Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Price Of Touring For Rock Bands Is Pretty High

By Cornelius Nunev


Being a musician professionally sounds like a fairly sweet idea for many individuals. Concerts, the road and some think, a ton of cash. However, it's not much of a living, even for bands that get a ton of interest, as the cost of touring is over the top.

Price of touring makes rock and roll hard existing

Most bands or artists do not have enough cash to cover a tour. You imagine a tour for a musician to have a lot of cash with a ton of partying and tour busses. Unfortunately, that is not the case for all.

For instance, a 2007 NPR interview with The Dresden Dolls, a Boston duo that has been playing their trade for several years, has some info that's quite revealing. The band had a record deal, toured all over the world, even opening for Nine Inch Nails on one tour. Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione, the two people in the group, were both making $1,500 a month from touring.

Supposing 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.

Might get better with more followers

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 associated with touring. He said that groups make money based on the amount of merchandise sold and the number of fans 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 venue profits.

Bands pay to print shirts. He reported $7.50 per shirt, which they sell usually at $15 per, meaning its half the cost. So of that $300, $150 is already gone. Venues usually charge a 25 percent commission, $75, and the band's manager gets a 15 percent cut of the profits, or $11.25, meaning the band makes $63.75 from $300 in product sales. From guaranties go, 15 percent off the top goes to the band's manager and 10 percent goes to their booking agent, who arranges tour dates. That leaves $225 per night, before paying travel expenditures, which he quotes around $150 just in fuel between gigs, leaving $75. Then, after a $10 per day food spending budget for all five band members plus their merchandise seller, $60, which leaves $15. In total, that's $78.75 per night.

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

Not all costs bad

Large time individuals are the only ones who can make a big buck off of touring. This contains Pink Floyd's Roger Waters who did a tour in 2010, according to the Daily Mail. According to Music Television, he grossed about $90 million on the tour and paid out $60 million to cover the lavish tour and production.

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 numerous groups which were an inch away from having to cancel tours and possibly quit their profession due to high gasoline prices.

Whenever you download music for free, the band ends up losing cash there too.




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