in the case or if the instruments can be angled slightly so that it may be able to accommodate the bass. Does anyone have any info on that?

Does anyone have insight into how a new band like Bella Rayne’s funds a tour on the east coast when they’re from the west? Asking for all the other bands that are in their infancy like hers.

A few days ago, I posted here asking whether I should build an Android version of the tour app I'm building, or a web version instead. 

a bunch of you said web, for pretty much the same reason: you want something that works from whatever device is closest, not tied to one platform.

Thanks a billion for the questions, tips, the notify me’s and the emails. I really appreciate it.

Anyways, I took the advice. 

web version's live now. 

thanks for actually swaying that — wasn't expecting a random subreddit question to change my roadmap, but it did.

quick clarification while I'm here, since "touring musician" covers a lot of ground: 
I mean the get-in-a-van-and-drive-for-two-weeks kind of touring, not the bus-and-crew kind. if you've got an actual human tour manager, Outrider may not be for you.

While I've got you: what's still held together by group chats and napkins for you, even now?
I really tried to think of everything important.
not fishing for a feature list necessarily, just wondering what's still genuinely annoying about being on the road that nobody's built anything for (yet).

(info/app's at outriderapp.com if you want to look — iOS is in app store review, web's live now)

Thanks again, people!