Cost Of Touring Surprisingly High For Musicians


By Cornelius Nunev


Many people may think that the life of a touring musician is attractive and also profitable, but it's anything but. The price of touring for a rock band or whatever is actually fairly high and very few tours really make massive amounts of cash, except for the very best tier of artists.

Hard to live as a rock band

A lot of people may imagine the life of a touring musician involves plush tour buses, groupies, endless partying and lots of cash. Maybe for some, but most groups or artists trying to make a living don't make much of one.

If you were touring, you would be ready to make more than $1,500 a month in a record deal opening for some pretty large bands. Unfortunately, that was incorrect for Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione in The Dresden Dolls. They had a record deal and never made more than that, according to a 2007 NPR interview.

Supposing they tour regularly, they will make $18,000 a year.

They got $1 of every CD sold as well, so they might make some cash on CD sales.

Slowly gets better

Shane Blay, a member of the band Oh, Sleeper, a metalcore band that's existed for several years, posted costs of touring during a typical day on the road, on MetalInjection. Bands, he claims, basically make cash on tour from guaranties, a fee for playing which varies by venue, and selling merchandise like T-shirts and so forth. What he'd noticed was that an average for a "mid-level" group like his was $300 per each category, an income of $600 per night.

The cost of traveling is $10 per day for food and $150 in gasoline between gigs. The band also has to pay 15 percent to the manager and 10 percent to the booking agent out of the $300 venue cash. Of the merchandise cash, the manger gets $15 percent and the location takes a 25 percent commission. On top of that, the band has to pay about $7.50 per t-shirt that they sell at $15, which already cuts that cost in half. Total per night, the band ends up with $78.75 after all the expenditures come out.

Then there are additional emergency costs not calculated out. Without the emergency situations, each band member will get $13.12 a night to play, which is not a ton of cash.

Not all costs bad

It's only the biggest acts for whom the costs of touring are worth it, as a tour might sell enough tickets to be profitable. For instance, according to the Daily Mail, when Roger Waters did a tour of "The Wall," the classic album by his previous group Pink Floyd, in 2010, the production, which is fantastically elaborate for those who haven't seen it, cost $60 million to take on tour. The tour grossed almost $90 million, according to MTV.

Being an artist means you will struggle a lot. According to NBC News, the 2008 gasoline price increases made it so most groups had to get rid of tours since they could not pay the additional price for gas.

And just in case one may be wondering, yes, it DOES hurt the band when a person downloads music for free.




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