Last spring, as the omicron wave receded and the world began to return to a semblance of normality or unpreparedness, the gates opened and thousands of musicians were back on the road. The audience flocked to the arenas and the big theaters watched Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Elton John and many others. Coachella kicked off the festival season with great fanfare, and smaller clubs are starting to figure out how to perform cautiously in confined spaces.
It’s been a bumpy start – several businesses (even Sir Elton and Bon Jovi) have had to cancel or postpone shows due to positive Covid tests – but it’s a start, nonetheless. Michael Rapinoe, CEO of Live Nation, says ticket sales are on track for a record year.
But for non-star musicians, it’s a different story. Walking around is how most of them make a living — royalties from live streaming are a pittance compared to an old CD or vinyl model — and they’re back in a world completely different from the one they knew before the pandemic.
On September 26, independent alt-R&B artist Santigold, who has performed on tracks with Jay-Z, Drake, David Byrne and others, became one of the first to publicly state that she was “simply unable to make it work”. in this environment. She explained the reason for this in an impassioned Instagram post announcing the cancellation of her fall tour in support of her new self-released album, “Spirituals.”
“As a touring musician, I don’t think anyone anticipated the new reality that was waiting for us,” she wrote. After sitting idle for the past two years, [musicians] He rushed outside immediately when it was deemed safe to do shows. We’ve been met with high inflation, many of our tried-and-true venues are unavailable due to a flooded market for artists trying to book shows in the same cities, and positive [Covid] Test results consistently interrupt schedules, with devastating financial consequences. All of that, on top of the mental, spiritual, physical and emotional resources that have just been tapped into just to make it through the past few years. Some of us find ourselves simply unable to make it work.”
The publication struck a chord with fellow musicians. Swedish singer Lykke Li replied, “I feel you and I feel exactly the same.” British singer Lily Allen responded, “Hell, he’s so brutal,” adding, “You’re right, we don’t talk about him enough.”
Earlier this week, the veteran rock group The collective animal basically said the same thing When they cancel their European tour scheduled for next month.
“In preparation for this tour, we have been looking for an economic reality that simply does not work and is unsustainable,” they wrote in an emotional apology to fans. “From inflation, to currency devaluation, to inflated freight and transportation costs, and so much more, we simply couldn’t budget for this tour that didn’t lose money even if all went well.”
Santigold (real name: Santi White) explains to diverse This tour has “never been great” for her. “At my level, even before COVID, it was only profitable when you could connect your tours with festivals and some private parties,” she says, because those pay better than regular concerts. “And even if you get round support from a business or another company – which I never get – you owe more, because that’s a loan.”
While the tour was easier when she was young and had relatively little expenses, as a 46-year-old mother of three, the situation was quite different. “In 2018, I was on stage four months after having twins. Why? Since there really is no other choice: If you don’t, you’ll be out of the public eye for too long and you’ll lose your relevance. And here’s where mental health is [reasons] Come. Not just money. It’s the uncompromising expectations of the industry, where you have to constantly release music and content, create TikToks and share on social media and always have access to them – instead of making art! I did not participate in it.
“If art becomes a side note, that’s probably not what I need to do.”
But some artists are finding ways to make it work. When the long-running alt-rock band…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead found themselves in a similar predicament in September, they reluctantly called on GoFundMe to help fund their fall European tour in support of their new album, “Bleed Here.” The campaign has exceeded its target target of US$12,000 and the tour is going well, many of the 500-1,000-person venues packed up and doing solid merchandise business.
“We were worried it would make us look desperate,” says Jason Reese, one of the band’s founders. diverse Over the phone from Germany, “But I think this really made people realize how hard it is to get around: it’s not [the rock stereotype of] Piles of cocaine and whores,” he laughs, “it’s a little more working class. Although he recommends GoFundMe as a way to help some touring artists make ends meet, he’s the first to admit, “This is not an ordinary business model – I don’t think we can count on it” going forward.
The situation could be different for the upcoming business. Island recording artist Remy Wolfe, 26, has been touring for most of this year and has faced similar logistical challenges — there was a shortage of suitable buses to tour, and Wolfe says some rental companies are “straightforward lying” about their supplies. In Europe, that led her and her group to travel to many of the shows they booked for the festival, but for her US tour, she says she and her crew ended up with a “bus made in 1999 instead of a 2009 model” they were told they were going to pick up, with a chauffeur who brought his wife and his friend, without warning – resulting in extremely cramped conditions for her 13-member band and crew in a bus with 12 sleeping compartments. However, they found ways to make it work—laughs: “The drummer loves to sleep in the public area in the back”—and her rounds this year have been a success.
Wolf says her tour group has been lucky enough to avoid the frighteningly positive Covid tests, though she adds, “I think a lot of artists get positive tests and don’t tell anyone and play shows anyway, because thousands of dollars if they cancel. I think a lot of People do it more than we hear about it at night.”
She also says she has fewer issues with the mental health aspect of the tour, which has led performers from Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes to 22-year-old British Mercury Prize winner Arlo Parks to postpone or cancel tours.
“I’m lucky because I love my band, and my crew are mostly my friends – my brother is on tour with us too,” she says. She adds that getting involved on social media is easier for her, too. “I was about 15 when Instagram started, so it came naturally to me,” though she admits TikTok is more of a challenge. “We came up with a way to film my shows and get TikToks out of that,” she says. “I think my boss takes it, sometimes without my knowledge,” she laughs.
However, many young artists have a harder time getting up and running. Santigold says, “Some of my friends work with a lot of really young artists, and they fall into debt instantly. They’ve heard you can only make money on the road as a musician, so they hit the road — and they’re back in debt.”
Up-and-coming artists are the lifeblood of the music world, and although they have adapted to the flow economy model – where they won’t make much money from recordings, but these recordings bring people to their shows – if they can’t make that money from tours, how can they sustain a career ?
“Everyone asks exactly that question,” Santigold says. “People are really struggling: they tell me, ‘I condemn myself for trying to put on performances. She has a book deal in the works and a podcast as well as other projects, but she admits, ‘I don’t have the answer, and I don’t think there is a quick fix. I mean, I canceled my tour, but not because I know what I’m going to do next.”
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