Rising costs, slow ticket sales put JP Saxe’s North American tour in jeopardy

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TORONTO — JP Saxe was ready to roll across North America this fall on his latest concert tour, but those plans are now hanging by a thread as the Grammy-nominated musician confronts sluggish ticket sales and the soaring cost of life on the road.

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The Toronto singer-songwriter took to his social media earlier this week with a plea to his fans, saying that if he didn’t sell about 20,000 tickets to his upcoming Make Yourself at Home tour within 48 hours, it would likely be cancelled.

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“I thought we could maybe do it,” he said in a video interview with The Canadian Press.

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“It’s looking like maybe we can’t. And that’s sad, but also just part of what it means to be an artist.”

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While a definitive call hadn’t been made on his tour’s fate by Wednesday evening, he said the prospects weren’t looking good.

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Saxe is scheduled to play more than 25 dates across North America, including Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, where most venues hold a couple thousand people. Tickets start at around $50, which is on the low end of prices for musicians of his calibre.

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Live music is under massive pressure compounded by a shaky economy, years of inflation and concert ticket prices that in many cases skyrocketed by hundreds of dollars this year.

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“We tried to keep the prices as low as we possibly could,” Saxe said.

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“(It’s) more than a movie ticket but a hell of a lot less than going to the Rogers Centre to see the Weeknd.”

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Saxe is best known for his 2019 smash pop single “If the World Was Ending” with Julia Michaels and since then, he’s released a consistent flow of popular tracks, including “Hey Stupid, I Love You” and “I Don’t Miss You.”

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But he says activity on streaming platforms doesn’t necessarily translate into a profitable touring model.

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“My last tour was mostly sold out in every city and we lost about $200,000,” he said.

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“Touring is really expensive unless you do it in the most bare bones way, you know, if you want to be in a van with two people, play solo and have no lights. (This time,) we didn’t do anything crazy expensive. It was basic stuff, like a bass player.”

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“The basics are expensive,” he added. “A bus is expensive.”

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Saxe’s experience offered rare insight into a corner of the music business for artists who are popular but not among the elite superstars who fill arenas and stadiums.

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Typically, when tours aren’t selling well, musicians bow out by blaming illness or scheduling conflicts.

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“Artists don’t want to look like they’re falling off,” he said.

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Saxe said that while others advised him against sharing that ticket sales have fallen short, he felt there was no other option but to tell the truth.

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“As a general rule, I’m always trying to practice sincerity in failure rather than the facade of success,” he said.

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“I think it’s really tempting as an artist, or as anyone, to always be projecting that everything is great at all times. And I find that uninteresting and disingenuous.”