sui said:

ive been thinking of spending a couple thousand to tour when i get my band together  and im not planning on making any back. Thats what is about man, you get out there show people your stuff and if youre LUCKY everyone likes it, then maybe you make money playing gigs.

2 of my roommates are actually starting a month long tour accross the country with their punk bands in ten days, One is John the Baker and the Sperm Doners, the other is a 2 piece that my roomates do called, Under 15 Seconds. all their songs are under 15 seconds and they do sets of 50, people love it.

I hope to be able to tour with them next time they do a us tour with another band that one of them is in.
Tour till you DIE.

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Viveka said:

The question is pretty ridiculous.  A more reasonable question would be, "Do you think you'd want to tour as a musician knowing you wouldn't make money?".  Or, "Do you think you can afford going on tour as a musician?" 

Unless you're only talking about if you were a huge act with a well established audience who know you will sell out venues then what are the possible answers to this question?
Are you viewing touring as strictly a money-making enterprise, or saying that you would regard it as such once you are a hypothetically rich musician?

When you say 'if' you had "some amazing music worked out overtime" and had all the money you wanted I'm not sure why you would lose all interest in ever performing again.  Are you saying that as a musician you would retire from performing(except to "try out some shows here and there")as soon as you had become theoretically financially successful, which is a big 'if'? 

Or you're saying you'd only be interested in composing, or maybe not since you'll already have it "worked out", so maybe just jamming with friends or on your own in your hypothetical future where you have a career as a highly successful musician with millions of dollars?  Ponder on how someone could viably go about having a career as a musician in our age.

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LurkingWizards said:

Did Phish and The Dead keep touring because they were low on cash?
now that I re-read the Op, I think I understand what's going on...

You are trying to understand the logic... trying to justify why musicians like your Radiohead (or other bands that you assume have millions of $$) do not tour constantly.

The answer to your particular question for me would be yes, because personally, I like playing live music for people whether I'm getting paid or not... easy as that.

Music is not all about money though and not all famous musicians are rich.  But, in some ways you are correct about not wanting to bust ass every day/night playing shows, but that is because you are assuming that once someone becomes famous, playing live music becomes a stupid job and jobs aren't fun. Or that the only reason to tour is for that money... what ever happened to touring for the fans?

You know there are plenty of artists out there only making $20-40k a year off their music/touring/merch/label/whatever, and millions of people know who they are... famous right?

What you are forgetting is that you aren't a famous musician that gets to decide whether or not to go on tour. Sometimes it's not even up to the musician... let's try the manager, or label, or whoever the band has singed contracts with that makes important choices about touring.

Besides that, there is even a larger number of musicians out there that would love to go on tour all year just to make enough money to survive the 12 months and do it all over again.  The only reason not to tour, really, is because you just got finished with a long tour and need to get back into a studio to record that new album or whatever.

Anyways, be more specific in your question, otherwise we assume you assume too much. Remember that getting a tour schedule set up(all the people involved get paid somehow) and travel arrangements and stage equipment(lights, fog, lazers, plus) and roadies and merchandise for the fans and drugs party supplies...  those are expenses.  It costs money to make money.  Your question makes me ask more questions.

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cdnshroom said:

sui said:

ive been thinking of spending a couple thousand to tour when i get my band together  and im not planning on making any back. Thats what is about man, you get out there show people your stuff and if youre LUCKY everyone likes it, then maybe you make money playing gigs.

2 of my roommates are actually starting a month long tour accross the country with their punk bands in ten days, One is John the Baker and the Sperm Doners, the other is a 2 piece that my roomates do called, Under 15 Seconds. all their songs are under 15 seconds and they do sets of 50, people love it.

I hope to be able to tour with them next time they do a us tour with another band that one of them is in.
Tour till you DIE.

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50 x 15secs = 750 / 60 = 12.5minutes worth of playing

That's like a band that can only play the equivalent to three songs

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Or in between the buried and me terms... 1 song



Agoraphobic Nosebleed has an album with 99 tracks - most of them are like 4 second songs

I really don't care how long or short songs are though, I like a combination of both extremes.

cdnshroom said:

sui said:

ive been thinking of spending a couple thousand to tour when i get my band together  and im not planning on making any back. Thats what is about man, you get out there show people your stuff and if youre LUCKY everyone likes it, then maybe you make money playing gigs.

2 of my roommates are actually starting a month long tour accross the country with their punk bands in ten days, One is John the Baker and the Sperm Doners, the other is a 2 piece that my roomates do called, Under 15 Seconds. all their songs are under 15 seconds and they do sets of 50, people love it.

I hope to be able to tour with them next time they do a us tour with another band that one of them is in.
Tour till you DIE.

---

50 x 15secs = 750 / 60 = 12.5minutes worth of playing

That's like a band that can only play the equivalent to three songs

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well it is punk. its loud fast and inappropriate. Both of them have their own real bands.