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The Cost of Touring Crisis
23/05/2024
Playing for smaller audiences has become the norm. Getting paid the same, if not less, than musicians did thirty years ago, has become the norm. The reason these things are happening is that people still haven't started coming back to live music. And that's the part that's hurting musicians.
At one time, touring was done to support the most recent album you released. You didn't make a ton of money from touring but you did it to sell more records. The album and the record deal was how you made your money. Now, with most musicians operating independently without a label, they finance everything. The musicians take all the risk and are losing money to tour.
The Entertainment Retailers Association made public that digital music accounts for less revenue than CD/record purchases, digital production accounts for 62% of the artists' expenditures. Stats Canada reports the operating revenue of travel arrangement and reservation services industry groups nearly tripled in 2022.
The bottom line is, we rely on you. We hope you'll talk us up. We hope you'll bring friends to our shows. We hope you'll buy our music. I guess the best way of putting it is, use us or lose us. How do you use us, you ask? Here are some great, inexpensive ways to support musicians.
• Don't just like our posts on social media, share them. The more folks who spread the word, the better.
• Make a point of going to see small shows with independent artists. We're all craving some new music, here's your chance to find it.
• Purchase something from the merch table. Even something small helps like buttons, keychains, and posters.
• When you find a new artist that you like, follow them on socials and streaming services. Tell your friends about them.
• Don't stream, buy. Spotify doesn't pay artists whose music does not exceed 1000 streams. Most streamers pay micro cents.
• Sign up for their newsletters. They won't spam you because they are too busy doing everything else to advance their career. You'll get a nice newsletter with info and stories about the musician(s), where they are playing and what they are working on.
Thank you for all your support. As I mentioned before, use us or lose us.
