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Stolen Vans, Ancient Gear & the ‘Livable Basics’: How Artists Tour On a Budget
As costs soar and belts tighten, artists are finding different ways to economize on the road and tour on a budget.
“Any increase in that — if we decide we want an additional musician or a sound engineer or someone to help us sell our merch — that pushes us into two rooms,” says Janet Weiss, the duo’s drummer. To cope with the astronomical costs of just about everything on the road, club and theater performers cram into as few hotel rooms as possible; swap houses with friends to avoid Airbnbs; spend hours manning merch tables rather than hiring crew for the job; and postpone that long-awaited van-to-bus upgrade. Billboard spoke to nine 2024 touring artists, from singer-songwriter Caroline Rose to rockers English Teacher to doom-metal band REZN, about how they stay afloat amid price spikes for hotels, buses, crew and (depending on what part of the country they’re driving in) fuel.
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