Monday, September 30, 2013

Cost Of Touring Surprisingly High For Musicians

By Cornelius Nunev


Being a musician professionally sounds like a pretty sweet concept for many individuals. Concerts, the open road and some think, a ton of cash. However, it isn't much of a living, even for bands that get a ton of interest, as the price of touring is over the top.

Touring really costly

Not everybody can just get on a fancy tour bus and begin touring their band. In fact, most band or artist tours do not consist of groupies, partying and a lot of cash as you may assume.

It is quite interesting when you consider what The Dresden Dolls, a Boston group, made on their tour, according to a 2007 NPR interview. The two in the group, Brian Viglione and Amanda Palmer, only made $1,500 a month from the tour each. That is not a lot of cash for spending time in a record deal and touring. They even opened from some pretty large gigs.

Assuming they tour frequently, they will make $18,000 a year.

CD sales might bring them just a little bit more cash considering they get $1 off every CD sale.

Slowly gets better

Oh, Sleeper is a band that is recognized as "mid-level" since it has been around for a few years and has a following. Band member Shane Blay posted typical expenditures related to touring. He said that bands make cash depending on the amount of merchandise sold and the number of supporters who arrive. The bands have to pay the location for using the facility too. His band made about $600 per night for the venues on average because of $300 in merchandise sales and $300 in location profits.

The cost of traveling is $10 per day for food and $150 in gas between gigs. The band also has to pay 15 percent to the manager and 10 percent to the booking agent out of the $300 location 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 price in half. Total per night, the band ends up with $78.75 after all the expenditures come out.

Divided six ways, that's $13.12 per night, per band member. That does not include whether or not their van breaks down or if they need to stay in a hotel or go to a doctor.

Stars get additional cash

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 former group Pink Floyd, in 2010, the production, which is fantastically elaborate for those who haven't seen it, price $60 million to take on tour. The tour grossed almost $90 million, according to Music Television.

However, the struggling artist does struggle and likely pretty hard. NBC News, the news site formerly known as MSNBC, ran an article in 2008 about a number of groups which were an inch from having to terminate tours and possibly quit their profession due to high fuel costs.

It also hurts a band when music is downloaded for free, so make sure you always stay away from doing that.



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