Music
How do you fund a band tour?
Budget the van, fuel, beds and per diems, subtract what venues pay, and let fans along the route fund the gap for rewards only they get.
Short answer
Budget what the road costs: the van, fuel and tolls, beds, per diems and the merch you take to sell. Subtract what the venues have agreed to pay you, and the gap is your goal. Fans along the route back it for rewards tied to the tour, like a guest list spot, the tour poster with their name on it or a house show on a day off. Launch once the dates are confirmed, with the deadline well before the first show. If the goal is met you claim the funds; if not, every backer takes their pledge back.
Key facts
- One campaign for one tour: a story, a goal, a deadline and up to five reward tiers.
- Sign up with email or Google. No company, no bank account, no approval queue.
- The funds reach you after the deadline, so set it before you pay for the van.
- All or nothing: miss the goal and backers take their pledge back.
- Fans and promoters who share the link can earn up to 18.5% of each pledge they bring in.
- Each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99.
What does a band tour cost?
Mostly getting there and sleeping there. The lines are the same on every tour; only the numbers change.
- Van: rental by the day, or the service and insurance on your own.
- Fuel and tolls: count the kilometres of the whole route, not only the long drives.
- Beds: hotel rooms, hostels, or a floor when a promoter offers one.
- Per diems: a fixed daily amount per person for food.
- Merch stock: what you take to sell, paid before the first show.
- Backline: anything you hire instead of carrying.
- Rewards and postage: the posters and recordings you send backers.
A tour also has income, which an album doesn't: what the venues pay and what you sell at the merch table. In your budget, count only the venue money that is agreed in writing.
How big should the goal be?
The gap between what the tour costs and what the shows already pay, plus a margin.
Say ten dates with four people. The van for 10 days at $90 is $900; fuel and tolls $700; two rooms for 9 nights at $40 each is $720; per diems of $15 a day for four people is $600; merch stock $500; rewards and postage $300. That is $3,720. If the venues have agreed to pay $1,200 between them, the gap is $2,520, so a goal of about $2,800 covers it with room for fees.
Leave merch sales out of the sum. They are a bonus if the tour goes well, not money to plan on. The goal planner runs the numbers with you.
What rewards work for a tour?
Ones tied to the road, and to the town each backer lives in:
- A spot on the guest list for the date nearest them.
- The tour poster, with every backer's name printed on it.
- A postcard sent from somewhere on the route.
- Watching the soundcheck before doors open.
- A song of their choice in that night's set.
- A recording of one show from the tour.
- A house show on a day off, for the top tier.
A campaign takes up to five tiers, and the smallest pledge is $10. A reward on a date only works near the route, so say in each tier which cities it covers.
When should you launch the campaign?
Once the dates are confirmed, and early enough that the deadline lands before you pay for the van.
The funds reach you only after the deadline, and only if the goal is met. Work back from the first show: the van deposit, then the deadline, then a few weeks of campaign before that. Announce the dates and the campaign together, so every post about the tour points to the link.
Who backs a tour?
People in the towns you are playing, first. A fan with a date near them has a reason to pledge now rather than someday.
Post the campaign city by city, tag each venue and promoter, and ask the bands you share bills with to post it. Then switch on the share reward: you set it from nothing up to 18.5% of each pledge, paid by the program to whoever shared the link, in the same transaction. A promoter who shares it earns from the pledges it brings. How to share your campaign plans the first week.
What does CoFunders charge?
Writing and previewing a campaign is free. Opening it costs $5 on the free plan, and each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99. The share reward you set comes out of the pledge too.
The percentage fee on a pledge follows the plan of the account making it. It's taken when the pledge is made, so it isn't returned if the campaign misses its goal. Paid plans aren't on sale today, so the published fee is the free plan's fee.
Every fee is on the pricing page.
What if the goal is missed?
If the goal isn't met by the deadline, you take your pledge back from escrow with one tap, and nobody has to approve it. What comes back is the amount held for you: your pledge minus the fees taken when you backed (the platform fee, the flat fee, any tip and any share reward the campaign pays).
For a tour, that means you know before you leave, not halfway down the motorway. Cut the dates that cost most to reach, and try again with a shorter route.
How do you start?
Start with a draft as soon as the first dates are confirmed: writing and previewing it costs nothing.
- Sign up in the app with email or Google.
- Write the story of the tour, the dates, the goal, the deadline and the rewards.
- Set the share reward and publish.
- Send the link to every venue and promoter on the route, and pin it.
How to set a crowdfunding goal, from the free course, goes deeper on the sums. Everything you can fund has a guide for each kind of project, and every other question is in the answers.