Day in the Life: Tour Accounting

Being an artist manager is totally NOT all fun and games and glitz and glamour. Far from it. For every festival appearance or Letterman slot, there are about twenty tasks that suck but help get you to that event. My least favorite part of my job is tour accounting. I loathe it. Not really sure why, perhaps because it’s monotonous, tedious, and a major time suck.

Basically, the process goes like this for every one of our artists:
- We confirm that an artist will go on tour. (This also occurs for other things like promo events, recording sessions, etc. But I don’t hate those since there aren’t 47,392 gas receipts.)
- I make a budget that details every projected expense for the tour. Thank goodness for Excel.
- I submit the budget and wait for an approval. If the budget is approved, I invoice for 75% (the front end) the total and funds are received by the business manager. If my budget is not approved, I have to trim the fat or scale down certain things to make the budget less.
- The artist goes on tour and spends a lot of money. Thank goodness for American Express. In addition to salaries and per diems, road expenses include: transportation, gas, tolls, gear repair, hotels, parking, Advil, sticks and strings, and sharpies among other fun unexpected things. Like when I see Parliament Lights and Jameson sneak into the receipts. They were not invited to this party.
- At the end of the tour, I am handed a massive envelop of receipts.
- I have to input all of the expenses into a spreadsheet separated by type of expense (ground, hotels, gas, etc) and method of payment. I also have to provide backup and make sure that all of the credit card expenses are accounted. And if I can’t find a receipt, especially a hotel receipt, I have to call the hotel and get it faxed to me.
- After I deal with receipts, I add everything from the petty cash log into the spreadsheet.
- Lastly, I subtract all tour income from the total and also check all income reported with the settlement sheets and booking agent’s tour report. Discrepancies are a joy to fix.
- Then I have to compile a report about the tour expenses. For a month tour, it usually ends up being about 80 pages and submitted to the business manager.
- Once complete, the back end (the expenses minus the 75% advance) is reimbursed.
- Repeat for every damn tour.

I’m about halfway done one accounting cycle and this is what my desk looks like…

NBC Rooftop

In the midst of album release craziness last week…we shot an acoustical jam on 30 Rock.
Catch the performance in your NYC cab soon…

We also did Letterman…

…before the guys drove for over a day to join Augustana this evening…
Massive.

We shot a music video…

No time for words, just photos…
Marathon shooting session on Sunday, but at least we got our shots.
Snippets from the day:

Working for the Weekend

What.A.Day.

I’m normally busy…between running, work, and school, I’m ALWAYS doing something and always have a full agenda in front of me. This is nothing new. Today was just in hyper speed and ended with me now drinking Yogi Kava Stress Relief tea and skipping my class. I hope my bevvie has magical wonders because I surely have earned it.

I feel awful for missing my class, but I wasn’t prepared and was not about to make a fool of myself in front of everyone again. We were going to practice our oral argument and field questions from the opposing side. Since the bossman was flying today and I finished most of my real work for the week, I wrongly assumed I’d have time at work to go over my stuff that I haven’t really looked at since I turned it in last Tuesday. No, no time at all.

There is just so much to do and not enough time. I suppose I should see that as being an upside, especially in the music business. I was up until 11:30 pm last night working on H’s upcoming tour and festival dates for WD (hence needed the day to look over my school work) and all day today I was fielding surprises and working on tours, interviews, tv appearances, and planning an album launch. It just never ends. Though JM is smooth sailing (usually), I handle all of our developing artists. I’m the manager, travel agent, tour manager, psychiatrist, merch designer, mediator, confidant, accountant…the list goes on. Josh Ritter sums it up nicely on his bloggy.

Anyways, today was madness. And it doesn’t help one damn bit that no one EVER searches their email or checks the shared calendar for information. Productive, but madness.

So I didn’t get to review my stuff.
My confidence waned.
I skipped class.
I came home and ate ice cream for dinner and watched a movie instead.

I deserved a 90 minute break.

Oh, and back to the title…I feel like the start of every week I am just racing to the weekend for the sole reason of having extra time since my weekdays are so crazed. Only one more day…

HA…it’s 10:30 pm and one of the musicians in H’s band just sent me this in response to an earlier email I sent the band – “You’re a savage, Miranda. A superhero. Way to go.” THAT is why I love my job even though I complain about it at times.

Like a proud parent…

Sometimes, but rarely, I get to feel a win at work. Day in and day out we fight the good fight and thankfully I like my side. The success rate in the music biz for an artist is VERY SLIM, so you hold on to what you can and revel in the little victories.

I mentioned a few weeks about about a showcase we did for one of my artists…
A win! We’re in!!! We’re playing once more on Tuesday but the deal is fairly final. We can breathe a sigh of relief, but now the real work begins. In case you are not aware, there is ALWAYS something to do, something upcoming, something to plan. Being an artist and a manager is CONSTANT work.

And…we just received confirmation that H will be opening up for Augustana this spring. Whoa, amusing. I listened to their debut record nonstop when I first moved up to NYC. The band also reminds me of Aurora and Jay…Aurora because of the Boston tie and Jay because we both freaked out on every song.

Lastly, after about a decade of knowing JJ, Randy recently met him regarding an artist he’s working with. Truly proves how small this industry really is and that cream always rises, two adages that I constantly remind myself whenever I feel frustrated. Funny, I met JJ when he was opening for I band I knew in NYC while I still lived in DE. Years later, Dave played on my roof and JJ came with him since they were on tour. And even later, I randomly interviews for a job in NYC (while I was still in DE) in the same building JJ had a studio. And now this. Even though we’ve kept in touch, I love happenstance, it truly proves that certain people are just meant to be in your life.

I need more tally marks on the winning side. I’m not used to feeling like Charlie Sheen.

Happy Showcase Day!

Today was showcase day. Otherwise known as “cross your fingers and say your prayers that the next 20 minutes go perfectly” day.

Though I mentioned that we had some mishaps leading up to today, it all went swimmingly. I saw on the back couch beamy face the entire time, every note and word and movement were perfect. Feet were tapped, heads were nodding, and one soul was playing air drums. This was for a label I worked with before a few years ago so it was nice to see some familiar faces even though I consistently talk and see a few. This would be a great home for us…

And WD is such a genuine artist who I truly enjoy working with. The entire band and team are solid and we all deserve and want this so badly.

And while I was sitting there watching the showcase unfold, I thought about what led us up to this point. Most of management is developing rather than executing. We’re nurturing something (the songs, the artist, the image) until it’s near flawless and ready to be appreciated by others. I remember first meeting this artist, and it feels like yesterday, but an eternity has passed between.

I tend to remember special days, the various little details. I don’t know it then, but those lucid days become real memories. I met this artist the same day it was thought that Gavin DeGraw’s plane crashed (DJ AM & Travis Barker). We used to manage Gavin so that morning was filled with a bit of panic. It was sunny, it was the end of September. Morgan and I had lunch at Panera. Strangely, the first full band show that I saw of WD’s was the same night DJ AM died. Randy and I were having a meeting across the street before the show and saw the ruckus outside his apartment building.

And now here we are, ready for the next big thing.

Jumping ship

I have to share my favorite email exchange of the day with you. This is between one of the musicians I work with and me. We usually share similar frustrations and are the same in that we’re usually the responsible ones who sweep away everyone else’s messes.

Him: I’m using this downtime to sharply hone my bluegrass skills in preparation for my inevitable withdrawal from the major label/pop music world into the peaceful ignorance of honky tonk bliss. I’m not really kidding either.
Me: I plan my escape daily. I think instead of going into entertainment law, I may go into criminal law. It’s practically the same thing.

Like I’ve said before, we’re all in this beast together. At least our side is fighting the good fight.

Falling Into Place

The excitement is setting in… We have a showcase later this week for one of our artists who is currently on an indie who will probably migrate up to a major. We’ve both been through this before so neither one of us expects the best, and we’re prepared for the worst. Though oddly, everything is falling into place, exactly where it should be. This level of comfort and perfection and certainty is a new feeling and maybe this time, something will stick. It’s also especially odd that every sudden change and obstacle has been quickly resolved. I’ve worked closely wih this label before and I’m really hoping that once again we have an artist in their family. The music industry is never not an uphill struggle so it helps when you have good people on your side.

Sunday afternoon check in

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted about my awesome adventures behind the desk, so here you go…

JM: Hey-o, we got a brand spankin’ new website! You’ll love it! It took months and lots of conference calls and sweat and early mornings and research and angst but it was finally launched to coincide with the fall tour announcement.

He’s on the road with Dylan now, but we’re setting off again in October and November using the documentary as an “opener”. Putting on a tour is exhausting. Pre-sales start Monday and regular on-sales are on Saturday. Hope it sells well… And the documentary is amazing. It’s going to be a lot of M at these shows… If you don’t make it out to a performance, the doc will be at a few choice film festivals in 2011.

The man also said that after a conversation we shared, I inspired him. Yeah, I’m keeping that.

SD: DF has been emailing me to take care of things. I’m keeping this too. Crazy. His tour starts soon. Yes, we have our two main artists on the road at once. This is fantastic. He also finally chose a piano and we have a tour bus. We almost did’t have a tour bus. I don’t want to talk about it.

YV: WE’RE MAKING A RECORD!!!!!! YESSS!!!!!!! NEXT WEEK WE (FINALLY) GET TO MAKE A SECOND ALBUM!!! AND YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE IT!!!! MUSIC!!!

WD: Four songs in the can. NYC show next weekend. Ad agency visits next week. Played a festival last night and we have a few more slated this fall. Busy busy busy. Let’s do this.

H: Planning an LA trip. Planning an Asian trip. Trying to fit in as many opportunities and interviews and photo shoots and visits and shows as possible. He’s still the priority at the label, though the college radio responses haven’t been as strong as we’d like. On the other hand, college radio doesn’t mean much. And it’s summer. I also think we have an booking agent, final decision after LA. Which is great because I don’t exactly love being a manager and a booking agent…. Everything is copacetic and I love being involved in a project that people are passionate about. Let’s do this too.