Artists cancelling touring plans due to economic conditions

[jannybruck]

Just the past couple of weeks there have been three notable acts cancelling entire tours because they're deeming the current climate unviable to make any sort of profit from: Santigold, buzzy upcoming British singer Poppy Ajudha and now experimental indie legends Animal Collective (their statement below). Animal Collective even had a couple of winter EU festival bookings peppered throughout the tour which usually ensures a tour happens even if ticket sales are sluggish, but clearly they couldn't even make it work this time.

Will we be seeing more mid and small level acts just not even bother attempting to tour now costs are rising everywhere and people aren't going out as much? If acts can't even tour successfully now, will we see a lot just pack it in altogether?

Quote

Friends, we are absolutely gutted to announce today that we are making the decision to cancel our UK/EU dates for this November. We love playing music for you and truly wish we could be there. It has been a wild year for us trying to push through a mountain of touring obstacles related to COVID and the economy. Three of us got bad cases of Covid. We were forced to cancel shows and lost large amounts of the income that sustains us and our families. The one constant has been that we have had an incredible time playing music in front of our fans at every show. You are all amazing. We chose to push through because we love to do it. But preparing for this tour we were looking at an economic reality that simply does not work and is not sustainable. From inflation, to currency devaluation, to bloated shipping and transportation costs, and much much more, we simply could not make a budget for this tour that did not lose money even if everything went as well as it could. We have always been the kind of people to persevere through the difficult times and get on stage unless our health prevented it. We are choosing not to take the risk to our mental and physical health with the economic reality of what that tour would have been. We hope you understand and that you know we would not make a choice like this lightly. We truly want nothing more than to make it out there again. Thank you so much to our team, the promoters and venues who worked so hard on this tour for us. We look forward to getting back out to play for all of you and hope you will be there with us when we do.

 

[Frandango]

It's definitely getting rough out there, I've seen a few people on here say they're cutting back on how many gigs they attend given the cost of everything else.

This sounds like the currency crash has made playing the UK and EU worse for American artists specifically. I wonder if we'll see less US bands at festivals again next summer.

Edited October 10, 2022 by Frandango
Typo

[a6l6e6x]

Gigs cost so much now it’s not a surprise people are cutting back. I’m finding a lot of last minute resale tickets recently for shows that may have sold out some time ago but people clearly deciding they need the money more than the show

Although festivals are more expensive than ever before they seem to be more valuable than ever before, glasto for example if they get 3 big headliners it would likely cost ~£250 to see them all at their own shows and that’s before even looking at the rest of the line up

[gigpusher]

Yes it's a sad state of affairs. I can't help thinking the huge cost for some of the bigger artists has a knock on effect lower down the chain as well if it cost someone £200 to see Coldplay or Springsteen that means they've spent a huge chunk of their disposable income on one gig meaning less money for other gigs. Even more of a reason for dynamic pricing to be made illegal. 

I know I have less money to spend. I've put an upper limit of £40 for gigs this year. Will have to be someone pretty special for me to break it. Does mean the ones I do go to are hopefully the ones that need it most. It's definitely bleak times. 

[theciderviking]

Beans pulled a few of his shows in Europe recently too, for similar reasons, and I can only imagine it's going to get worse. 😞 Genuinely feel for them - it can be difficult making a living as a touring musician as it is, even if everything goes smoothly, without this cluster*ck.

I'm definitely making a conscious effort to see more smaller, lower cost bands than the bigger names I used to go to, because  I can get to half a dozen gigs for the price of one. 

[GeezLouise]

I heard that the visas were an issue too for UK acts wanting to tour Europe. Did that ever get sorted out?  I've noticed a lot of American acts that i have tickets to pulling their europe dates too - Poppy, Noah Cyrus and Aly and AJ all cancelled/postponed dates. 

[Hutchmaster]

Let's Eat Grandma also cancelled their EU tour citing costs/logistics too...

[p.pete]

11 hours ago, Frandango said:

This sounds like the currency crash has made playing the UK and EU worse for American artists specifically. I wonder if we'll see less US bands at festivals again next summer.

I think it's inflation (definitely effecting Europe too) rather than the currency crash.  Pound is pretty much back to where it was against the dollar, though it won't have helped general confidence for people organising tours and festivals (esp. alongside inflation in the knowledge your target audience is skint).

[p.pete]

1 hour ago, gigpusher said:

Yes it's a sad state of affairs. I can't help thinking the huge cost for some of the bigger artists has a knock on effect lower down the chain as well if it cost someone £200 to see Coldplay or Springsteen that means they've spent a huge chunk of their disposable income on one gig meaning less money for other gigs. Even more of a reason for dynamic pricing to be made illegal. 

I know I have less money to spend. I've put an upper limit of £40 for gigs this year. Will have to be someone pretty special for me to break it. Does mean the ones I do go to are hopefully the ones that need it most. It's definitely bleak times. 

Lots of people are talking about spending money less often but on bigger/better things e.g. one expensive meal out instead of maybe several pub meals.  Similarly they're going to spend money on Glastonbury / Green Man and Coldplay / Springsteen - so if those are being greedy (on top of venues and everyone else in the chain putting up their prices) and hoovering up all spare cash then the real trickle-down-economics means there's fuck all left for anyone else.  

Fair play for consciously trying to get to as much as you can.

[tarw]

22 minutes ago, p.pete said:

I think it's inflation (definitely effecting Europe too) rather than the currency crash.  Pound is pretty much back to where it was against the dollar, though it won't have helped general confidence for people organising tours and festivals (esp. alongside inflation in the knowledge your target audience is skint).

??? The pound is 8% lower against the dollar than it was 3 months ago. It’s also nearly 4% lower than the Euro than it was 3 months ago. 
 

For a band to tour Europe that adds 3.6% to your costs over there plus the inflation which will be higher for transport than the average. 
 

With the margins being tight anyway I can see bands not being able to afford touring 

[p.pete]

1 minute ago, tarw said:

??? The pound is 8% lower against the dollar than it was 3 months ago. It’s also nearly 4% lower than the Euro than it was 3 months ago. 
 

For a band to tour Europe that adds 3.6% to your costs over there plus the inflation which will be higher for transport than the average. 
 

With the margins being tight anyway I can see bands not being able to afford touring 

I was thinking of the 'crash' from a couple of weeks ago - fair enough that's it's lower in comparison to three months ago.  Inflation is at about 10% though, so still the bigger issue (in my non-economic mind, before I start to sound too over-confident! 😛)

Does that make it cheaper for american and european bands to come here (inflation aside)

[tarw]

5 minutes ago, p.pete said:

I was thinking of the 'crash' from a couple of weeks ago - fair enough that's it's lower in comparison to three months ago.  Inflation is at about 10% though, so still the bigger issue (in my non-economic mind, before I start to sound too over-confident! 😛)

Does that make it cheaper for american and european bands to come here (inflation aside)

I think it’s a bit more complex looking at inflation. It’s currently 5% in France and 15% in Holland so the increase in costs will vary from country to country. 
Add on to that the cost of delays at borders and the need for visas ang I can see why bands are cancelling European tours

[HamishA.]

so gutted about this, especially in the case of Animal Collective. If a band of their stature and success can't pull funds together to tour an album that did pretty well critically and with fans, what hope have smaller bands got???

[gizmoman]

Interesting that Watchet festival have announced they are having a fallow year for 2023, I suspect this is mainly due to the uncertain economics, it must be hard at the moment to get suppliers to agree fixed prices for an event next year, and once you sell your tickets your income can't really be increased, this is clearly why Glastonbury are delaying the ticket sale and announcement of the cost, if the cost of touring for bands is higher they too will want higher fees, putting on a festival at the moment is a huge gamble, it wouldn't surprise me greatly if Glastonbury announced even at this late stage that they were having a fallow year next year, not expecting that but I think it's still a remote possibility.

[gigpusher]

1 hour ago, p.pete said:

Lots of people are talking about spending money less often but on bigger/better things e.g. one expensive meal out instead of maybe several pub meals.  Similarly they're going to spend money on Glastonbury / Green Man and Coldplay / Springsteen - so if those are being greedy (on top of venues and everyone else in the chain putting up their prices) and hoovering up all spare cash then the real trickle-down-economics means there's fuck all left for anyone else.  

Fair play for consciously trying to get to as much as you can.

Yep the proof that trickle down economics is a load of shit. 
 

 

[fred quimby]

I wonder if it will help local bands starting out get more exposure.  maybe people will still want to go to gigs, but will choose a cheaper option. Not sure

[DeanoL]

Bret Mckenzie (off of Flight of the Conchords) cancelled all but the London date of his UK tour (which was 10 plus dates I think).

[jannybruck]

3 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Bret Mckenzie (off of Flight of the Conchords) cancelled all but the London date of his UK tour (which was 10 plus dates I think).

The London show also got downgraded to the Shepherds Bush Empire, about half the capacity.

It was a weird sell for a regional theatre tour anyway (is anyone here really that invested in an album/tour by him that's not even a comedy record?) so wasn't a huge surprise, but still not great another tour got canned.

[DeanoL]

Was definitely a weird one but if you're trying to launch a solo career that's sort of how you do it - start touring! Having a bit of profile means you can maybe start with larger venues. They certainly aimed a bit too large with those!

[moogster]

40 minutes ago, fred quimby said:

I wonder if it will help local bands starting out get more exposure.  maybe people will still want to go to gigs, but will choose a cheaper option. Not sure

I was just wondering if it was going that way, or as some others mentionned, people will keep their cash for bigger acts. Or a combination. For me it's small gigs and Glasto, but no 50+ gigs...

[incident]

1 minute ago, DeanoL said:

Was definitely a weird one but if you're trying to launch a solo career that's sort of how you do it - start touring! Having a bit of profile means you can maybe start with larger venues. They certainly aimed a bit too large with those!

Way too large.

The Nottingham show was scheduled for a 3,500 capacity concert hall with most tickets 45 quid a pop. I don't know how many they shifted before the tour was pulled, but I doubt it would've been even half full if it went ahead.

[Alvoram]

4 hours ago, p.pete said:

I think it's inflation (definitely effecting Europe too) rather than the currency crash.  Pound is pretty much back to where it was against the dollar, though it won't have helped general confidence for people organising tours and festivals (esp. alongside inflation in the knowledge your target audience is skint).

Not sure where you're getting that from, the pound is near it's all time lows against the dollar...

Back in Jan we booked (and thankfully paid for!) a trip to Florida to go to Disney World and Universal a few weeks ago. We got a really good price, as the £-$ was at 1.37. My friend booked at the same time, but rather than book a package and lock in prices then, he thought he'd save some money by booking everything separately and paying on arrival. 

This was a bad move. The £-$ slipped to 1.14... That meant for every £1000 we spent, we got $230 LESS dollars than we would have got in January!!! Very costly for me, as food and souvenirs were more... But far more costly for him as he had to pay his hotel bills at the desk!

That was when it was 1.14 a few weeks ago... Now it's at 1.11!!!

This is the £-$ for the last 5 years... It's EXTREMELY worrying... 

Edited October 11, 2022 by Alvoram

[DeanoL]

Yup - and you look at places like South Africa - it's a modern, developed country, the standard of living there is good. But the currency valuation means foreign holidays anywhere with a strong currency are totally off the table. You're never going to Disney World if you live in South Africa. It's just not on the table.

We are somehow weirdly confident that that couldn't happen here.

[Alvoram]

2 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Yup - and you look at places like South Africa - it's a modern, developed country, the standard of living there is good. But the currency valuation means foreign holidays anywhere with a strong currency are totally off the table. You're never going to Disney World if you live in South Africa. It's just not on the table.

We are somehow weirdly confident that that couldn't happen here.

We're already close 😕 

I couldn't have afforded it with the current exchange rate and economic climate, I've looked at the prices TUI currently want for the same holiday, same hotel, same time of year next year, and it's almost triple!!!! How many people can pay triple the price, at a time when they're worried about paying energy bills? 

As for SA, their average salary is still R23,982 ($1,480) per month, where ours in the UK is £3216 (currently $3,558.) So no, I can't see the average SA family popping on the Mickey ears in a hurry... But then, unless something changes, I can't see many Brits doing the same any time soon either. We certainly won't be, it has ALREADY got that bad in the space of 9 months!

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Obviously, disposable income is the first thing to go in such times and normally at this time of year I'd be planning the forthcoming summer, capitalising on early birds for various festivals and buying tickets for larger shows across Europe but at the moment I've got absolutely nothing in the diary for 2023. I'm definitely reluctant to commit to anything at this stage. Anyone else in the same boat?

I don't think I have one single gig booked in after this Thursday (a friend's son's band, £5 a ticket) and for someone who attends between 25-30 gigs a year, that's unheard of.