The
Operating System
for Touring Artists
Day sheets, settlements, merch tracking, riders, stage plots, crew chat, real-time team sync, and financial intelligence — all in one app built for life on the road.
Whether you're running a 10-date club run or a 40-city theater tour with a full crew — TourForge scales with your operation.
Touring is a business. The tools should treat it like one.
Know where the money went.
And how many Sharpies are left.
Built Digital. Runs Analog.
The Problem
Touring is a logistics nightmare run on spreadsheets and group texts
Every night is a different city, a different venue, a different promoter. Whether you're playing 200-cap rooms or 2,000-seat theaters, the operational chaos is the same. There's no single tool that handles scheduling, settlements, merch, riders, stage plots, crew coordination, and financial tracking for working touring artists at every level — until now.
Scattered Information
Day sheets in Google Docs. Settlements on napkins. Merch counts in Notes app. Hotel confirmations buried in email. Every show day starts with "where's the info?"
Money Disappears
Without real-time settlement tracking, bands leave money on the table. Promoter math goes unchecked. Merch revenue leaks through the cracks. Nobody knows if the tour is profitable until it's over — if ever.
Everyone's Out of Sync
The TM texts the schedule. The merch person asks the same question twice. The band doesn't know what time soundcheck is. When five people need the same information and nobody has a single source of truth, things fall apart every night.
One-Size-Fits-None
Master Tour costs $780/year and was built for stadium-level production teams. Whether you're doing 200-cap clubs or 2,000-seat theaters, you need something powerful, flexible, and built for the way touring actually works — and it hasn't existed until now.
What We Built
Every tool a touring artist needs. One app.
TourForge replaces the spreadsheet chaos with purpose-built screens designed for the real workflows of touring artists. From load-in to settlement. From merch table to financial reports. Everything lives in one place — and stays in sync across your whole crew.
AI Tour Import
Upload a photo of a tour poster, a booking email screenshot, or a routing spreadsheet — and AI reads it into structured tour dates. Master venue lookup auto-matches capacity, address, and coordinates. Three source types, one tap to import an entire run.
AI Scanner Suite
Six AI-powered document scanners: settlement sheets, receipts, contracts and deal memos, merch count sheets, stage plots and tech riders, and tour posters. Point your camera at any touring document and the AI extracts structured data. No more manual entry.
Tour Brain Dashboard
One screen. Everything you need. Venue, schedule, weather, per diem balance, upcoming alerts, setlist preview, merch snapshot, guest list, burn rate. The single source of truth for show day.
Settlement Calculator
Capture advance tickets, day-of tickets, and comps separately. Auto-calculate band payout based on deal type — VS, guarantee, flat, or door deal. Check the promoter's math before you sign anything.
Merch Tracker
Full inventory management with count-in/count-out, cash vs card split, venue merch fee calculation, low stock alerts, and per-show sales reporting. Know exactly where every shirt went.
Team Sync & Collaboration
Your whole crew, on the same page — literally. Invite codes and QR join. Five roles with granular permissions. Built-in crew chat with push notifications. Instant updates across every device. This isn't a shared spreadsheet — it's a shared operating system.
Tour Route Map
Visual tour routing with city pins, drive times, deal info, settlement status, hotel details, and total guarantee/settled stats at a glance. See the whole tour in one view.
Financial Intelligence
Revenue per show charts, expense breakdowns, merch performance tracking, burn rate monitoring, and tour profit projections — updated in real time as settlements and expenses come in. Know if you're making money before the tour is over.
Band Rider Editor
Hospitality, technical/backline, and dressing room sections. Add items with quantities and notes. Share as text or export print-ready PDF to send to venues. No more emailing Word docs.
Stage Plot / Input List
Channel-by-channel input list with mic, stand, and notes per channel. Monitor mix editor with per-channel sends. Export PDF for the FOH engineer. Show up and sound right.
Google Places Integration
Search and auto-fill venue and hotel details using Google Places API. Automatic drive time and distance calculations between consecutive tour stops. Stop Googling addresses.
Per Diem Tracker
Daily allowance tracking per tour with configurable rate. Log spending with quick-select amounts, see remaining balance. Running tour budget/spent/saved totals with progress bar. Know exactly where the money goes.
The only problem this app won't solve is your drummer pawning his drums the day before the show.
We hope to solve that for release 2.0.
Built Different
The Product
Built for the road. Designed for the dark.
TourForge uses a dark-first interface designed for green rooms, backstage environments, tour buses, and late-night settlements. Every screen was built around real touring workflows — with real-time sync across your crew and offline support for when the signal drops.
Tour Brain Dashboard
Money — Shows
Money — Merch Table
Money — Expenses
Money — Summary
Money — Breakdown Charts
Money — Tip Jar
Money — Per Diem
Backstage
Booking Pipeline
Tour Wrap Report
Setlist Builder
Band Rider
Stage Plot / Input List
Gear Inventory
Gear Requests
AI Tour Import
The Platform
More Than an App
TourForge isn't a wrapper around a spreadsheet. It's a purpose-built platform with a proprietary data layer designed for the specific chaos of touring.
Venues
Intelligence & Insights
Compare
Real-Time Team Sync
When your TM updates the schedule, everyone sees it — instantly. No refresh button. No "did you get my text?" When someone's online, you know it. When they make a change, you see it. That's not a feature bolted on later. It's how the whole system works.
Works Everywhere. Even Nowhere.
Backstage Wi-Fi is a myth. Cell service on the road is worse. TourForge works offline and queues your changes until you're back on a network. Nothing gets lost. Nothing conflicts. It just works.
Built to Scale
The same platform that runs a solo artist's club tour can handle a 20-person crew on a national theater run. From the van to the bus, the architecture was designed to scale from day one — not retrofitted after the fact.
Your Data. Your Advantage.
Every settlement, every merch count, every expense — it all builds a picture of your touring business over time. That data stays yours, and it gets smarter the more you use it.
Built From The Road Up
This didn't start in a boardroom
TourForge was born on the road — not from a band, but from the person keeping the wheels on. Jon Paul "Hogleg" Long spent years working with touring acts at every level across Texas and the South, handling the logistics that nobody else wanted to touch. Settlements done on napkins. Merch counts in the Notes app. Day sheets buried in group texts. Hotel confirmations scattered across three different email threads.
After years of watching money slip through the cracks and logistics fall apart for every act he worked with — from van tours to bus runs — Hogleg, a designer with 25 years in the music industry, decided to build the tool he wished existed. Not a corporate product built by people who've never been on the road. A real tool, built from the road up, by someone who's lived it.
Every feature in TourForge exists because I needed it on the road. This isn't a tech company guessing what touring artists need — it's someone who got tired of watching artists at every level lose money and built the answer.
Who It's For
Built for artists who tour for a living
TourForge is for the artists and crews who are actually out there doing it — whether that's a van and a trailer or a bus and a full production team. If you're trying to run a tour like a business, this is your tool.
Touring Bands at Every Level
From club runs to theater tours. Whether you're a 4-piece splitting gas or a 10-piece with a bus and crew — TourForge keeps the whole operation tight.
Solo Artists & Singer-Songwriters
Running your own tour means wearing every hat. TourForge gives you one place to manage it all — no team required.
Tour Managers & Road Managers
Professional-grade day sheets, settlements, and financial reporting. Keep the whole crew in sync in real time. No enterprise price tag required.
Crew, Merch & Support Staff
Role-based access means everyone sees exactly what they need. Merch counts, schedules, guest lists — all in one place, all in sync.
The Team
Built by people who've lived the road
TourForge isn't a tech company guessing what touring artists need. It was built by someone who spent years in the trenches of the touring industry — from van tours to bus runs — watching money disappear, doing settlement math on napkins, and scrambling through group texts to find the venue address.
Jon Paul "Hogleg" Long
Creative & Product
25 years in the music industry. Founder of Galleywinter, one of the earliest online communities dedicated to Texas and Red Dirt music — launched in 2001, years before MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter. Known throughout the scene as Hogleg, JP has spent decades working alongside touring bands — not as a musician, but as the person keeping the wheels on. Handling logistics, watching money slip through the cracks, and solving problems nobody else wanted to touch. Designer, builder, and the reason TourForge exists.
Jay Long
Business & Operations
[email protected]Experienced business operator running multiple companies. Brings the strategic thinking, operational discipline, and business acumen needed to turn a great product into a great company.
Affordable By Design
Professional tools. Accessible pricing.
Most tour management tools are either built for stadium-level budgets or too basic to be useful. TourForge gives every touring artist — from the van to the bus — professional-grade tools at a price that makes sense for the way touring actually works.
Admin Account
One subscription. Full access. The Admin account gives you the complete TourForge platform — every tool, every feature, every workflow. Built for the person running the operation, whether that's a club tour or a national run.
Add Seats, Add Crew
Your TM, merch person, driver, band members — everyone gets their own login with role-based permissions. Add seats to your Admin account as your crew grows. Each seat is a fraction of the cost, so scaling your team doesn't break the budget.
Insights & Market Intelligence
Unlock the data layer. Our Insights add-on gives you venue intelligence, market analytics, revenue trends, and touring data that gets smarter the more you use it. Optional for those who want to tour smarter, not just harder.
Competitive Landscape
We studied every tool. None answer the real question.
"Are we making money on this tour?" No existing tool can tell you. TourForge can.
| Feature | Master Tour | DaySync | DaySheets | TourForge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schedule & Itinerary | ||||
| Settlement Calculator | ||||
| Expense Tracking | ||||
| Merch Management | ||||
| Profit Projections | ||||
| Guest List Management | ||||
| Role-Based Views | ||||
| In-App Team Chat | ||||
| Per Diem Tracking | ||||
| Show-Day Alerts | ||||
| Setlist Management | ||||
| Fuel / Toll Estimation | ||||
| Sharpie Counter | ||||
| Offline Resilience | ||||
| Push Notifications | ||||
| Approval Queue | ||||
| Full Transparency Mode | ||||
| Festival-Specific Tools | ||||
| Fly Date Management | ||||
| AI Tour Import | ||||
| AI Document Scanning (6 types) | ||||
| Booking Pipeline | ||||
| Guest List + QR Check-in | ||||
| Crew Chat | ||||
| Gear Inventory | ||||
| Tour Wrap Report | ||||
| Market Intelligence | ||||
| Tip Jar | ||||
| 20+ Country Support | ||||
| Mobile + Web | ||||
| Price | $65/mo | $5/user/mo | Enterprise | TBD |
Market Opportunity
A $41 billion industry running on spreadsheets
The global live music market is massive and growing. The tools serving it haven't kept up. TourForge serves the full spectrum of working touring artists — from independent acts to mid-level and beyond — with professional tools at accessible prices.
The vast majority of touring artists — from indie to mid-level — are underserved by every tool on the market. That's our opportunity.
Traction & Roadmap
Built fast. Shipping faster.
- Core PlatformTour management, day sheets, settlements, merch tracking, contacts CRM, financial dashboard, crew tasks, onboarding
- Multi-User CollaborationInvite codes, QR join, role-based views (Manager, Tour Manager, Band, Crew, Merch), real-time crew chat, push notifications
- Desktop-Responsive WebSidebar navigation, multi-column layouts, SVG financial charts, print-ready views for all screen sizes
- Advance Packet SuiteBand Rider editor, Stage Plot / Input List, PDF exports, Google Places venue search, auto drive times, day events
- Setlist Management SuiteSong Library, Setlist Builder, Setlist Templates, Set Time Target, play count stats, and Setlist PDF exports
- Tour Finance ToolsPer Diem Tracker with configurable daily rates, Fuel Estimation based on vehicle MPG, State-by-state toll estimation with real AAA data
- Smart NotificationsShow-Day Alerts before Load-In, Soundcheck, Doors, Set Time, Curfew. Day Event alerts. Configurable lead times per event type.
- Offline-First SyncQueue changes when signal drops, push when signal returns. Critical for rural venues and festival grounds.
- Team Management & PermissionsFive-role permission system with 25 permission flags. Full Transparency mode. Approval queue for guest list and contact submissions. Team management screen for admins. My Submissions view for band members.
- Real-Time InfrastructurePush notifications via Expo Push API v2. Smart polling with tiered intervals (15s–60s). Offline mutation queue with auto-flush on reconnect. Dual-mode data fetching (server API or local storage).
- AI Scanner SuiteSix AI-powered document scanners: settlement sheets, receipts, contracts, merch count sheets, stage plots, and tour posters. Plus multi-source AI tour import from posters, emails, and spreadsheets.
- Booking & Pipeline ToolsFive-stage booking pipeline (Pitched → Settled), guest list management with QR check-in, contacts CRM with 9 types, and tour wrap reports with PDF export.
- Beta Program LaunchOnboard 10-20 touring bands for real-world testing. Collect feedback, iterate, and build case studies.
- Venue MarketplaceConnect bands directly with venues. Booking requests, availability calendar, and deal negotiation built in.
Technical Foundation
- FrameworkReact Native / Expo SDK 54
- LanguageTypeScript
- PlatformsiOS, Android, Web
- DataDual-mode: Local-first + Server Sync
- DatabasePostgreSQL + Drizzle ORM
- AuthOAuth + 5-role permission system
- APIsGoogle Places, AAA Gas Prices
- PushExpo Push API v2
- Offlineexpo-network + AsyncStorage queue
- SyncSmart polling (15s–60s intervals)
- ChartsCustom SVG Visualizations
- ExportsPDF via expo-print
- AI/LLMBuilt-in multimodal LLM (6 scanner types)
- API Routers36 tRPC server routers
- Test Coverage297 tests passing
Get Involved
The road needs better tools.
For decades the touring industry has been running on spreadsheets, group texts, and crossed fingers. TourForge was built to change that.
Better organization.
Better financial visibility.
Better tools for the people actually doing the work.
Know where the money went.
And how many Sharpies are left.