Why are so many bands cancelling tours?

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Jordan Heath-Rawlings I haven’t been to a concert since the Pandemic began. Now listen, I’m in my forties and I’m a dad. It’s not like I was hitting them up up more than a couple times a year, even without a virus. But now that live music has returned, I miss it. Just not enough yet to drag myself out to see it. Why is that? First of all, it’s expensive and money is tight for almost everyone these days. Second, it’s crowded in there, or at least it should be. And I’m still pretty leery of big indoor crowds. And finally, even if I do bring myself to buy a ticket and get excited, that doesn’t mean I’m actually going to see the show. A quick scan of any music publication reveals that bands are canceling tours left and right. In some cases, that’s because an ill timed bout of COVID can totally derail plans that have artists moving between cities every day. But in other cases, they cancel their tours because they can’t afford not to. When live music returned after the early waves of the Pandemic, artists were overjoyed to be playing in front of fans again, at least at first. But touring right now can be a logistical nightmare. And unless you’re a superstar selling out stadiums, it can also be a money losing proposition, especially here in Canada, and especially for acts that rely on live shows to find new fans. So what does it look like to be on the road right now? And what happens to Canadian music if the mid tier artists or the next big things can’t afford to play? I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. This is The Big Story. Kyle Mullin is a freelance journalist who covers many issues for many publications, but he wrote about this one for Exclaim. Hi, Kyle.

Kyle Mullin Hi there. It’s a pleasure to be with you today.

Jordan Well, thank you for joining us. And I’m fascinated by the actual economics behind bands traveling this country. So maybe before we get into, you know, everything that’s changed over the past two years, everything that might change again as bands try to ramp up post COVID, can you just explain the basic economics of touring to us? How does a band on the road make money and what are their expenses?

Kyle Mullin It seems like it varies from the size of the act, but merch is a big factor in terms of especially making profits, because expenses can be quite high. And then it also varies between solo acts or bands who divide the revenue that comes in more evenly. Aside from merch, there’s things like guarantees where a venue or a festival will pay a set amount that the act can rely on as an incentive. And as reassurance, often that can be low. But at least they’ll know that they can get that when they’re coming. And that’s especially important in a big country like Canada, which came up a lot in my story where there’s big distances between destinations in terms of where bands play and that that can lead to revenue as well. So there’s a few things like that, but it can be a challenge under normal circumstances. And then with record high inflation and with shows being canceled because of COVID, that all fell apart for a number of acts, especially smaller ones. And we’re going to get into all of that, particularly the challenges and the geography. But first, leaving the U Twos and Taylor Swift’s out of it for the average band, particularly Canadian ones. How much of the process of putting on a tour is handled by a record label? Or is this typically something that’s their own venture that they put up the money for that they have to organize? Like, I’m trying to get a sense of where that responsibility lies. Yeah, that’s something that I didn’t get into too deeply in my article, but from what I see, that can vary from acts as well. But a lot of the bands that I spoke to were solo artists that I spoke to on smaller labels or they’re independent and a lot of it they coordinate with a promoter and things like that and it can be a pretty big financial gamble because they’re not on a major that can give them a financial cushion.

Jordan So here’s where we get to post COVID I know obviously this pandemic is not over COVID it’s still impacting musicians and shows and people across the country right now. But since venues have reopened and concerts have become possible again, can you kind of give us a rundown of how touring is going for Canadian acts? I’ve heard of tours being canceled, you alluded to this as well. Who has pulled their tours and why do they say they’re doing it?

Kyle Mullin Well, the acts that I spoke to, they pulled their tours earlier on in the Pandemic or maybe earlier this year when things were worse. And just taking a glance at the headlines today, I didn’t see that many Canadian acts that are currently pulling shows, but there are a number in the States big acts or acts with big followings like Animal Collective saying that it’s not feasible to tour in Europe, Craig Finn of the Hold Steady and other outfits like that. But in terms of Canadian acts, it’s interesting. I spoke to the head of a major organization who was telling me that she went to a Sum 41 concert this summer and it felt like things were getting back to normal again and she was quite excited. That was the CEO of the Canadian Lab Music Association. So she was optimistic, but said that it would take time for the recovery to take place. And I think that a number of acts in Canada are excited to get back on the road and to either gradually get back out there or do what they can to play and make as much money as possible while things are improving. But it’s interesting that one hip hop artist to note Cadence Weapon took to social media recently and said that things are so disrupted and in such a state of flux that he’s concerned that maybe small to mid size shows will be in jeopardy maybe for the foreseeable future. And he implored fans to go see Ax now while they can because it might not be a sure thing. When you mentioned some of the Canadian acts you talked to earlier this year who pulled their tours and just give us some examples of what they said about why they did it. Well, we had Royal Canoe and they’re in the rock act from Winnipeg and they told me about just repeatedly getting COVID different members. One member would fall ill and then another would do the same after one single recover. And they told me that it was almost kind of bleakly laughable how the fits and starts of the situation really derailed their entire album cycle. And it was very frustrating for them. Throughout the year, I had other acts that I spoke to who told me that it was quite challenging to play conventional venues and that they had to find workarounds. A folk artist called Michael Bernard Fitzgerald who told me about playing farms and different rural settings like that because he was struggling to cobble together something that was more conventional. And then I think that those were some of the big ones there. And then I approached some other artists, such as Stars, who tweeted about losing up to $20,000 on a recent tour and citing things like car rental, gas prices, hotels and things like that. But then they didn’t want to comment on the record for my story after making that statement on social media. But they’re considered top tier indie rock act in Canada and if they’re struggling, it’s harder for the up and comers or the smaller acts as well. You mentioned this briefly earlier, but maybe you can explain it a bit more. Canada has always been a big country to tour. But how have the past couple of years impacted the costs of putting together a tour that covers maybe not the whole country, but that covers a fair slice of it? One thing that we might not occur to us as fans or that we might not appreciate is things like transportation costs, gas, car rentals and things like that. And with the current energy crisis that’s going on and with inflation that can make a tour of the West Coast or the East Coast or just various cities throughout our very big country quite less feasible than before. There’s also been challenges with Air Canada that have been pretty notorious lately, from canceled flights to baggage issues. And that’s been another big hurdle. So just trying to get from place to place can be both logistically challenging and then just extremely costly to the point where some acts have to cancel shows or just throw up their hands and say that it’s not feasible at the moment.

Jordan When you talk to these artists, especially the ones who have had to cancel shows or pull tours, how do they describe making that decision? They probably couldn’t play live for at least a year and a half and they finally have a chance to get back in front of fans and they end up having to pull up because of economics or illness. What’s that do to a band or an act?

Kyle Mullin Yeah, for Royal Canoe, they were telling me that it was really hard, not only financially, but also on their mental health, on their creativity, and that it was a real downer for them and that it seemed quite bleak. And the reason that a lot of these bands get into this racket in the first place is not to record music. They’re not looking to become arena rockers or anything like that. They want to play shows where they can be intimate with fans, where they can connect with fans, kind of really gritty diving spots or things like that, or midsize to small venues where their nose to nose with the people that love them. And to not be able to experience that is the key is to miss out on the key benefit of what they love. And it’s an added strain on top of the stress of not being able to make the money that they hope to make that also just missing out on that connection can take a huge toll on their mental health.

Jordan What options do they have to make playing live more viable? I imagine it’s a pretty fine line to walk in terms of raising prices or changing venues or just charging more and more for merch. Like, what are the upsides and downsides of just boosting the cost and passing them on to fans?

Kyle Mullin Yes. Some of them that I spoke to. They worried about the ethics of that and then some of them just worried about turning fans off and not being able to draw the crowds that they’d hoped. Or to just not be able on a more. I think. More important and deeper level. To not be able to connect with fans or have people come that they want to see them play because of the economics. So there are concerns about that. Some have concerns that their fan bases aren’t that deep pocketed and that trying to raise prices too much could backfire or just lead to smaller crowds. And some worry that the same would go for merch prices. So, a tipping point. There is something that’s quite stressful and that if prices were to go up too high that that could just make things arguably even worse or at least not be the silver bullet that people hope for.

Jordan Are there groups that have organized to advocate for live music or Canadian musicians in general? What do they say about this problem? Is anybody pushing a different solution out there?

Kyle Mullin Well, I mean, the federal government of Canada, they made a splash with the Unison Fund earlier this year where they pledged to hand out $2500 sums to various acts from a total amount of $16 million. Closer to 17, actually, with quite a bit of money when you think about the grand sum. But in terms of the pieces that can hand it out and how that works, some bands are wondering how much that will amount to for the acts that receive it or even who will get it. But that’s a big one that made a splash this year. But there’s been several ongoing organizations like Factor who deal in grants and things like that. It’s something that’s complex and unfolding still. One of the reasons I was really interested in your piece and in this topic in general, is that a couple of years ago, before the pandemic, we covered why live music was increasingly becoming the most important way lower and middle tier acts made money. Because streaming pays so little and unless you’re driving billions of streams, it’s impossible to make a living doing that. So they were increasingly touring more and making their income that way. What happens if bands at that level no longer see live music as a way to make up for the money they’re not making through streaming? I think that that’s the thing that everyone’s really worried about, because the potential domino effect there would be quite devastating. Bands just not being able, or musicians of all kinds of genres not being able to continue at the level that they’re at or to continue professionally or even to have it be nothing more than a hobby, a number of venues shutting down and then just a shrinking of the amount of music that gets out there and that fans here and stream digitally and things like that. The repercussions could be really devastating. On the flip side, everyone I spoke to from my article, they’d been back on the road. And although they’d had some pretty challenging experiences, all those downs were offset by being able to connect with fans and to get out there and do what these musicians wanted to do in the first place, which was to play and to perform for like minded fan bases and to connect with them and to be inspired by that.

Jordan What happens over the next, I don’t know, four or five months here? We’re heading into the winter. COVID is not going away. It’s apparently on the rise again. And there are a few precautions here. And everyone’s broke and inflation is real and it’s not pleasant to drive across a country like Canada in the depths of November and December. How does live music in this country ever come back to what it once was? And what happens if it doesn’t?

Kyle Mullin Yeah, it’s really something that feels like up in the air more so than ever before. There have been recessions in the past, obviously not that long ago, but this seems to have hit so much harder, both because of the pandemic and because of the severity on the side of energy costs and things like that. So it makes things quite unpredictable. And you mentioned four months, which is quite insightful because I think that a short amount of time like that is going to see a lot of developments take place and we’ll see what comes next. But right now it’s pretty hard to predict.

Jordan Kyle, thank you for all this, really appreciate it. And I will say one final thing, at the risk of being editorial, is if you love music, go pay for it.

Kyle Mullin Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to be on.

Jordan Kyle Mullin writing in Exclaim! That was The Big Story. As you may have noticed, it’s an entertainment episode on a Friday. One of the responses we got from a ton of you folks in our listener survey is that you really like it when we try to do something fun or try to give you some good news at the end of the week. So we’re going to double down on that. I can’t promise you it’s always going to be good news. This is not exactly a good news episode, but it will hopefully be about more leisurely topics. Entertainment, yes, sometimes sports, technology, the internet and Yea, wherever we can find them. Happy things to end your week. You can find us on Twitter at thebigstory FPN. You can talk to us via email. Hello at thebigstorypodcast CA. You can call us, leave us a voicemail. We are planning to play some of those, so keep calling 416-935-5935 and of course, find us wherever you get your podcast. Give us a rating, give us a review. Thanks for listening. I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. Have a great weekend and we’ll talk on Monday.