[bernawil]

This take is widespread and it's just wrong. Most artists are hired by organizers and just paid a flat fee for performing, the company then selling and promoting the event. Can you imagine what it'd take to organize an international tour otherwise? Some huge names may also run their own operation (Pearl Jam where notorious for this) but still just some of the time, they'll still do some shows in festivals or different countries where they are just hired to perform and not selli ng tickets themselves.

[lolinder]

> Most artists are hired by organizers and just paid a flat fee for performing, the company then selling and promoting the event.

This is true, but most artists aren't insanely popular with millions of fans, most artists are little-known gig workers. In this thread we're talking about the big names, which can and do operate by different rules.

The Guardian interviewed several artists in these big tour situations and they say artists get most of each ticket sale, after taxes and royalties (though they obviously also have expenses to pay, so it's not pure profit). If you're claiming otherwise, where does your inside knowledge come from?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/30/where-does-con...

[bodhiandphysics]

Even the biggest artists still need promoters (Taylor Swift has a promoter... it's Massina Touring Group, Beyonce is with Live Nation). The reason is obvious... star's can't afford the capitol costs of their own shows. Renaissance had a capitol budget of over 100 million. Beyonce's net worth is about 500 million... she's not going to tie up 1/5th of her net worth in a single tour! For someone like Olivia Rodrigo, the economics are even worse. Guts probably will have a capital budget in the 10-20 million range (or higher!) but Olivia's net worth is about 5 million. The promoter's advance is what allows artists to actually have their tours. The promoters are the ones who actually own and sell the tickets. They have a lot of power over decisions like whether or not to use dynamic pricing.

[bernawil]

Man, that article dances around the issue, huh. When I say most I mean arena selling artists. Small time artists don't get their tickets scalped. Ever heard those stories of artists putting silly requests just to make sure the organizers complied their terms to the letter of the contract? That's a tell they're not running their own operation. Sure, some do. But if they're touring internationally or doing festivals they are getting hired.

Source: that's literally what the companies behind lolapaloosa, monsters of rock, et all do.