Rising costs make live music harder to sustain

Making music and earning a living from it is becoming increasingly difficult for many artists, especially smaller bands and newcomers, ORF reported. Rising costs and weak ticket sales are forcing concerts and tours to be cancelled.

Touring has become particularly expensive, said Niklas Mayr, drummer with Salzburg band Please Madame. The band travelled 2,500 kilometres across northern Germany in five days for concerts in April. Fuel prices alone made a significant difference, he said.

Higher travel, technical and production costs for musicians and organisers are meeting an audience that appears increasingly reluctant to pay for concerts. Jonathan Zott, director of the Rockhouse concert venue in Salzburg, said cancellations were already affecting colleagues, even when money had been spent on advertising and the date had been reserved.

The way people consume music has also changed. Millions of songs are available at any time through streaming platforms, mobile networks and WiFi, while payments for individual songs have largely disappeared.

For Salzburg band Steaming Satellites, live concerts are now its only source of income, said guitarist and singer Max Borchardt. If people attend, the band can continue, but many are considering whether they can afford to spend 30 or 40 euros on a concert.

Zott said younger audiences were also changing how they behaved at shows. Many arrive shortly before the concert begins, buy a drink at the bar, watch the performance and leave soon afterwards. Few stay to socialise, he said.

Borchardt said musicians would likely have to organise more of their work themselves in the future. Despite the challenges, he said, artists would continue to push on and the music and enthusiasm involved would remain.