Being a musician professionally sounds like a pretty sweet concept for many individuals. Concerts, the open road and some think, a ton of money. However, it isn't much of a living, even for groups that get a lot of interest, as the price of touring is through the roof.
Paying too much for a tour
Some people may imagine the life of a touring musician involves plush tour buses, groupies, endless partying and lots of cash. Maybe for some, but most groups or artists trying to make a living don't make much of one.
It is quite fascinating whenever 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.
Supposing they tour regularly, they will make $18,000 a year.
CD sales may bring them a little bit more cash considering they get $1 off every CD sale.
Gets better for some people
Oh, Sleeper is a band that is known as "mid-level" since it has been around for a few years and has a following. Band member Shane Blay posted typical expenses associated with touring. He said that groups make money depending on the amount of merchandise sold and the number of supporters who arrive. The groups 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.
Of the $300, the band had to pay to print the shirts, which costs $7.50 per shirt that they sell at $15. The band's manager gets a 15 percent cut while the location charges about 25 percent. That means of the $300 in merchandise sales, the band really gets $63.75. Of the $300 for playing at the venue, the band gets $225 before travel expenses as the band manager gets 15 percent and the booking agent gets 10 percent. After all the travel expense, it is really only $78.75 total per night since it costs about $10 a day for food and $150 for fuel between gigs.
Then there are additional emergency costs not calculated out. Without the emergency situations, each band member will get $13.12 a night to play, which is not a lot of cash.
Only pays for the large wigs
The Daily Mail explained that the very best way to make cash while touring is to be large enough that enough tickets will sell to make the extra cash. Roger Waters toured in 2010 which made about $90 million. The costs were only $60 million, which means he made a lot of additional cash.
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 bands which were an inch from having to get rid of tours and possibly quit their profession due to high fuel costs.
When you download music for free, the band ends up losing cash there too.
Paying too much for a tour
Some people may imagine the life of a touring musician involves plush tour buses, groupies, endless partying and lots of cash. Maybe for some, but most groups or artists trying to make a living don't make much of one.
It is quite fascinating whenever 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.
Supposing they tour regularly, they will make $18,000 a year.
CD sales may bring them a little bit more cash considering they get $1 off every CD sale.
Gets better for some people
Oh, Sleeper is a band that is known as "mid-level" since it has been around for a few years and has a following. Band member Shane Blay posted typical expenses associated with touring. He said that groups make money depending on the amount of merchandise sold and the number of supporters who arrive. The groups 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.
Of the $300, the band had to pay to print the shirts, which costs $7.50 per shirt that they sell at $15. The band's manager gets a 15 percent cut while the location charges about 25 percent. That means of the $300 in merchandise sales, the band really gets $63.75. Of the $300 for playing at the venue, the band gets $225 before travel expenses as the band manager gets 15 percent and the booking agent gets 10 percent. After all the travel expense, it is really only $78.75 total per night since it costs about $10 a day for food and $150 for fuel between gigs.
Then there are additional emergency costs not calculated out. Without the emergency situations, each band member will get $13.12 a night to play, which is not a lot of cash.
Only pays for the large wigs
The Daily Mail explained that the very best way to make cash while touring is to be large enough that enough tickets will sell to make the extra cash. Roger Waters toured in 2010 which made about $90 million. The costs were only $60 million, which means he made a lot of additional cash.
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 bands which were an inch from having to get rid of tours and possibly quit their profession due to high fuel costs.
When you download music for free, the band ends up losing cash there too.
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