Discover the top mobile apps designed for touring musicians. Explore how they can simplify your life on the road, assist with planning, management, and more!

In the dynamic world of music, live shows and tours have made a triumphant return post-covid. Musicians all over the globe are packing their instruments and hitting the road, eager to connect with their fans once again. As a touring musician, several music apps can greatly enhance your experience, simplifying everything from scheduling to tuning, organizing sheet music, route planning, and much more. In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve into the top ten best apps for musicians that are indispensable for touring musicians, making your life on the road not only easier but also more productive and enjoyable.

Road Trip MPG: Essential Navigation and Fuel Management App for Touring Musicians

Priced at just $6.99, Road Trip MPG falls under the category of navigation and management apps specifically tailored for touring musicians. This highly useful app provides a comprehensive set of features that allow you to keep track of your vehicle's fuel economy and expenses, store detailed maintenance records, and plan the most cost-efficient routes for your tour. With Road Trip MPG, you can proactively monitor mileage statistics, ensuring you have a clear understanding of your vehicle's performance.

One of the Essential Non-music Touring Apps

The app allows you to evenly divide gas costs among band members, avoiding any potential financial discrepancies. It can be a real headache for touring musicians to clearly split fuel costs over a whole tour. However, with Road Trip MPG, you can mitigate these issues and ensure all records are clearly kept, enhancing both your peace of mind and overall touring experience.

Bandsintown: Premier Tour Management App for Musicians

Available as a free app, Bandsintown stands out as a leading artist management and promotional app specifically designed for musicians making a mark in the music industry. Recognized as the number one service platform for artists, Bandsintown provides an invaluable tool to connect more than half a million artists with their dedicated fans across the United States. With Bandsintown, you can efficiently manage and promote your tour dates across multiple platforms, ensuring maximum exposure and engagement with your audience. The app offers a personalized dashboard that caters to the needs of artists, managers, labels, and agencies alike, fostering smooth coordination and effective communication. Through Bandsintown, you can optimize your tour promotion efforts, reach a wider audience, and enhance your overall tour management experience.

Band Mule: Top-notch Scheduling App for Band Members

Band Mule, available for free, serves as an indispensable scheduling app exclusively designed to streamline the coordination efforts among band members. Keeping the schedules of all band members in sync can often be a daunting task, but with Band Mule, this challenge is effortlessly overcome. The app boasts a range of features to alleviate the complexities of band scheduling, including a shared band calendar, a private chat room for seamless communication with other band members, and the ability to create and share setlists. Each band member has the flexibility to edit the shared calendar, allowing for the addition of rehearsal times or the blocking out of dates when they are unavailable. Moreover, the app enables band members to collaborate on setlists, which are conveniently saved in PDF format for easy printing. With Band Mule, you can achieve optimal synchronization among your bandmates, ensuring efficient planning and fostering a more cohesive touring experience.

HotelTonight: Essential Last-minute Accommodation App for Touring Musicians

HotelTonight, available as a free app categorized under travel and accommodation, stands as an essential tool for touring musicians in need of last-minute accommodations. As any experienced musician knows, unforeseen circumstances or changes in plans can often lead to unexpected accommodation needs. HotelTonight addresses this challenge by offering an impressive selection of amazing deals on hotels for the immediate night or the next few days. The app specializes in providing musicians with a range of options to secure comfortable and convenient accommodations, even at the eleventh hour. Whether you find yourself in a situation where you haven't booked enough rooms or encounter issues with your current accommodation, HotelTonight is your go-to solution. With a few simple swipes, you can find incredible discounts on empty rooms, ensuring that you have a reliable backup plan, even in the most unpredictable touring scenarios. HotelTonight grants you peace of mind, allowing you to focus on your performances and enjoy a seamless touring experience.

Cleartune: Essential Tuning App for Musicians

Cleartune, available for $3.99, falls under the category of music tuning apps, holding a well-deserved reputation as one of the music industry's best tuning solutions. For musicians of all backgrounds, having a reliable and accurate tuning app is indispensable, and Cleartune fits the bill perfectly. While it is not a metronome app, it is powerful chromatic tuner and pitch pipe app revolutionizes the way musicians tune their instruments, bidding farewell to old-fashioned visual and analog tuners. Cleartune features a user-friendly interface that incorporates a note wheel tuner, allowing you to quickly and effortlessly find your pitch and precisely tune your instrument, regardless of whether you play the guitar, piano, trumpet, or any other instrument that requires accurate tuning. With Cleartune in your arsenal, you can ensure that your performances are pitch-perfect, providing you with the confidence and assurance necessary to deliver exceptional music during your tours.

Artist Growth: Comprehensive Business Management App for Touring Musicians

Artist Growth, available for free as a desktop app, stands as a comprehensive app falling under the category of business management apps specifically tailored for touring musicians. This all-in-one tool and app covers almost every aspect of tour and promotion management, providing an extensive range of features to enhance your touring experience. From efficient tour management and streamlined roster management to automated event notifications and collaborative tools, Artist Growth has you covered. The app seamlessly integrates with other apps and your calendar, ensuring that you stay organized and never miss a beat. Additionally, Artist Growth empowers you to track your finances and manage guest lists, further simplifying the complexities of tour management. With its comprehensive suite of tools, Artist Growth truly proves to be an indispensable asset for touring musicians, allowing you to focus on what matters most—creating unforgettable music experiences for your fans.

Setlist Helper: The Ultimate Setlist Organization App for Touring Musicians

Setlist Helper, available for free, falls into the category of music organization apps and serves as the ultimate companion for organizing your setlists as a touring musician. Say goodbye to guessing on setlists, organizing your sheet music or needing to print out set sheets.  This app offers a wide array of features designed to simplify the management of your song lyrics and organizing song ideas during a live performance. With Setlist Helper, you can effortlessly store your lyrics for easy access on stage, ensuring that you deliver flawless performances every time. The app also allows you to create and manage setlists for each gig, enabling you to customize your performance based on the venue and audience.

Get Rid of Unorganized Sheet Music or Needing to Scroll for Lyrics

Setlist Helper even provides a hands-free mode that automatically scrolls the lyrics during a live performance, freeing you from the hassle of manually turning pages on a sheet music lead sheet or scrolling on your mobile device. Supporting multiple languages and offering the convenience of importing and exporting setlists and songs, Setlist Helper streamlines your organization process, making it an invaluable tool for touring musicians seeking seamless setlist management.

Jammcard: The Networking App for Music Professionals

Jammcard, available for free download, has earned its reputation as the "LinkedIn for musicians." This invite-only social networking app features music professionals, fostering collaboration on new song ideas, and creating new opportunities within the music industry. Whether you're in search of a session musician to join your tour or aiming to expand your professional network, Jammcard is the go-to resource.

Connect and Create Music With Other Professionals

The app enables you to connect with fellow musicians, producers, and industry professionals, opening doors to potential collaborations, gigs, and career growth. By joining Jammcard's exclusive community, you gain access to a diverse and vibrant network of like-minded individuals, all driven by a shared passion for music. Jammcard is the ultimate music career networking tool that empowers you to forge meaningful connections and unlock new possibilities in your musical journey.

Mixing Station: Remote control Digital Mixers and In Ear Monitors

Mixing Station is a remote control app for mutiple brands of popular digital mixers. An excellent use case is touring musicians who use a digital mixer for their in ear monitoring. With Mixing Station, you can mix your own in ear monitors via your phone or tablet that is connected to the mixers internal WiFi. This allows personal and deep control over what you hear in your in ears - an invaluable ability for the touring independent musician. The app offers extensive customization options, allowing users to tailor their mixer's functionality to their preferences. It is MIDI/MCU compatible, enabling seamless integration with other equipment. Users can share their settings with others and impose access restrictions as needed. Mixing Station is an essential tool for personal in-ear monitoring mixing, removing reliance on house monitoring engineers and helping to get the best live performance possible.

Master Tour Mobile: The All-In-One Tour Management App

Master Tour Mobile, while offering free features, also provides premium options for more extensive use. This app stands as an all-in-one tour management powerhouse, designed to simplify and streamline all the features and intricate processes involved in managing a tour. With Master Tour Mobile, you can effortlessly manage schedules, production notes, guest lists, travel details, and finances, all from the palm of your hand. The app's intuitive interface and comprehensive set of features ensure that everyone involved in the tour, from band members to managers to crew, stays organized and informed. Furthermore, Master Tour Mobile fosters seamless team collaboration, facilitating effective communication and ensuring that everyone is on the same page throughout the tour. By utilizing this powerful tour management app, you can optimize your planning and organization, enabling you to focus on delivering outstanding performances while leaving the logistics to Master Tour Mobile.

What Are the Best Apps for Me?

Touring musicians now have an array of incredible apps at their disposal to streamline their planning, management, and performance needs. From navigation and fuel management with Road Trip MPG to tour management and promotion with Bandsintown, each app serves a specific purpose to enhance the touring experience. Whether it's scheduling and coordination with Band Mule, last-minute accommodations with HotelTonight, or instrument tuning with Cleartune, these apps cater to the unique demands of life on the road.

Furthermore, apps like Artist Growth, Setlist Helper, Jammcard, Mixing Station, and Master Tour Mobile provide comprehensive solutions for business management, setlist organization, music creation, networking, sound monitoring, and all-in-one tour management, respectively. By embracing these technological tools, touring musicians can optimize their efficiency, enhance their performances, and create unforgettable music experiences for their fans. With the stage set and the road ahead, let these apps be your companions as you embark on your touring journey, making every moment seamless and enjoyable.

FAQ

Q1: What are some of the best apps for touring musicians?

Answer: Some of the best apps for touring musicians include Road Trip MPG, Bandsintown, Band Mule, HotelTonight, Cleartune, and Artist Growth.

Q2: How can Road Trip MPG help musicians on tour?

Answer: Road Trip MPG is the best app that allows touring musicians to monitor fuel economy and costs, document vehicle maintenance records, and plan efficient routes, ensuring a smooth journey to the next gig.

Q3: What is Bandsintown?

Answer: Bandsintown is a platform and music app that connects artists to their fans. It provides a dashboard to manage and promote tour dates across multiple platforms.

Q4: How does Cleartune assist musicians?

Answer: Cleartune is a chromatic tuner and pitch pipe app that helps musicians quickly find their pitch and get in tune, no matter what instrument they play.