82% of Musicians Can’t Afford to Tour

Hitting the road used to be a rite of passage for artists and how most earned a living. But now the majority of musicians can’t afford to tour. With rising costs and fewer paying venues, only the biggest names are making money while everyone else is struggling or staying home.

82% of Musicians Can’t Afford to Tour

by Bobby Owsinski from Music 3.0

During most of my lifetime, musicians made money by playing live, and under the right circumstances got a chance to play music in front of audiences outside their local areas. in fact, that’s always been a goal of artists – to be able to go out on tour, no matter how small that tour was. But fewer venues and higher prices for gas, meals and lodging has made that dream nearly impossible today, which is outlined by a recent survey that found that 82% of artists around the world can’t afford to gig outside their area, and this provides a lopsided touring pyramid.

The survey put together by streaming distributor Ditto Music of 1,500 independent artists found that 74.8% of acts have never toured before, which seems like a reasonable number. What was surprising is that 58.3% actually turned down touring opportunities for financial reasons. When the costs were analyzed, these artists discovered that they wouldn’t even make enough money to cover expenses on the road.

Since 75% of indie artists already support their music career through personal savings (another finding in the survey), touring then becomes like an extended vacation that you can’t afford. It might be okay if you have deep enough pockets to support what you’re doing, but you’re out of luck if your pocketbook is already dry.

The sad fact of the matter is that overall touring revenue is higher than it’s ever been, but if you read that in the news you think that means it’s evenly distributed across the entire artist spectrum. In reality, only the top 1% (maybe even the top 0.1%) is making most of the dough, with almost everyone else towards the bottom of the touring pyramid missing out.

Some Reasons

So why is this happening? Besides the obvious increase in costs like travel, meals and lodging, the sad fact is that there are fewer venues to play, and the ones that are left aren’t paying as much. Not only that, the tremendous competition for those spots mean that the venues can afford to offer less or none at all, since mosts artists will play for free just to get in front of an audience.

But don’t blame the venues either. Their costs have risen considerably, from rent, to insurance, to the fact that people are drinking much less these days. It’s amazing that they’re able to keep their doors open at all.

The real shame of it all is that young musicians and artists no longer have the chance to hone their skills in front of an audience the way that previous generations have. That means that we’ll have a generation of talent with insufficient stage time learning how to work an audience.

How does this play out?

People still love live music but they’re less and less likely to seek out something that they’re unfamiliar with. Add to that the fact that there are so many distractions these days that don’t even require that you leave your home, which puts live music in a crisis.

Promoters will tell you that fewer and fewer new acts are capable of selling out a large venue, and if they can on one tour, they’re not able to on the next. That doesn’t bode well for even the top 1% in the future. Maybe the touring pyramid will eventually flip upside down.

Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He has authored 24 books on music production, music, the music business, music AI, and social media