Google maps is the best!

As it gets harder and harder to tour for a small act, with gas prices and lodging and every other thing you need to go on tour costing all kinds of money, people are finding alternative ways to go on tour. People use myspace and facebook to connect with their fans and crash at peoples’ places. A few years ago, the band that I was playing in booked small tours where we rented a van and booked some bigger shows that paid some money, and then used that money to stay in motels and peoples’ houses. The amount of telephone planning and mapping and logistics took a good chunk of time and energy. One of the things that I’ve recently discovered, and maybe because I’m not as computer literate as my partner Craig, is using Google Maps to map and plan tours. You can create a customized map to mark each place you’ll be staying and gigs you’ll be playing and you can share it with anyone. You can create a map and have all of your band mates have access to it. You can post it somewhere (I think) and have your fan base take a look and suggest places of interest or offer places to stay. It’s a small tool, but I think that it is useful in the organizing phase of the tour, because god knows on tour, you’d probably be too drunk and high to figure it all out on paper.

Google Maps Video Tutorial – Click Here!

It’s pretty cool to drop a locator on a gig, and then see the whole thing planned out. Pretty satisfying.