Tom,

You got me there. The people that I know that have done this overseas from America, made one or several trips over to exploit what they have done. The first one usually loses money, the second one loses or breaks even,the third-fifth are the ones that start paying off. Then they do pretty well.

My problem is overextending your "supply lines.". In a lot of countries there is not an existing booking system.it is basically a LOT of leg work and finding things out (and going down dead ends) and that can get to be an expensive lesson. When you are dealing with other currancies, laws, cultures, and economic unstability,terrorism, kidnappings in some areas, to me that is something I would be very careful in.

Having someone on the "inside" of those countries would be essential.

I have known people that go on these excursions,then find themselves broke, no gigs, in countries that don't speak the language and have gotten into some rough areas. And I know people who have done wonderfully. But all of them pretty much had to research it all themselves.

One person I know had the number three song in the country of Greece and was not paid for it for years. The song was everywhere on this female trio over there. So he should have collected a lot of money. Through a LOT of phone calls he found out that the Performance Rights Organization in Greece is owned by the government. Greece is a socialist country. And I don't know if you have seen what is happening in the streets of Greece, but hard to collect money on a song when they are rioting and turning police cars in the streets. So he was never paid.

I am not saying it is all like that.Far from it. The news only shows us the worst to sell advertising time. But I do suggest you work hard to find people over there who know the angles.

I recently got back from 11 days in Manitoba Canada. We had to be very careful about what I told them I was doing. they don't want people from the States coming up taking Canadian jobs. They don't want workshops or me taking their Canadian talent to America. We had to ship my CD's in ahead of me or you have to pay a great deal of tax on them. They want to know how long you are there, what you are there for, who you are seeing, why you are there, and mostly WHEN THE HELL YOU ARE GOING HOME! Friendly country, very suspicious government. And there has to be 70% Canadian content, so you have to be careful about how you approach their laws.

Since all these countries can be very different in their laws, and customs, you have to know that too. A lot of our writers from Nashville have done tours of Afganistan, Iraq and other countries. They have to have literal classes on the customs and in's and out's of each country.

Gotta be careful in some of these places. Wind up in a hiking expedition in Iran or on some kidnappers boat in Somalia. Or in the middle of a street riot in Lybia, Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, or the the Middle Eastern country to be named at a later time for Government overthrow.

It can be great to see the world. And for American artists it can be successful. You are different and they generally gravitate to them. But you have to have someone to help you that knows how to do those things. You are on a forum that has many people from other countries. I would contact people like Big Jim and find out some information from them personally. They might not want to put too much on public forums.

Good luck,

MAB