whomever wrote this article doesn’t know what they are talking about. I’ve gone on natinal tours with musicians and I will state:
1.More than 60% of the tours of known artists are subsided by a rcord label because —
2. TOURING IS EXPENSIVE — say you have a group of 4 or 5 people — now take them from NY to, say Seattle or Portland Or at $300. per person one way. Then add in the minimum payment for the 4 members of the band who are not the leader — that’s $400. per person — now we’re up tp a cost of $3,100. Now add hotel rooms for 5 at $100 (though it’s usually more — add the $45 per diem per person —
Now look at the club that holds 250 people. They often pay only $2,500. That gives you a shortfall. Many smaller clubs pay much less. Giving you an even bigger shortfall. Who pays it if there’s no tour suppport?
3. The job offers on Sonic Bids are a joke — they’re all for little coffee shops and outdoor party “festival” that offer only a couple of hundred dollars — so who pays for you to get there and who pays the band and where do you sleep?
People have hte idea that musical acts are either on the level of U2 or Colplay — or else a bunch of teenagers who rehearse in a garage and travel around the country sleeping in a van. The reality is that there are great musiians, often Grammy winners and nominees who are not at the level of pop superstars but who are adults who are not going to work for $25 and sleep in the street.
There have only been nationwide travelling acts in the United States for under 150 years.
In Europe only classical, choir, and chamber musicians/composers have a history of international continental touring.
Just as much of the facade of having nuclear non-extended households as a norm was an illusion built upon shaky foundations outside the longterm historical norms of human civilization, I believe the days of touring acts is going to go away outside of a return to the model of Old Europe, sponsored this time by corporations instead of sovereigns. The current iteration of the major music label has no place in this future.
Saying this as an ex-employee of an Independent Musicians Association.