For Dwell Music Week, Consequence staffer and unbiased musician Jonah Krueger takes a private have a look at the state of touring as a small band. For greater excursions, take a look at our roundups of the 100 Finest Excursions of All Time and the ten Most Distinctive Excursions to Catch in Fall 2025.
Right here’s a basic musician joke: You know the way to make one million {dollars} as a musician? Begin with two million {dollars}. Fairly humorous, although I’m undecided if the expertise of a touring musician makes it all of the extra hilarious or so truthful it elicits a thousand-yard-stare.
In 2025, it’s no secret that the state of stay music is in one thing of a bizarre (yeah, let’s go together with bizarre) spot. Ticket costs for enviornment exhibits are astronomical, Ticketmaster’s practices are the topic of such intense criticism that it’s change into a real political difficulty, and bands of all sizes are canceling excursions left and proper, citing rising prices and being unable to fill the rooms they initially booked.
The problems are systemic and large in scope, and so they have an effect on nearly everybody who interacts with the music trade. A lot ink has been spilled trying to diagnose what precisely is occurring, in addition to potential therapy choices, however how do these financial tendencies truly manifest within the lives of artists? As damaged because the system is, at the moment’s musicians don’t have any selection however to function inside it in the event that they need to tour, having little particular person energy to meaningfully change the buildings round them. So, in brief, what the hell is it like on the market? And, maybe most significantly, if touring is certainly so rattling exhausting, why is anybody exterior of the Taylor Swifts of the world even making an attempt?
In 2022, Consequence launched “Steadiness Sheet,” a column that regarded to reply precisely these questions by having touring artists share the financial breakdown of a current run. In 2025, stupidly undeterred by the tough realities that column highlighted, my band Six Flags Man launched into our first substantial tour, performing in eight cities throughout two weeks. Right here’s what I’ve realized, each from speaking to artists about their experiences on the highway and from making an attempt my damndest to make it work myself.
The Dwell Music Business Has Modified/Is Altering/Will Proceed to Change, In all probability for the Worse
Within the pre-streaming days, standard enterprise practices resulted in artists making most of their cash through file gross sales. There have been exceptions the place the stay expertise was the primary draw — the jam band scene involves thoughts — and gigs will surely usher in revenue, however excursions had been typically considered as extra of a promotional effort than an actual cash maker. The web modified that.