Who decides where artists will go on tour?

[Emakku 494]

Who or what decides where artists will go on tour? For example what is needed for Gaga to visit Ukraine or New Zealand or Peru?

I suppose first of all popularity. But what are the other conditions? Population, infrastructure (like a good arena/stadium), cost of holding a concert, logistics..?

In the end who decides? Gaga, Bobby, LiveNation or somebody else?

[CautiousLurker 19,476]

Can confirm, it be Gaga 

The way that happens is Gaga goes 'lets go pet some Swedish hunties, I've never seen those before', so they go on tour in Sweden 

[tomsches 17,443]

Obviously, the demand, which is based on sales I suppose. But also the geographic location of the cities. Vienna, eg. is close to a lot of Eastern European cities that have fewer venues with big capacity. So it makes sense to play a concert there, because people from Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia etc. can easliy travel there. 

I feel like the same goes for Munich. Almost every artist goes to Munich, because it's very central and easily accessible, which makes more sense than playing a lot of smaller concerts in smaller cities.

[elijahfan 26,483]

It's particularly expensive to bring tours in certain territories, so ultimately it's down to how the record is doing in general and in those territories. There's also the whole health issue with Gaga, which leads me to believe she'll never do sprawling, months-spanning tours anymore.

[HausofGabo 1,263]

I guess it’s a decision between Bobby, Live Nation and local events producers.

For example, a couple of years ago, I used to head The Wanted Chile, The Wanted’s FC. And we manage to get a music festival with them + Big Time Rush, just having conversations with Universal Music Chile and Local producers.

The same happened with Rihanna, she wasn’t even on tour and performed here.

[Twitter 14]

It is a process that begins with the artist but Live Nation, Managers, and Tour Management handles majority of it. 

The artist’s popularity and how well the album sells gives a better idea for tour locations and venues.

[Gracious Gaga 17,163]

Ms. Rona

[Luckystef8 363]

Tour manager and touring company decide tour route

[xoxo Craig 55,649]

The label, tour manager, manger of the artist and the artist themselves. 

[HeavyPunkLover 2,120]

Economy

[2School4Cool 6,449]

I have no clue about Gaga in particular, but I heard Paul McCartney talk about it one time saying that at this point in his career his team comes to him and says “we’re looking into maybe going to this country to play here” and Paul will verify it with them and he tries to make it to places he hasn’t played before or hasn’t played often. I’ve also heard Ed Sheeran say things along the lines of “when I saw the list of dates and the places I was going to be playing” so my guess is as a younger artist that’s more accurate for Gaga, maybe she has a say but who knows? 

[Emakku 494]

50 minutes ago, tomsches said:

Obviously, the demand, which is based on sales I suppose. But also the geographic location of the cities. Vienna, eg. is close to a lot of Eastern European cities that have fewer venues with big capacity. So it makes sense to play a concert there, because people from Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia etc. can easliy travel there. 

I feel like the same goes for Munich. Almost every artist goes to Munich, because it's very central and easily accessible, which makes more sense than playing a lot of smaller concerts in smaller cities.

Well I don't think it's just the demand. One word: Brazil. Or actually any country south of Rio Grande. Is Gaga not relevant in Latin America anymore? I know the BTWB had problems there, except in Brazil and Mexico but there has got to be more than that.