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Industry professionals reveal the strategies they've been using to help their artists mitigate a difficult touring landscape.
Equipment backstage is seen during Arroyo Seco Weekend at the Brookside Golf Course at on June 24, 2017 in Pasadena, California. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Arroyo Seco Weekend
As the war in Iran rages on and fuel costs soar, an already difficult post-pandemic touring landscape has become nearly impossible for working musicians. Yet despite high costs, more artists are out on tour than ever — creating fierce competition in the marketplace.
To help offset those high costs, artists and promoters are getting creative with their approach.
On Harry Styles’ Together Together Tour, the One Direction star is utilizing a residency touring model to limit the number of times his team must build out the stage, saving costs on trucking and transportation. Other artists are using intentional underplays to hype up fan demand, reasoning that playing smaller venues can save money on production — and that fans unable to snag tickets may be more eager to purchase the next time a tour is announced.
When Cardi B was on her Little Miss Drama Tour earlier this year, she’d take to Instagram to discuss her most recent date and challenge the next evening’s crowd to be more enthusiastic than the one the night before. That type of marketing strategy has become more common within the touring industry, which isn’t just battling high costs but shorter attention spans that can lead to fans being unaware that a show is even taking place.
As the industry navigates an increasingly difficult landscape, Billboard spoke to several experts who offered their recommendations on how to ensure fans know their favorite artist is out on the road, and how artists and their teams can mitigate high costs to make a tour successful.
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Show reminders on ticketing platforms
In addition to being a ticketing service, DICE has also positioned itself as a music discovery platform. As part of that, they push out reminders for fans to ensure they’re aware of shows coming to their area.
“If you view an event on DICE and you don’t buy a ticket, and then only 10% of tickets wind up remaining, we’ll send a notification telling you the show is about to sell out, do you want to buy it?” says Andrew Foggin, chief commercial officer at DICE.
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Keep shows “hyper-local”
Another option for artists struggling to make money on the road is to keep shows local and opt-out of cross-country and regional touring entirely.
“The cost of touring over the last few years is distilling into this overall change in mentality, where things are becoming more hyper-local again,” says Ari Fouriezos, an artist manager at Friendly Announcer. “Bands are having to make really serious decisions about where they invest their time and energy, and so a lot of that means doing more in their more immediate locations.”
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Market-specific social media campaigns
“I ask [my artists] to be really intentional when they’re talking [about] their shows,” Mike G, an agent at UTA, says. “Social media is a big arsenal for any artist. Right now, I have Kid LAROI on tour — and this tour is very healthy — and he’s posting every show. For each market, he’s talking to that market specifically.”
While artists are encouraged to engage with a market directly, promoters and venues create social media campaigns of their own with advertisements of current listings targeted towards an artist’s audience.
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Smaller crews
“If you cut the crew down and you can cut a bus, that really saves so much money,” says Whitney Smith, director of touring at Alternate Side. “But it’s just a different type of show that you have to put on.” -
Multi-show runs/residency-style touring
“We’re working on a run this summer, and one way we’re trying to save money is just doing multiple nights in the same city,” Fouriezos says. “It means you go to less places, but if you can get creative with it, it sometimes helps you create a really fun fan experience that hopefully will translate to something bigger.” -
Utilization of fan accounts
“I tell artists at times to feed the fan account before feeding the main account,” Mike G says. “Because that will actually get picked up online and recirculated. It’s about getting exclusive content. If someone is filming in real time and uploads, it catches heat online.” -
Perform at more soft ticket venues and smaller rooms
While hard ticket shows provide the benefit of bigger rooms (and are often an investment for artists to gain better placement on festival lineups), soft ticket rooms including clubs can help limit tour costs and keep tickets more affordable.
“Soft ticket rooms and smaller venues have less bells and whistles,” says Eric Silver, an artist manager at Red Light Management. “Ticket prices are less but, ironically, you can make more money off of those because you’re not spending all that money on production.”
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Underplays to generate hype
When Hilary Duff announced her return to the live stage after two decades back in January, she and her team intentionally set a run of underplays. The strategy then allowed the team to get an understanding of how successful an eventual arena run could be based off how many fans signed up for the presale.
“It was done with the intention to create a frenzy and help gauge demand,” says Michelle Craig, a music marketing executive at CAA. “She hadn’t toured in over two decades. We knew the fans were there, but wanted to have a gut check and show fans her live show again.”
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VIP ticketing options
While some fans struggle to afford the price of a ticket, others are able to pay more for shows with exclusive offerings.
“Offer a VIP experience for the people that can pay for it, offer a lower price ticket for the people who can’t,” says Sara Mertz, vp of music partnerships at Tixr. “Meet your audience where they are.”
Additional reporting by Chris Eggertsen
English (US)