Touring Resources

When you want to take your music on the road, one of the first things to think about is your budget. A budget will show you how much money you will potentially make or lose on your tour. Make your budget while you’re still in the pencilling stage with venues and support acts, and that way you’ll be able to make adjustments before you lock in any costs.

Start with the Basics

In its most simple form a budget will list all the income you might realistically make, and then subtract all the expenses you will incur. Break up your budget show by show, so you can see what the result will be for each gig as well as for the overall tour.

The most common way to do this is to make a spreadsheet with a column for the overall national expenses, and then a column for each individual gig/show across the top. All the income and expense categories should be listed down the side. Breaking it down like this will help you see where all your costs will be, and help you understand if shows are going to work out financially.

To gig or not to gig?

When you’re looking at your budget, you might discover one of your shows is going to cost you more money than you can make from it. If that’s the case, is it still worth doing?

As discussed in our ‘Touring Checklist’ resource, there are plenty of non-monetary reasons to play a show. You might be looking to build your audience in a particular location, connect with industry, or get in front of the media to generate interest in your music. In weighing up these potential benefits you might decide that, despite the cost, it is an ‘investment show’ worth undertaking.

Logistics and Location 

Doing your budget during the tour planning stage gives you the ability to balance the risk in advance. You might decide to say yes to a show that has a guaranteed fee so you have peace of mind that the money will come in, or maybe you’ll look for ways you can cut some costs overall. Can you stay with friends and save on accommodation, or borrow gear from bands you’re going to be playing with?

It also pays to think about where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. If you discover that you’ll be driving through a particular town en route to another show, is it worth adding an extra gig to your schedule?

Zoom Out

While it’s important to look at the budget for each show, don’t forget to keep an eye on the overall tour budget. Some of your costs will be gig-specific, while others might be costs for the whole tour (like flights from one end of the country to the other, or a national ad campaign). Zooming out to take in your whole budget will let you see where you need to make any adjustments.

Contingency and GST

Always include at least a 10% contingency, or ‘incidentals’. This will mean you have money set aside for a blown tire, a lost bag of guitar strings or a last minute motel for a cancelled flight. Don’t bank on contingency being there at the end of the tour, but if you have some left over it makes a great bonus!

The other important thing to consider is GST. Remember that the more profit you have, the more GST you will have to pay. Make sure you figure your GST out before you blow your tour profit on that recording session! If you want to know more about being registered for GST, have a look at http://www.ird.govt.nz/gst.

Lock it in

Once you’ve looked at all your costs, possible revenue and contingency- you’re ready to confirm those venue dates and lock in your shows. Happy budgeting, and have fun on the road!

Budget Items

Some areas you may want to include in your budget are:

INCOME
Guarantees
Sponsorship
Pre-Sale Ticket Income
Door income
Merchandise Sales

EXPENSES
Accommodation
Ground transport
Internal air travel
Petrol
Venue hire
Door/merch person
Sound production
Lighting production
Freight & trucking
Catering & riders
Support bands
Crew wages
Per diems
Artwork
Print media
Poster print & place
Radio
Social media ads/boosts
Freight/courier/phone
Management percentage
Booking agent fee
Insurance
Contingency percentage
GST

Check out the documents below to access more touring resources, including our 2025 May Book focused on live music and touring!