Music Guardian: ‘This should not be normalised’: Why musicians are cancelling tours to protect their mental health

[Haziqonfire]

Really interesting piece from The Guardian about the toll the music industry is taking on artists when it comes to touring — both big and smaller artists.

This week, Arlo Parks became the latest, cancelling a run of US shows and explaining how the relentless grind of the past 18 months had left her “exhausted and dangerously low”. Her decision followed Sam Fender’s announcement that he was cancelling his US tour support slots with Florence + the Machine due to burnout: “It seems completely hypocritical of me to advocate for discussion on mental health and write songs about it if I don’t take time off to look after my own mental health.”

There are two factors at play here: a growing willingness among musicians to talk about mental health struggles and the demands of their profession, and an industry desperate to spring back to life after a devastating pandemic, with turbo-charged touring and promotional schedules to make up for perceived lost time.

Couple this with pitiful income from streaming, and the mounting cost of living, and the pressure to work more and chase success increases further. “Those opportunities are rare,” says Smith, of the endless touring momentum. “No one owes you those slots, and you can say no to them, but if you lose traction, and then those opportunities don’t come along again, that’s on you.”

Social media has helped here. Over the summer, Arooj Aftab spoke on Twitter about the gathering strains of touring: the flight-price increases, fuel, visas, taxes and hotels, promoters’ fear of raising ticket prices, audience reticence to attend shows post-Covid and in a cost-of-living crisis. She had returned from her recent tour with headline slots and sold-out shows to find herself still tens of thousands in debt. “And I’m being told that it’s normal,” she wrote. “Why is this normal. This should not be normalised.”

Personally, I’m glad artists are taking time to prioritize their mental health. The music industry isn’t the same as it once before, imagine being a new artist in the 80s or 90s you’d play 100-200 shows before you get recognized by record labels and start going on tour. Now, you’re famous after having your tracks blow up on streaming platforms, watching it all happen from your bedroom, never having performed a single live show, and then you’re thrown into it quickly because the label wants to keep your hype up.

Not to mention, in the 80s/90s artists needed to prioritize their mental health too but no one spoke about these issues or prioritized them, so many turned to alcohol and drugs to cope, then tours were cut short because of death or ODing.

The other problem is touring dates should also straight up just be way less demanding.

 

[neil]

If the shows aren't profitable then that seems like it would be a pretty big factor as well.

 

[Christo750]

The music industry has failed to adapt to the last 10 years, clinging to the old way and siphoning any kind of money they can from hard-working new artists. It's no surprise that after touring has been paused for a few years, they're finding any way to recoup the money.

Unless bigger artists ditch the old labels once and for all, they're going to stay around and they're going to be the way forward for people.

And while I understand it's how pretty much everyone listens to music nowadays, I don't trust Spotify as an entity. It breaks down to something like $0.00437 per stream. It's absolutely pitiful money, labels are in their pocket, their CEO is on record saying how songs should be constructed in order to make the most of the algorithm, and it's kind of soul-crushing to ask people to stream your music. It was always this way, but back when I was putting out music in 2011-2013, at least something like a music video was more viable.

I've been beating this drum for a while; I want touring musicians to go the Patreon route. Get as few middlemen as possible. Scale back touring. Get support from fans directly. I understand Patreon takes their cut but it's only one part of it that they do. Labels went from having 360 deals as an option to it being the only way now; they take a cut of everything. Touring, merch, etc. Best of all, artists would be able to do their shit on THEIR time. It greatly reduces the rat race.

 

[aus89]

Touring is basically the way they make money since streaming upended record sales etc... so I can understand the reluctance of artists to prioritise their health when they have employees to pay and all that. Obviously these artists have the freedom to cancel these slots, many don't.

Patreon and that kind of membership does make sense, and I do support a couple musicians that way - better way to connect than twitter etc... which is so dependant on algorithms and all that

 

[lattjeful]

Touring is basically the way they make money since streaming upended record sales etc... so I can understand the reluctance of artists to prioritise their health when they have employees to pay and all that. Obviously these artists have the freedom to cancel these slots, many don't.

Patreon and that kind of membership does make sense, and I do support a couple musicians that way - better way to connect than twitter etc... which is so dependant on algorithms and all that

Not even touring, unfortunately. Unless you're big enough to be playing arenas globally, you'll break even at best. It's usually just merch sales, which the venues usually like to take a cut from too.

+1 on musicians making a Patreon. Would probably help them loads.

 

[Mekanos]

Touring is such a demanding gig physically and mentally. One of those things where I do not envy celebrities.

 

[JazzPotatoes]

The music industry isn’t the same as it once before, imagine being a new artist in the 80s or 90s you’d play 100-200 shows before you get recognized by record labels and start going on tour. Now, you’re famous after having your tracks blow up on streaming platforms, watching it all happen from your bedroom, never having performed a single live show, and then you’re thrown into it quickly because the label wants to keep your hype up.

Not to appear flippant, but this really doesn't happen that often. Most artists still need to tour and grind and tour and grind and tour and grind just to get their name out there and get a following.

Most artists who "blow up" on streaming have actually already been scouted or picked up by a label, and are just using guerilla marketing. Very precious few actually manage to break into the mainstream without any form of support from a major label or marketing firm.