Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows has joined a growing list of established artists in bemoaning the economic realities of putting on any sort of music tour in 2025.
In a newly posted interview with Bradley Hall, M. - real name Matt Sanders - said that rising costs mean that even for a well-established band like Avenged Sevenfold, touring extensively is "almost impossible".
"You're also having a big downturn in ticket sales right now. People have been blown out by ticket prices, because of the touring, because of inflation... every single thing stacks on top.
"Then you've got people that are very upset about what ticket prices are, which I get. It's crazy to see a couple of bands and it's gonna cost you five, six hundred bucks, or if it's country artists, it's a thousand dollars. If it's Taylor Swift, it's $3,200, or whatever."
Indirectly referencing recent controversies around dynamic ticket pricing - most notably when Oasis's UK gig sales led to widespread anger amongst fans and commentators, leading the band to deny any knowledge of pricing tactics - Sanders continued, "there's a whole argument of people not understanding how the ticketing works in the music business, people blaming and pointing fingers, but what really is happening is there's inflation, there's higher costs, it's much harder to get around.
"If you think about every aspect of a touring band's life, it's making it increasingly impossible.here's not gonna be CDs coming into the record label, there's no tour support. They're not making that kind of money anymore.
"So you've got this whole situation that's dire, when you think about it that way."
Gloomy stuff for both fans hoping to catch their favourite artists and the stars themselves, then, but M. Shadow doesn't see any immediate light at the end of the tunnel, even for successful acts like his, saying "It's crazy because when you get to our kind of level, everybody on the crew is A-list and they're all being pulled in different directions, so they all make high-end amounts of money.
"More trucks, more drivers, more gasoline, more travel. And we've already seen a lot of bands canceling tours. You're gonna see a lot more. 'Cause I know where we're at. I know what we make. And I know that it's incredibly hard for us even."
It's becoming a familiar refrain as live income - which was most artists' best way to make a living as physical sales cash was most definitely not replaced by streaming fees - is hit by rising costs and a collapse in the viability of grassroots venues. For instance, Kate Nash has been trying to draw attention to the crisis at UK music’s grassroots via the unusual medium of her arse, but also talking more directly about the mid- to long-term implications for the industry and major labels which, she says, are "scared – and they should be”.
Elsewhere, the data points to a future where touring is only really viable for the biggest acts who are able to command those stellar prices, while even major festivals struggle to attract the marquee names.
Read more
• "Musicians are being taken advantage of because we do it for the love of it": The cost of playing live is going up but grassroots artists say they're not being paid more
• Festivals are down… but gigs are through the roof as new figures show just how important live performance has become
• “Major labels are scared – and they should be”: Kate Nash calls for government action to investigate how majors have grown rich at the expense of ordinary musicians
