I don't wanna be rich or famous, I just wanna be a touring musician. Why is it so hard bros

Small to medium sized venues were going under anyway. Talk to any national booker, clubs have been disappearing for a decade. SF just lost one of it's last club, Slim's, last month. They were losing too much money, and House Of Blues and Clear Channel have been driving independants under with their exclusives and monopolies for acts. This covid shit just closed the coffin lid. Live music is too expensive now due to insurance and operating costs, cities being hostile to it, unless it's a big company like HoB that can spread some moolah around.
I think live music will survive. But it's gonna be way more corporate than it is now, and you're probably not gonna see many festivals again.
The real issue is insurance. If bands can't get insurance because of infection fears, you can kiss stadium and theater tours goodby for a while. 2020 is cancelled. Even if the country starts opening up again, nobody wants to tour in the fall - and you can forget ampitheaters in the fall, except in CA.
I know a lot of people in the touring industry, and they're freaking out, hard. Like, their whole world just ended. And it's true. People who had years of bookings as crew just vanish, a guy I know had two tours with big artists as a backing musician is now basically unemployed. Sound and lights people I know are fucked. Booking agents are fucked. Promoters are fucked. Bus rental companies are fucked. Crew members are fucked - there's rumors the Trans-Siberian Orchestra shows next WINTER are cancelled, or about to be. All the big tours this summer, gone, that's thousands of jobs lost. The summer festival season is cancelled, that's more jobs and income. Merch companies are gonna BK. Everyone, from the guys who sweep the floors, up to the artists and the promoters, are fucked. (Same with sports, btw.)

It's fucking bleak. It'll come back eventually, but for the next couple of years...it's fucking bleak. It's even worse in Europe.

FUCK....

not exactly hard to be a touring musician honestly. i've known a couple people that've managed to live that dream. problem is "the dream" from what i hear is a lot of driving, a lot of being borderline homeless in unfamiliar cities, a lot of sleeping in the van, and you'll probably get arrested at least once. you're probably also not going to be making any money, since you probably won't be bringing in any big crowds, or selling much merch. but you will be spending a lot of money on gas.

if that's your thing, knock yourself out.

thanks democrats

>not blaming chinks

Maybe for bar level bands, but there are thousands of people, tens of thousands, maybe more, who make a damned good living in the touring industry. Techs can make a damned good paycheck. Sound guys - the ones at the desk, same. Most of the industry is mid-level acts you never heard of, I know a couple people who make a good living tour managing country acts I bet you never heard of, and there are all kinds of people working for the greatest hits type bands, crewing for them or playing inthe band, doing casinos and state fairs, and pull in 50, 60k a year. They tour in the summer, and do other work in the winter. Do you know how many people it takes for a Lady Gaga, or a U2, to hit the road? Or how many local union stagehands rely on working every week, at damned good wages, who get nothing right now? Or how many people local venues employ?
Most of them are out of work right now. And probably won't be back.
Stop thinking the touring industry is "Get In The Van" by Henry Rollins, that world hasn't existed for a long time.

I don't want to tour. I just want to make music from my comfy home studio and have a dedicated small niche fanbase that will appreciate what I do

fair, but OP's talking about being a touring musician. so he probably would be playing in shit bars. i get what you mean, though.

this shit is unironically fucking suicide fuel for me. i dont want to live in a world without live music. going to see bands or my local football team were the only two fucking social things i ever really enjoyed, and this stupid fucking virus is robbing me of both of them forever. if gigs and sports dont come back i am literally unironically going to kill myself.

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VR will soon fill that void

no it fucking wont. i dont want to sit in my room wearing a gay headset just to see a band live. i spent so many years inside my room, going out and seeing gigs was one of my only releases that let me feel whole and be connetced to the world. if i cant do that ever again i will throw myself off the nearest bridge ASAP desu

that's even worse, bruh.
i find the idea of people choosing VR in favor over the real world to be deeply terrifying.

Don't care about sports, but I feel the same about live music. I'm also a drummer and a bassist. I don't make a living off it, but it's part of my life for 14 years now. I feel the same way about all small restaurants/cafes, used music gear shops, small record stores, etc. I don't think I can live in a world where only big chains and corporate concerts exist.

how the the real world compete with anything you can possibly imagine being realised?

i feel you but i also think these guys might be exaggerating, live music has been a staple of culture for a very long time, and though many venues are struggling I think collectively they'll pull through

>i find the idea of people choosing VR in favor over the real world to be deeply terrifying.
agreed. humans shouldnt be stuck inside their rooms 24/7 but it feels like faggots like that user and this stupid virus are forcing us into that kind of future. i spent all of my high school years trapped inside my room because i had no friends. im not fucking doing that ever again. i can feel myself slipping lately. all the escapes i had built up over the years have been taken away from me by the virus. i am genuinely planning my exit from this world if things get bad enough. i am still holding out some LITTLE SLIVER OF HOPE that maybe, just maybe, things will go back to normal. if not, im fucking out of here.

because getting everything i want sucks. i'd just be even more terminally dissatisfied than i already am, and require increasingly more elaborate forms of pleasure.

i'm thinkin i'm gonna enjoy the empty earth for awhile, since everybody's gonna be in their apartments eating postmates and fucking catgirls. just gonna slam beers and do donuts in the deserted parking lots. eventually that'll get old, and then i'll probably just drive off a cliff.

Sorry pal, there’s old people and people with crippled immune systems and if they have to keep themselves at home regardless then so do all the healthy people who are at ~0% risk.

Oh, what’s that? Gotta bomb some more Muslims to “protect our way of life”? Fuck yeah, scoop up all the 18-year-olds you can.

Go to house shows you weirdos, that's what everyone is doing who is ignoring the lock down.

I swear to god, Yas Forums is so fucking stupid sometimes.

Fug
I have mixed feelings. If it really is killing people in their 20s and 30s, I certainly don't want to die just so the economy can reopen. I just want the whole thing to go away. Honestly the reason this is so bad is because they tried to keep the global economy going as long as they could. Every country should've called citizens home and shit down borders in Dec or Jan. But they all downplayed it not to disrupt business as usual. If we closed borders back then we could've kept our individual nation functional, and we would've had to return manufacturing to U.S. soil. Just imagine that timeline. We'd all have pandemic New-Deal jobs, money flowing. A summer full of music (from our nation's acts) there'd probably be a musical Renaissance because we'd have to manufacture all instruments here, buy because there wouldn't be cheap Chinese alternatives, they'd have to sell US made instruments at reasonable prices, or sell way less altogether. Fuck