Advancing Email Template for Tour Managers
On stage in Salt Lake City, Utah 2022
Advancing is a critical part of the music touring experience for both artist and promoter..
From both the promoter's side and the artist team's side, advances are the catch-all method for setting up a successful show. For those who aren't aware of what an advance is, it's essentially a detailed thread of communications that outline the exact expectations of the show from both the promoter and artist standpoint. Of course, it must be noted that when I say "promoter," I'm also referring to the venue and production staff associated with the event. In some cases, the promoter may very well be the event and production provider, but in other cases, the promoter is simply the buyer and manager of the event. There is an entirely separate team dedicated to production for the venue.
Regardless of the size of the artist you are, or the size of talent you're representing, advancing can help establish a clear channel of communication that helps produce a successful show. The last thing that I or any other touring professional wants to experience on the road is arriving at a venue and not having anything confirmed or provided that we need for a show. It's a bad experience for the bands, for the promoter and venue involved, and of course, for the fans. So below, I will outline the five most important points of a successful advance email, as well as a free downloadable template that you can grab at the bottom of this page!
Keep It Simple
The first thing to remember about advance emails is that they should be as simple as possible. Depending on the size of the show, production needs could vary from very simple to incredibly complex. The more simplified you can make your advancing communications, the less chance there is of miscommunications. A good example of how to keep things simple is to lump together all backline needs into a single section or at the very least, include them as one string of text in your email.
This also helps you as a tour manager or artist representative because if you're advancing 40 shows simultaneously, it can be very time-consuming to dig through various styles of communication with each promoter. One thing I'd like to do is copy and paste the same initial advance email to all promoters on the tour since the context of needs that we have as a band is going to be the same for every show. This saves me a ton of time and the headache of having to rewrite every advancing email. If you want to download the advancing email template that I use when I'm on the road, you can do so at the bottom of this page!
Keep It Comprehensive
This ties into my second tip for a successful advance email process, being as comprehensive as possible. When I send out my initial advanced emails to venues and promoters, I provide them with a bullet list of important items for our bands that need to be addressed right away. This includes questions about bus parking and short power, hospitality buyout limits, establishing venue hours for curfew, doors, set times, changeovers, and even VIP hours, and more. By providing a venue or promoter with these questions upfront, I can immediately dive into the logistics of our event while relaying to the venue team exactly what our needs are. For example, in my initial advancing email, I will state exactly the length of our set and changeover needs, which then enables them to help create a run of show based on their venue hours.
Providing a comprehensive list of questions upfront in the advance also allows me, as the tour manager, to rest assured that all important questions are being asked. On the road, it may seem obvious that every show is the same for us, but each venue and promoter we work with is different, and I cannot assume that what one venue was able to provide will be the same as what another venue provides. By standardizing a comprehensive list of initial questions in my advance, I eliminate the possibility of something slipping through the cracks. It also conveys to the promoter and venue that I am strictly here for business and want to get ahead of everything as soon as possible, which is typically a good thing in the industry. Like I mentioned in my first point, the last thing anybody wants on tour is to show up at a venue and not have the things we need for a successful show.
Simplify Attachments
The third tip for successful advancing emails for tour managers and touring personnel is to simplify attachments. The most common attachments you have in an advancing thread are the technical, hospitality, production, and lighting riders. These items help to spell out the detailed needs of the touring party on the road. In some cases, all of these riders can be simplified into the production rider, but it's important to communicate with the touring team to check on the level of importance of some of these items. For example, if you're traveling with a lighting package and there is a history of venues not supplying the correct power for distribution, then it may be worth it to create an entirely separate lighting rider that a promoter or venue production contact can open and quickly understand the needs. Unlike an entire production rider, which could be 30 pages long and venues may be less inclined to read through it. Yes, they should read through it, but sometimes they don't, and being on the road as a tour manager means understanding that if you want to have a successful show, you have to sometimes accommodate the preferences of a venue team.
Utilize the Correct Contacts
The fourth tip for a successful advance email thread is to make sure you have all the necessary contacts and more for a venue and promoter. Typically, within the deal memo, you will have a list of contacts you could reach out to, including the purchaser, promoter, production contact, marketing, ticketing person, etc. While you definitely don't need to reach out to everyone, you do want to make sure you CC at least several people from the venue team. It's very common in the touring industry that deals are struck more than six months prior to an event, during which time it's possible that members of the production or venue team may have left. If you send an advance email and don't hear back within a week or two, it's possible that your contact may be outdated, and you'll have to speak with management or your own agency to get updated ones. To help combat this headache of digging into further contacts, I always recommend CCing multiple people from the deal in the initial advance thread.
I also make sure to always put a sentence in my initial advancing paragraph that says something like, "If you are not the correct advancing contact, please loop in the appropriate person in this thread." This way I am covering all my bases and showing that I have dedicated effort to reaching out to the proper contact to advance the show. In many cases, somebody from the promoter or production team will reply and loop in the correct contact that you need. I would say about 10% of the time, however, nobody replies, and you will have to dig into alternative contacts with your agent.
Be Polite & Friendly!
The final tip for a successful advance email thread for tour managers and touring personnel is to be polite and friendly in all communications. Especially with the initial outreach, including any sort of positive messaging could be a great way to establish a positive rapport with the promoter and production team. You have to realize that at the end of the day, both you and the promoter are in hundreds of emails every single day. So having even just a bit of positivity in your message could, at the very least, help improve their day and at most, set you up for more flexibility with what the venue can provide for you. It all comes down to being a polite and friendly person, and if you can set the standard for how you
communicate upfront, then you set yourself up for a successful day on-site with the production team. It should, however, be noted that sometimes the way people talk and communicate over email is very different from how they communicate in person, and those differences can be surprising. I don't have any tips for those situations lol.
I hope you found this list of advancing tips helpful. As someone who sends over 100 emails a week for advancing, I've seen the highs and lows of humanity through email threads. My system is different from others on the road, but I am proud of my communication abilities because it has taken me some time to get to this point and even more time dealing with the stress of miscommunications. If you want to live a more peaceful life in the touring world, please heed this advice and use the tips for advancing. You can also download my tour manager's advancing email template below this article, so you can start every tour communication off on the right foot!
See you on the road.