Tour Question

[Rocky4]

I watched 1991, The Year Punk Broke again the other day and wondered "who pays for all of this?" Look at a band like Dinosaur Jr. Relatively unknown, but they were touring Europe. Does the record company pay for the band to tour? I'm not sure they were on a major label back then. Nirvana was just breaking, and a host of other indie bands. I was just wondering who pays for the travel, road crew, hotels, food etc.

[Tman5293]

The record label pays for all tours. They make all their money back from tour concerts and album sales. The record label usually gets most of the money and the band gets like 25%.

[Nick Beach]

The record label pays for all tours. They make all their money back from tour concerts and album sales.

 

What record label are you on and where can I sign up?

 

I play music as my job, and I've played for a TON of different bands, been on 30 different tours, and maybe once did the label pay for a tour. Tour's get booked via booking agents, who normally take 10-15% of the profit for each show they booked. Bands pay for most everything themselves. Bands rent vans/busses, bands pay for gas, bands decide how many times they can afford to get a hotel room, everyone pays for their own food, unless a meal or two is on your rider, the band will decide if they can afford to take crew out, and if so how many people. Of course this applies to bands on indie labels. Major labels are a whole different monster. But trust me out of the hundreds of shows I've played, I've never once had a percentage taken out for the label.

 

But for touring to other countries, when I would go on the road to Europe or Japan, the label did pay for the plane ride most of the time, but that was it.

[Tman5293]

What record label are you on and where can I sign up?

 

I play music as my job, and I've played for a TON of different bands, been on 30 different tours, and maybe once did the label pay for a tour. Tour's get booked via booking agents, who normally take 10-15% of the profit for each show they booked. Bands pay for most everything themselves. Bands rent vans/busses, bands pay for gas, bands decide how many times they can afford to get a hotel room, everyone pays for their own food, unless a meal or two is on your rider, the band will decide if they can afford to take crew out, and if so how many people. Of course this applies to bands on indie labels. Major labels are a whole different monster. But trust me out of the hundreds of shows I've played, I've never once had a percentage taken out for the label.

 

But for touring to other countries, when I would go on the road to Europe or Japan, the label did pay for the plane ride most of the time, but that was it.

 

I was referring to major record labels who pay for everything.

[Daryl M]

My experience has been than the labels, even the majors, kick in support for the tour but don't actually pay for it. If the label is doing it's job with promotion, marketing, etc., then the artist can command a higher booking fee and the tour should be able to support itself. Booking agents, management, publicists, and others take their piece of the pie, but it still makes sense (and dollars) for everyone involved.

[retrosurfer1959]

One way or another the Artist pays for everything. Everything else is deducted in some way some up front and obvious and some is harder to see but the artists are the only one selling anything everything else is drawn against that and everyone else gets paid from the artists earnings.

[FirstMeasure]

I've never been on a tour nor have I been exposed to that sort part of the business, but it would seem to me that Contract Negotiations would have a lot to do with it. A lot of artist end up flat broke after a tour because they didn't read the fine print, or the bold print for that matter. Or they didn't realize the promoter or manager was giving them a bad deal, expecting the artist to reject the bad offer. They call it "Negotiations" for a reason.

 

So my uneducated guess would be that it depends on the parties involved and the contracts that got signed.

[vincentw]

A friend of mine is a SESAC artist, and oddly enough they kicked in some tour support money for one of their tours.... But it gets paid back too, most likely from their royalty earnings. It isn't as complicated as it might seem. The artist has a team of folks, hopefully good ones, who make the tour happen. The money comes from guarantees, %of door, and merch. Everyone who helps make it all happen gets paid, and like others have said before me, the band decides what they can afford based on what's left. If you wanna support a band, go to their shows and buy merch.... This is the absolute best way to support your favorite bands.