Having trawled through the Companies House site, an interesting little titbit is how much money it’s possible to make from touring.
In 2012, Ian Anderson was on the road a LOT (http://www.ministry-of-information.co.uk/setlist/12.htm), mostly in smaller venues which, I suspect, generally didn’t sell out.
Guess how much he paid himself as his share of touring profits? I was surprised…..
Dunno but concert prices have at least quadrupled in the last 20 years (for legacy acts) as funds from recorded music dwindle and disappear.
Back in 1964 you would have paid between 7/6 (38p) and 12/6 (63p) to see the biggest band the world has ever known playing at a relatively small (2,000 seater) venue.
Convert those amounts to today’s money and it’s still only £8 – £12.
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/Afterword/tix.jpg
But didn’t prices start to go up once the 70s came around? I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Stones 1969 US Tour (the one used for Ya-Yas) caused controversy at the time because of the expensive ticket prices? Can’t remember the figure.
When I first saw Pink Floyd promoting the Dark Side Of The Moon in the early ’70s my ticket cost a whopping £1.25. That was probably cheaper than the LP when it was released.
I’ve spoke of this many times, but how about Hendrix, Cream, Pink Floyd, The Move, Zoot Money and Geno Washington, all for a quid?
You’d pay a tenner just for the “knockout atmosphere” these days.
I’ve mentioned this on a couple of other threads. This was May 1967 and Floyd were still a fairly new band with only one single out (Arnold Layne), while their first LP Piper… was still three months away.
Oh, and I stood next to Germaine Greer during the Hendrix set.
or “knockout atmospere” as it’s spelled on the poster
If it had only been a few years later, you could have engaged GG in a fascinating discussion about the Matton guitar on her Oz cover.
Think there was a word podcast on this a few years back. The view being that touring was the ONLY way to make any kind of money, unless you were one of the mega acts of course.
I reckon Anderson paid himself about 100K??
Like anything, there are lots of variables. Someone posted a piece by Fish about this a while back and his seemed a pretty hand to mouth existence. Choosing the right venue so it more or less sells out, cheap accommodation with crew sharing rooms and utilising the house pa and lights rather than bringing your own in all make a difference.
here’s the article from Fish’s site
http://fishheads.club/2013/01/29/touring/
When I saw the Cowboy Junkies a few years back ( a band that can fill medium sized venues), Margo Timmins commented on what a good income they made from merch sales on tour.
If a band has a loyal fanbase and offers a few special items that can’t be bought normally, they can do rather well. Especially if they do a “meet and greet” after the show. Medium sized bands sometimes produce a CD ( live, rarities etc) specifically for sale on a particular tour.
I think the merchandise market will only grow and grow. Rock music now has a large catalogue of highly lucrative brands. I think acts like Iron Maiden, Motorhead and Kiss have been making more money from sales of T-Shirts/Beer/Headphones/anything you can put a Kiss logo on than they have from record sales for some years now, and I think other acts will have to follow.
I sometimes help out on the merch table for a friend who tours small venues in the UK and US. I’ll often hand over more cash at the end of the night than the promoter does.
I think one of the smartest moves that Iron Maiden ever made was to have a mascot. They had Eddie on every album, single, tour poster they made in the 80s, and they made a T-shirt out of each one which sold at the same price as the album. They’re still making money out of him (even if the T-Shirts are probably mostly XXL these days).
It’s not a cartel but the National Arenas Association members all coincidentally take the same percentage for arranging the selling of merchandise – 25% + VAT. At the venue where I worked we engaged an outside company and split the take evenly. So 12.5% to us for doing nothing. Not bad when a Prince purple leather jacket retailed at over £200. This why certain bands refuse to play arenas – for example Marillion & the *Scottish band* – unless they can reduce this commission.
As more arenas have opened around the UK the fees they can charge to the promoter for the hire of the venue has fallen. In the early days we could easily charge up to £40,000 for one night for someone like Meat Loaf. By the time we stopped doing concerts it was as low as £25,000 for Oasis. The venue capacity ranged from 8,000 to 12,000 depending on seating/standing arrangement. We also got income from bar sales and car parking.
He personally made a million quid from touring in 2012 (do a search for Calliandra Productions if you want to see the accounts).
Even though Mr Anderson is well-known for keeping a tight rein on tour expenses, that seems like a very, very tidy sum for a legacy act playing in fairly small venues.
Good for him. He’s fucking brilliant with a very loyal fan base which might be smaller but still turns out. Nearly 50 bloody years treading the boards! Good luck to him.
Whereas, in non-legacy land……..
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/30/rocknroll-stardom-live-music-struggling-bands-slow-club-brawlers
I heard one of the members of Hot Chip on the radio recently saying that despite reasonable success over a few years, he couldn’t afford to buy a flat (in London, admittedly).
I read a great article the other day.
Essentially, unless you are one of the lottery winners who reach the very peak, you are destined to be skint if you are a musician.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/30/rocknroll-stardom-live-music-struggling-bands-slow-club-brawlers
Damnit, just slightly behind Retro posting that article.
Or 6 days behind me ; – )
Snap!!!
Motorhead. They haven’t made a great album in years, but they have one the best band names of all time and easily the most recognised logo in rock.
Regardless of the music, those two things are worth their weight in gold, as far as merchandise is concerned.
Many years ago (obvs) Smash Hits ran a good article comparing the parallel tours of Half Man Half Biscuit and Wham… HMHB were playing the student circuit, basically did everything themselves, drove the van, kipped on fans’ floors etc. and cleared (IIRC) around £2,000 per night after all expenses. Wham on the other hand had dozens of crew, lorryloads of equipment, and despite selling out all the UK arenas, weren’t even breaking even, though of course back then they had massive record sales to make up for it, and that’s the major paradigm shift we’ve seen in the meantime – tours used to promote records, now it’s the other way ’round.
That said, the Stones have legendarily made more money from merch than from ticket sales since the 70’s, but I don’t know where that leaves the newbies who don’t have the “legacy” following, but are also making buttons from record royalties… I’ve been assuming for a while now that (like pantomimes for theatres) the European summer festival circuit probably supports the rest of the year for many artists…
And I’m amazed at the £1M that Ian Anderson made in 2012, though a quick Google shows he played 110 shows that year, so that’s £9k a night… the venues (Google again) look to be in the 700-1,000 seat range, so at £25.00+ per ticket (yes, Google), I’d assume revenues to be around £20k per night, so by the time the venue & promoter have taken their cut, and Ian’s paid the band and expenses, maybe £9k sounds about right…? Very interesting, especially bearing in mind Fish’s contrary (and cautionary) tale mentioned above…
Let’s not forget that once you get to a certain level, anything used on tour can be offset as a necessary business expense, and this includes all food, accommodation, tour bus, etc. The Damned traveled the UK a few years ago in the bus previously used by “Take That”. Not complaining, and it was probably the next bus in the rank, just observing. Merch often involves a certain “in the hand” quality (allegedly), so if “Crispy Ambulance” produce 1000 more t-shirts than they admit, and sell them at £10 each, that’s £10k in used notes nobody knows about, can pay for “fruit and flowers”, etc.
I read about “Fat White Family”‘s tales of woe in the Observer at the weekend. I like what they do, and have absolutely no doubt they make less than their media profile might suggest. They bemoan their lives, but seem to be able to get smack (and other, alleged) habits and go into rehab in California. Seems to me that the artisan musician can make a living if they think about what they do. If they want to live like it was the mid-80s, and rock and roll is making hand over fist, there are now consequences. A shrewd chap like Ian Anderson described his business model in the Telegraph some years ago: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/6102159/Fame-and-Fortune-Jethro-Tulls-Ian-Anderson.html. Other “Fame and Fortune” columns are also informative.
Thanks for the Telegraph link – some really interesting stuff. I’ve never been a Tull fan, so know little of Anderson but his description of trading a Telecaster for a flute to enhance his chances of success seem quite revealing – a businessman first and foremost rather than a rock’n’roller
I suspect all successful rock stars have a good business head. See Sting, Bowie, Bruce, Macca ….also they work fucking hard and curate their back catalogue. IA does all of those in spades, plus he’s released two new albums of pretty decent material in the past few years and fits in a Christmas tour raising money for sacred buildings. Chap!
Sting? Really? He didn’t notice £6m going missing from his bank accounts.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letter-sting-too-rich-to-notice-1578500.html
Bowie and the Stones learnt the hard way to pay more attention to their financial affairs after having them mishandled by management earlier on. Especially Bowie who realised he was earning next to nothing with Tony Defreitas involved.
Tony Defries Shirley? Sounds like a nice man.
“Defries worked in the 1960s music scene with such figures as Mickie Most, Allen Klein, before turning his attention to David Bowie.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Defries
Of course. Don’t where I got De Freitas from. The late Echo and the Bunnymen drummer perhaps?
More rock ‘n’ pop stars are turning up at the memorabilia shows usually reserved for film & sci-fi buffs. Minimum price for a personally signed photograph seems to be £15. Extra if they also take part in a photo session. Many of these shows tour around the UK with the same slebs.
When Jeff Wayne first came up with the idea of remastering his WOTW as a boxed set and putting it on the stage he launched it at such a show I worked at. He was solidly ignored by the majority of the young punters who had no clue to his identity.
http://www.mcmcomiccon.com/birmingham/attractions/special-guests/
Seemingly at the very first Glasto event in 1970, Quintessence charged Michael Eavis £15, while their Ladbroke Grove neighbour Marc Bolan (who had an agent and a cannier eye for cash) asked for, and got, £500. we know how those careers went in the next couple of years. Having a businesslike attitude has always helped.
Ha! Stackridge were paid £20 but they were the opening act on the very first day and the closing act on the final day. It must be true, it says so in the Daily Mail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1030098/Rock-ages-band-play-Glastonbury-returns-Somerset-stage.html