The Dead End of Rock Touring

JUST go on the road! Musicians who’ve seen their earnings from recorded music collapse should just tour more often, digital utopians tell them. But a new report shows that even with ticket prices getting higher, a 60 percent growth in touring revenues since 2000, and a supposed recovery from the depths of the recession, the musicians are making less money touring than they used to. Here’s the Music Industry Blog:

The live music value chain is an incredibly complex one with multiple stakeholders taking their share (ticketing, secondary ticketing, venues, booking agents, promoters, tax, expenses etc.).  The share of live revenue that artists make from live has declined every year since 2000.  The impact on the total market is that  total artist income (i.e. from all revenue sources) has declined every year too since 2009.

This comes from a report about music’s growing superstar economy: Both the Internet and the music industry serve as the cutting edges of inequality. I’ll keep tracking this as best I can.