How much does a musician make on tour?

[brandon]

How much a musician make on tour? Does it enough for living expenses? Can they survive with it?

[maplestreet]

Oh, touring! That brings back some memories. My friend, the guitarist, and his band hit the road a few years back. How much a musician makes on tour can vary so much. ​

For my friend's band, some nights were great, especially when they played in bigger cities with a solid fanbase. Merch sales could really add up on those nights. But then, there were the smaller gigs, in towns where maybe ten people showed up, and barely anyone bought merch. Those nights, it felt more about the experience than the money.

Expenses eat up a lot of what you make, too. Travel costs, like gas or a van rental, not to mention hotels or finding places to crash. And then there's food, equipment maintenance, and sometimes paying for your own sound guy. It adds up quick.

For bands just starting to get their name out there, breaking even is often the goal. My friend said they were lucky if each band member ended up with a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars after a multi-week tour, and that was after splitting the earnings. But it wasn't really about the money for them; it was about the experience, the fans, and the joy of playing live.

For the big names, I guess they can make millions.

So, it depends on your band. For many musicians, especially in smaller or mid-level bands, it's more about the passion for music and the thrill of performing live than getting rich.

[rachel776]

i was going to write a My Take about something similar to this, but i've just not had the time yet

i am a featured musician (a level below key musician, such as lead guitar or drummer) and i've been on 4 RIAA albums and two Tier I tours, and i get my base AFM pay, plus premium pay from the record company, plus royalties for the songs i recorded (I recorded on 9 songs out of about 35 we do), or wrote (if i had written any, which i haven't, and don't have any desire (or talent for), plus base tour pay, plus per diem which is around $350 for Tier I right now, and they are required provide first class travel and food and expenses, so it turns out to be quite a lot, way more than i ever earned in symphony orchestras, which would run around $300-$400 for each 2½ hour session

they also have extraordinary pay which we only used 2 times since i've been there, one was when we played for the Queen, there were 3 extra days added just to go through their security process and you have to wait like 4 hours for the Queen to show up just to play for 20 minutes (and she left before we played because it was going to be too loud) and we got extraordinary pay for that, and another time all of our live sound shut down during a show and it turned out it was due to a military base near the stadium that was doing something and it shut down our wifi for about 45 minutes. the guys in the band who have been there a long time and played in other bands have some other extraordinary pay stories

last year at Taylor Swift we were comparing notes because her band and crew is about twice as large as ours, and they all get around the same amounts as we do for the same types of positions

if you were a non-label musician but getting union rates which is considered Tier IV I think, it would be around $200 per day and they have to provide reasonable accommodations, such as a bus, a Motel 6-type hotel, and you buy your own meals out of your per diem. there are so many little rules a small touring band can violate that add-ons can go much higher than the $200, which those players like, and sometimes that happens even in the biggest professional orchestras. my mother always says she bought our house with just her penalty pay

if it's non-union it can be anywhere from literally zero to whatever they can afford

[4ngelic]

depends how famous they are. i know people like taylor swift make like 100 million for one tour. no idea how much underground artists make but i know it's not much. so if you want to be an artist you probably should have another job on the side

[MrOracle]

If you are an opening band, you will net anywhere from 0 to a few thousand a night, depending on how popular you are and how big the shows you are playing are. That money is split between the band and the management. The rest of the crew gets paid out first, as part of gross expenses.

If you are a major band headlining 3-5000 person "sheds", your band might make $20-30,000 a show. If you are playing 15000 person arenas, you might make $150-200k per night. If you are selling out 60,000 seat arenas like U2, you might make a million or more per night.

If you are a solo artist, like, say, Taylor Swift, and you aren't splitting that money with anyone, and you are selling tons of merchant, then you could conceivably make a couple million a night. Your backing band and dancers would be paid a flat rate - no where near an even split like a band. Of course, if you can't fill the place, they still get paid, even if you lose money on the gig. At that level, you are usually promoting your own shows.

The thing is, for every Taylor Swift, there are a couple of million "professional musicians" who live in their cars, perform in coffee shops and on street corners, and don't earn enough annually to pay taxes. Even for "famous" bands that once had a couple of big radio hits, they usually need to tour 200 nights a year in order to, say, own a home. The big income streams are touring and songwriting royalties, along with the most publishing rights, but the record labels nearly always own the publishing rights.

[Oliverlogan263]

It really depends on the musician and how big their band is. Some tips on making money while touring:

- Bigger, more famous bands can make a ton just from ticket and merchandise sales. We're talking like millions if they fill up stadiums.

- But for regular bands just starting out, it's usually not that much from the shows alone. You mainly make money to cover your costs while traveling around.

- A lot of smaller bands rely on selling CDs, vinyl, t-shirts and other merch at their merch table after gigs. That's where they can actually start making some profit.

- You also make money from streaming royalties if people listen to your music online. But you really need thousands or millions of plays to see much from that.

- Sometimes bands will get money from sponsors if they're popular enough. Like a gear company paying them to use their equipment.

- You can also save money by packing as many shows into a tour schedule as possible. Drive overnight between cities to minimize hotel costs.

- A lot of musicians also have side jobs or work when they're at home between tours to pay regular living expenses.

So in summary - if you're just starting out, touring is mostly about promoting your music and breaking even financially. It takes time to build an audience big enough to live off touring money. You kinda gotta love it as much as the money to make it as a musician!

[Telekinetic-Potato]

It depends on how much they get paid per show and how many shows they do.

And the deals you work out with each venue will be different. Some places might tell you to keep a percentage of door sales and they'll make money off the bar, if you're opening, you might be in more of a situation where you're negotiating a flat rate. Some places penalize you for having your own sound engineer, some places love it.

The general rule of thumb, the betteryour social media following is the more you make.

The catch with that is more followers doesn't necessarily mean better.

You need to have a good engagement score, you need people leaving comments, sharing/reposting your posts and generally interacting with your page. Without that, nobody is going to care if you even have 500 million subscribers.

Also, keep track of where you're building a following, keep watering the plants that are growing. If you do multiple jobsin NY and in Nashville and in Florida but your following in Florida isn't doing anything, build yourself up around the areas where people fuck with you till your following is good enough to pay for your trips.

You guys are going to start off eating shit when it comes to being paid. Be glad if you can even pay for travel and save as much money as possible for reinvesting.

Good luck.

[FunkyMonkee]

I've never been on tour except for the time we played in Erie one night and immediately after, drove to Cleveland for an afternoon gig the next day for the debute of our E. P.. I doubt I made more than $20.00, if I was lucky! In my entire 25 year tenure with the band, I doubt I actually made more than $1000. Some gigs, I'd get $5.00, some gigs I'd get $20.00, most gigs, I got nothing! One night, we got paid with a 6-pack of beer!! And I don''t drink!! So, I took 2 of them home to dad! Our biggest paying gig was one that I got 2 months after joining the band full time. We played 3 New Years gigs in one place and each of us got $50.00 per night!

[MemeSupreme]

if they got songs and merch to sell

most bands work at a job to save money for tours sharing the same van lol

[Nikki1989]

Unless you are in a huge band, most bands only make money off merch. Any money made from the gig goes on travel expenses.

[Astarlessnightsky]

Mostly nothing. Its only the Top 1% who make some money.

[exitseven]

I imaging it depends on how many tickets they can sell. Only a very small number of musicians can really make a living at it.

[DJB72]

It depends on the musician. Some make millions and some are basically homeless buskers.

[LiamJHayden]

Very little unless you are a big name, and even then maybe not much depending upon how extravagant the stage show is.

[laly520]

depends on popularity

[Sameone]

Minium in one tour 10k if he was DJ

[Iron_Man]

$50 an hour per man

[Twalli]

Depends on how successful they are

[Aiko_E_Lara]

Depends on how in denand you are.

[annabananna]

This can vary a lot