TOUR MANAGER
TOUR-ROAD MANAGER
He's a professional within the music industry whose role is multifaceted and integrative, an aspect that often makes the difference between quality work and the failure of a festival or music tour.
The job of a tour manager in the music industry is to ensure that life on the road between gigs runs safely and in a good atmosphere for everyone involved.
This means transporting and managing the band appropriately, as well as time, working closely with the producers and promoters of each tour or festival, and the venue managers. In other words, he is responsible for coordinating and supervising all the logistical and operational aspects of a musical tour.
This often involves transporting the necessary backline elements and ensuring effective communication between the musicians and sound technicians.
Maintaining a conducive environment for a tour, festival, or specific performance requires having the appropriate means to enable musicians to handle any unforeseen circumstances, generating peace of mind and confidence before any musical performance.
The Tour Manager always works according to a roadmap, meeting the schedules and destinations established therein. In it, the production company outlines the program (pickup, transportation, sound check, accommodation, concert surroundings, and post-concert activities) and the resources required to complete it, which the production company sometimes provides to the Tour Manager. Occasionally, the Tour Manager designs the roadmap, based on the characteristics of the bands or musical groups, the available material resources, and the program of a tour or musical event.
Sometimes, the Tour Manager's role isn't as comprehensive as it is specific to the development of a particular activity. This means that, due to the involvement of other professionals, institutions, and companies, their duties on each tour or musical event are limited to transporting the bands, adjusting logistics conditions, and/or adjusting backline elements and checking their operation, as well as changing logistics during stage changes.
Financial and economic aspects, as well as their optimization, can be managed by a Tour Manager. This aspect can determine the economic success of the tour. Sometimes, roles with the producer can overlap, as is the case with negotiating agreements that determine the profitability of the event or musical tour. For this reason, the roles of each person involved in the event or tour must be clearly defined before the tour begins.
In short, while the event producer focuses on creativity, staging, and artistic production, the tour-road manager focuses on logistics, coordination, and ensuring everything is in place for a flawless execution of the tour, festival, or concert.
