Lorde is the latest artist to discuss the challenges of touring in 2022

completemusicupdate.com:

Lorde is the latest artist to go public about the challenges facing the live music sector at the moment, explaining how for an increasing number of artists the economics of touring currently don’t add up.Surging costs and increased competition caused by the COVID shutdowns of 2020 and 2021 have had a big impact on the live music industry this year, hitting the grassroots and middle-level shows the hardest, because they already operated on pretty tight profit margins.Ticket prices need to increase on those kinds of shows to make things viable again, but everyone is nervous about price rises given the current cost of living crisis.Santigold and Animal Collective are among the artists who have previously spoken about the challenges of touring at the moment, confirming that the economics just don’t add up for an increasing number of shows.

Lorde says that she is lucky to be operating at the level where shows are still generally financially viable, but even at that level there is increased risk which results in increased stress.Outlining the challenges faced by the wider artist community in her latest bulletin to fans, she writes: “For artists, promoters and crews, things are at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty.

It’s a storm of factors. Let’s start with three years’ worth of shows happening in one. Add global economic downturn and then add the totally understandable wariness for concertgoers around health risks”.“On the logistical side there’s things like immense crew shortages, extremely overbooked trucks and tour buses and venues, inflated flight and accommodation costs, ongoing general COVID costs, and truly mind boggling freight costs”, she goes on. “To freight a stage set across the world can cost up to three.