DALLAS WAS RIGHT: SUMMER TOURS ARE BEING CANCELED WILLY NILLY
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 11:26am by Vince Neilstein
Dallas Coyle a prophet? Maybe not — but his prediction that myriad summer tours would be canceled this year because of the prohibitively high price of gasoline has proven true. Day after day I see tour cancellation announcements dropping into the MetalSucks Mansion inbox and RSS reader, most recently the “Summer of Scum” tour with Shai Hulud and Full Blown Chaos. Inevitably these press releases include vague language such as “uncontrollable circumstances” or issues “out of our hands,” which is not-so-secret code speak for financial issues, aka gas money. If respectable, successful bands like Shai Hulud and Full Blown Chaos are being forced to cancel tours, it begs the question: what lies ahead for the touring industry in these tough economic times?
With gas at more than $4/gallon and a van averaging 15 miles per gallon (this is probably a generous figure), you’re looking at $80+ in gas to travel 300 miles (i.e. New York to Boston, Detroit to Chicago, Chicago to St. Louis), and that’s often a short travel day — bands are sometimes forced to travel 500 miles or more in a single day. Factor in meals for five band members and two crew ($5 each member [another generous figure] times 7 dudes times 3 meals per day = $105/day) and your average local, regional, or even lower level national act earning a $100-$250 a night is still losing money. And this assumes they’re lucky enough to have friends in each city willing to let them crash on their floor. And for the love of God, doesn’t even include a slush fund for that bastion of touring; BOOZE!
With the recorded music industry in decline and bands seeings less and less money from record sales (if any), constant touring has been heralded as part of the new model for being a successful musician. But with numbers like that it’s just impossible to make money as a touring band at any level below upper-middle class. And with record labels making less money, they won’t be throwing tour support at bands any time soon. So just where the fuck IS the musician supposed to make any money today?? Merch? Sure, but to sell merch en masse you gotta get out on the road.
In his article, Dallas made a number of suggestions for bands who can’t afford to go on the road that can help a band build popularity from the comfort of their computer chair. These are all fine suggestions, but the hole in that logic is that at some point, if the band is going to be anything more than a living room sensation, they are going to have to tour. And you can’t start off on a bus playing arenas no matter how many MySpace friends you have, especially in our beloved genre of metal which has a ceiling for popularity. Part of becoming a good live band is doing it night after night after night, and that is increasingly becoming an impossibility.
And so, finally, the elephant in the room: is there a future in supporting oneself as a musician, or is music going to be relegated to being strictly a hobby?
-VN
bands will tour less and have more regional dates. They’ll have to hold down jobs in between.
this shit turned into a hobby a long time back.
bands will become a hobby for rich people. People like the Lohans and Brooke Hogan will control the music industry. The only way to make it is to have Celebrity status. It’s the age old cliche that in reality, the music itself means nothing. Today more than ever, it’s all about the business, the celebreality, who you know, and how much money your dad will give you to be in a band ala the strokes.
There is no reason for music anymore. Video games and tv are the future. They can put Iron Man in every video game and movie from here on out, and kids will be happy.
80 bucks to chicago and back? That’s not the problem. The problem is that no one will show up to the show cause no one gives a fuck about you unless you’re on TV. You’re not going to sell merch cause no one buys merch anymore.
It’s all about money, but not necessarily the gas money. It’s all about the fact that these bands can not make the clubs money who in turn will not pay them money, making the gasoline non-affordable.
Yet… somehow 2 versions of LA guns are perpetually on tour as well as Faster Pussycat and Bang Tango….. someone explain that to me, cause I know these guys only have like 38 fans left and they’re all on the metal sludge gossip board.
I saw this coming as well when Dallas talked about it the first time. A lot of bands talking about financial struggle and being drained financially. Unless you have strong label support and are the labels top cherry then you’re pretty much doomed. Bands that are on indie labels but aren’t quite big yet dricing in small vans with a uhaul trailor if they’re lucky, beggin people at shows for a place to crash. Probably come a time when bands can only tour localy and hat’s going to be a sad day for a lot of bands and fans. gas prices have actualy dropper a bit here. yesterday was the first time in a long time where I could fill my little 13 gallon tank for less than 50 bucks (3.69 a gallon) and that’s pretty cheap for most.
Actually I think it may be great for music, if not great for musicians. It’s like the whole “Money for nuthin’, chicks for free” philosophy. Barely capable “musicians” have tried for decades to cash in on the whole easy “Rock N Roll success” bandwagon and the music suffered as a result. Now they’ll be forced to really put forth an effort out of the love for music rather than money. Sure, there will be less touring and fewer huge rock acts. Musicians are going to have to hold down actual jobs instead of being lazy. I think that sort of hard work ethic makes for better art, better music, better living. Shit, there are waaaaaaaaaay too many rock bands out there now. Maybe this will serve to thin out all the crap so we can more easily find what’s actually good.
Raise ticket prices to cover the difference. It’s pretty simple cost/benefit analysis here. If people don’t show up to the shows with the higher prices, then you have the answer to the question: “should we be touring nationally?” and should get back to playing regional shows.
Of course with the dollar strengthening (a bit) and oil dropping almost $20 a barrel in two weeks (and the president of OPEC saying that $70/barrell is where it should end up) the gas prices out of sync with inflation thing will probably be less of a problem in a couple of months. (barring severe meltdown in the Middle East or Nigeria)
P.S. Shai Hulud hasn’t been a relevant band for well over 7 years. Once they jumped to Revelation they went downhill. That was in 2000.
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well I think that’s pretty much why Himsa split up.
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