While I agree with the headline, my biggest reasoning for that feeling is how ticket sales and scalpers and third party sites are making it so much more expensive to see shows than before. (But on the other side of the coin this can also really work in your favor for lesser known artists or if you’re okay with waiting for last minute buys!
Junk article that’s mostly reflecting on past issues relating to COVID fallout. The author started to lose me when they said Little Simz was closer to becoming a global household name than ever before. It really reads like someone that’s trying to tie together a variety of unrelated complaints into a single narrative. It just doesn’t really hold up in my opinion.
Artists that aren’t a big draw will feel the pinch when a recession affects discretionary income. Promoters aren’t willing to take a risk on lesser-known artists.
The economy will eventually recover and people will continue to attend live shows. Nothing about “the industry” – as broad of a term as that is – is broken.
The article is rubbish. First it mentions an artist who will not make money from a US tour, that’s nothing unusual, I know plenty of musicians who, even if they had the cash to go on a US tour, wouldn’t make money from it because they have barely any US fans. She charted at 33 in the album charts for her latest album so it’s not the fact the “live music industry is broken” it’s the plain fact that she’s not exactly well known enough for a full US tour.
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It then goes on to mention logistics shortages such as tour buses, which is understandable as there’s two years worth of tours being crammed into one.
Finally, the only relevant point, is that artists aren’t making money on tour in general, this is generally true but with the economy in the toilet, wages stagnating while corporate profits rise it’s only going to get worse. There’s been a decade of pressure on low and medium earners, people cannot afford to go out regularly, I used to go out at least once a week and still afford to eat, i’d always see a band. The last time i saw a live band was 2 weeks ago and before that it was 2 maybe 3 weeks before, I don’t expect to go out again until the end of the month.
As a booker myself, it’s been a nightmare with all these cancelations this Summer. There is a shortage of tour buses, vans, and workforce… and high inflation thanks to the war in Ukraine. Almost 30 bands canceled one month prior to the festival and it wasn’t easy to find bands to replace them so people who got the tickets would be happy.
I had a quite successful band that had 25 shows/festivals booked and usually sold out 1-2k cap venues that would lose 20k EUR because of the tourbus company that canceled their bus last minute.
Also many bands didn’t make it because they lost suitcases during flying or their flights were canceled on the day of show.
10 Responses
While I agree with the headline, my biggest reasoning for that feeling is how ticket sales and scalpers and third party sites are making it so much more expensive to see shows than before. (But on the other side of the coin this can also really work in your favor for lesser known artists or if you’re okay with waiting for last minute buys!
I BLAME TICKETMASTER!
Junk article that’s mostly reflecting on past issues relating to COVID fallout. The author started to lose me when they said Little Simz was closer to becoming a global household name than ever before. It really reads like someone that’s trying to tie together a variety of unrelated complaints into a single narrative. It just doesn’t really hold up in my opinion.
Artists that aren’t a big draw will feel the pinch when a recession affects discretionary income. Promoters aren’t willing to take a risk on lesser-known artists.
The economy will eventually recover and people will continue to attend live shows. Nothing about “the industry” – as broad of a term as that is – is broken.
The article is rubbish. First it mentions an artist who will not make money from a US tour, that’s nothing unusual, I know plenty of musicians who, even if they had the cash to go on a US tour, wouldn’t make money from it because they have barely any US fans. She charted at 33 in the album charts for her latest album so it’s not the fact the “live music industry is broken” it’s the plain fact that she’s not exactly well known enough for a full US tour.
​
It then goes on to mention logistics shortages such as tour buses, which is understandable as there’s two years worth of tours being crammed into one.
Finally, the only relevant point, is that artists aren’t making money on tour in general, this is generally true but with the economy in the toilet, wages stagnating while corporate profits rise it’s only going to get worse. There’s been a decade of pressure on low and medium earners, people cannot afford to go out regularly, I used to go out at least once a week and still afford to eat, i’d always see a band. The last time i saw a live band was 2 weeks ago and before that it was 2 maybe 3 weeks before, I don’t expect to go out again until the end of the month.
As a booker myself, it’s been a nightmare with all these cancelations this Summer. There is a shortage of tour buses, vans, and workforce… and high inflation thanks to the war in Ukraine. Almost 30 bands canceled one month prior to the festival and it wasn’t easy to find bands to replace them so people who got the tickets would be happy.
I had a quite successful band that had 25 shows/festivals booked and usually sold out 1-2k cap venues that would lose 20k EUR because of the tourbus company that canceled their bus last minute.
Also many bands didn’t make it because they lost suitcases during flying or their flights were canceled on the day of show.
Ticketmaster is the problem.
Festivals are the only way to go now. Paying $200-300 for a festival ticket to see 10+ bands is much more reasonable than paying $150 to see 1-2.
And water is wet.
It was like working a shit show this year.
YSK the article’s hidden behind a paywall.