MGN offers end-to-end tour support resources from concept to show. Acts who wish to "take it on the road" can take MGN along with them as a virtual road manager. Actual road managers will find MGN's resources and real-time assistance invaluable in creating a smooth, hassle-free, no-surprises tour.

MGN offers a Tour Creation Module that walks a person through the process of booking a tour. Once the module is activated, search bots analyze available potential dates along a logical sequence of locations. The bots operate under certain default values, such as 6-hour maximum daily drive time, venue fee ranges vs. room & board provisions. However, users can specify preferences. For example, a user can specify maximum drive time as 3 hours per day. The bots will attempt to arrange the tour sequence to accommodate this. It may end up that a 3-hr. max. drive time for a Portland band can only happen in a line from Boston to Atlanta. The user can then request to "Add Leg" to the tour, where bots work to find the most likely sequence of tour dates available from Portland to Boston, irrespective of drive time.

The bots are constantly working in the background, as venue calendars shift, contracts are signed, and preferences change. It is important, therefore, that once the tour bots are engaged, there may be brief windows of opportunties to achieve preferences, so the user has to react to answer the bots' input requests.

Once the tour bots find a potential gig date, they flag the date and venue simultaneously within the Artist profile calendar and Venue profile calendar. The venue user must then answer the flag with YAY/NAY/HOLD. Holds are used to indicate the venue's desire to continue to look, but to also hold a reservation for the Artist. The venue holds can only last as long as the bots can allow based on other alternate venue responses.

From the venue side, booking bots are working in the other direction, so Artist users also have a YAY/NAY/HOLD option that must be answered in a timely fashion. The artist HOLDS originating from venues can also last only as long as the bots can allow, before a definitive YAY or NAY is indicated.

Once a YAY is achieved, this means both the Artist Tour Bot and the Venue Booking Bot agree, and the contracting module begins (see Venues). Again, the contracting sequence must be completed ASAP to allow for irreconcilable contract disputes--where all contract points cannot be agreed upon--and the venue and artist release that date to other candidates.

Once the tour has been finalized, MGN provides the Active Tour Module. Its first task is to run a publicity campaign with media outlets along the tour route in advance of shows, with press releases and Media EPKs. It also provides mail dates for hard copies of PK's to print media, and/or CDs to radio stations, and for other appearance opportunities, such as record stores, and radio and TV interviews (see Promotion and Media Services).

Once the artists hit the road, this module provides suggested departure and arrival times, fuel stops (vendor partners), any lay-over options for room and board. The module can also figure in schedule changes on the fly, such as a radio or TV appearance booked after the tour is underway. The module also overlays the Artist's fan contact database, so artists can invite locals to shows shortly before arriving.

A road blogging utility is available, along with an integrated IMing client for fans, media contacts, agents, and venues.

Each venue has a number of data points for the bots to work from (see Venue Survey), but MGN also includes for each venue the nearest "necessary vendors" for a touring musician. These would include grocery stores, restaurants, motels, hotels, music stores, music equipment repair vendors, vehicle rental and repair vendors and their hours of operation. MGN then approaches common national vendors to provide their products at a discount for card-carrying MGN members in exchange for sponsor advertising space across MGN public exposures, and, of course, captive MGN member patronage. This is especially true of gas stations, who could offer coupons, and discounts for MGN members.

The Tour Module also can assist with worst case scenarios and performance contingencies with connections into emergency road assistance, tow companies, after hours equipment vendors, hospitals, as well as local musician contacts who have volunteered to assist touring acts with local info when needed, especially in non-urban areas (e.g. a local drummer provides a loan of a kick drum pedal when no vendor stores are open). An emergency musician subbing system for venues and artists is available that can offer contact with musicians and whole bands who can sub on short notice.

DEVELOPMENET
During the Initial Data Acquisition stage, a concerted effort is made to recruit venues into the MGN booking system who book touring acts. This is the most key activity to making this system work. Without enough data points, search bots will fail to produce anything meaningful. Initially, MGN will have to offer booking services on a free trial basis to demonstrate to venues (and artists) that this can really work for them. A significant Beta period of perhaps 8-12 months will probably be needed. We'll know when we're out of Beta when artists and venues are reporting rave successes, and bug reports are at a minimum.

MGN Venue and Artist Profile acquisition must be diligent in determining if agents are involved. Agent bypass has the potential to create problems both in the short- and long-run. The Agent Profile acquisition is equally important to the Venue acquisition, with research going into finding all agents who book multiple touring acts, or multiple venues. Once found, they are educated as to what MGN intends to do in its Tour Creation Module, and the potential for them, BEFORE the service can be started. All objections to using the MGN Tour Creation system must be handled. MGN is the "Operating System" of the live music business, and everyone will need to acknowlege it as such.

I firmly believe that once MGN can effectively demonstrate how using the MGN Network can solve most of the inherent problems in the live music business, there will be no objections to using it by either side of the equation. Thus, a PR campaign for a thorough and widespread propagation and adoption must be waged from the outset. Once the OS of MGN has been adopted by all or at least MOST of the touring act venues and agents, only then can it be opened as a service module with Artists.

Benchmarks need to be researched, analyzed and adopted for minimum percentages of active Venue Profiles and Artist Profiles needed to create a meaningful and workable system. Launching the service before these benchmarks are achieved would do more harm than good. In other words, it's got to work first! Once working, this one module alone would revolutionize the way live music business is done.

Much of the startup beta work can be done by local Portland venues who volunteer to help us work out the basic system with the local bands they book. This will shake out any big bugs, and will point the way to implementing the whole dynamic system integrating the booking system into both the Tour Creation and Active Tour Modules (see Venues).

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