Live & Touring

10 Artists Tour More than Most and Its been Good for their Careers

10 artists tour more than most others. While not the only path to success, these acts have mastered the art of captivating audiences across every continent and it’s been very good for their long careers.

10 Artists Tour More than Most and Its been Good for their Careers

by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

Once you hit a certain level of popularity, playing live is the way to make the most money. This is not a new thing, as it’s always been the case date back to the 1950s and even before that, so it’s no surprise that some artists like to stay out on the road as much as possible. But which top artists have toured around the world the most?

10 artists tour more

The team at Ticket Squeeze looked at 446 top artists to find out, and this is what they came up with.

RankArtist/BandNumber Of Tours
1The Rolling Stones51
2Bob Dylan47
3Elton John44
4Kiss, Led Zeppelin31 each
5The Who29
6Prince26
7ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden24 each
8Metallica, Pearl Jam23 each
9Regine Velasquez22
10Kylie Minogue21

Only one name on this list is a surprise and that’s Regine Velasquez, who’s the biggest selling artist of all time in the Philippines. Of course it’s not hard to guess that the Rolling Stones would be somewhere near the top of the list, but considering that the band had its first big hit in 1964, 51 world tours in 60 years is pretty impressive. In fact, they’ve been able to tour without an opening act since 1971!

On the other hand, there are a lot of artists that seem like they’re household names in their country of origin that have never broken out beyond its borders. 

RankArtist/BandNumber Of Tours
30Ministry1
30New Order1
30Jake Owen1
30Iggy Pop1
30Ivy Queen1
30Rouge1
30Darius Rucker1
30The Shadows1
30Blake Shelton 1
30Stone Temple Pilots1

The surprising one here is Iggy Pop, who seems to have a wider influence than actual popularity.

No matter what level you’re at, touring is grueling. A world tour that can continue for several years is the most taxing of all, so these 10 top artists are true road warriors.

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.

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1 Comment

  1. Here’s the list!
    P.S. on CBS tonight the live Dead members are honored at the Kennedy Center music awards!

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