Few musicians are making anywhere near the amount Taylor Swift pulled in with last year’s Eras Tour, which hit $1 billion in ticket sales and hundreds of millions more from merchandise and her concert film. In fact, tours frequently lose money, and many artists say they’re earning less than ever now.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the costs of touring increased 40%, according to Kevin Lyman, professor of music business at USC and the founder of the Warped Tour. He notes that Taylor Swift only represents a tiny fraction of music makers, while 90% of artists are trying to eke out a living by playing at venues with up to a 3,000 person capacity.
For Love Femme, the LA indie musician behind the band Amo Amo, touring is an “impossible” cost. She moved from New York to LA eight years ago, and since then has observed that “the arts have become a babysitting service for rich kids. … Most people who can afford to tour are independently funded through intergenerational wealth.”
Femme says the only way to tour sustainably is to use her Honda Fit to move from city to city, rely on friends’ homes for lodging, and cut the number of band members from five to three.
Artist take-home pay is even lower when you factor in other expenses. “They say to put half away for taxes,” says Femme. “So what people are making, split that in half, put 20% of that into the band fund, and then that's when you're going to even see any of it after the hotel, after the gas. It's really, really a challenge. But if you're just realistic about it, and productive, then I find that it is possible.”
For Femme, being realistic also means booking her own gigs. “I'm not on a label. … I've been managing and booking my band for a few years now… People were reaching out to me by email to book me for festivals. And venues where I played before wanted me to come back. So I've actually saved probably 60% of my income by just managing it and booking it myself.”
Femme specifically targets places where she’s performed before and knows folks will show up. Along the West Coast, that includes San Diego, Santa Barbara, Big Sur, San Francisco, Portland, and Vancouver.
She also relies on income from music festivals, which pay artists a flat rate guarantee that’s not tied to ticket sales. These payouts often total in the thousands of dollars per show. “I feel very blessed to be on the festival circuit,” says Femme. “I find that they take better care of the artists. Very often, it's a bigger group of people and a bigger team. I think there's more money involved. So people are professional, they feed us well, we get to ride around on those little go-karts.”
In general, traveling from city to city can be expensive if musicians rely on the traditional 12-person tour bus. Lyman explains that before COVID, a tour bus rental cost $1,200/day — which included the driver and fuel. Now the same rental package is $2,000/day.
Lyman continues, “The bandwagon, which is the next step down in touring vehicles, went from $600 to $850. And it's so interesting to see bands now that were in those bandwagons going back to a van and trailer, which usually means that you're going to cut a crew person.”
Ultimately, some bands just want to break even on tickets and take home money from their merchandise sales, says Lyman. “You're seeing bands doing more one-off custom shirts for their shows, or trying to generate income through those other avenues and really taking that very seriously.”
Even as touring artists are taking home less, consumers are paying more as the costs are passed on. People used to pay $20 to see three bands at a club, Lyman says, but now it can quickly be $100 per night when you have to cover parking, a babysitter, etc. Plus, Lyman argues that some folks aren’t as passionate about seeing live music anymore, especially young people who didn’t develop a taste for concerts on account of COVID.
As a result of these shifts, the touring model is being rebuilt. “It's going to push a lot of people off the road, unfortunately,” says Lyman. “There already have been casualties to this new model. … But I think it's slowly coming back in some ways. EDM is very, very popular right now. There's certain genres of music that are doing very well. But that tends to be someone that can deliver a good package at the best price possible.”
Lyman’s forthcoming tour is Summer School — $30-35 to see six bands.