
Is playing live worth it? Two questions help decide
Is playing live worth it? It’s harder than ever to perform live and tour profitably. The reasons are many, but the main culprits are rising costs and increased competition.
Inflation and now tariffs have taken their toll on touring expenses, for certain. But so has an increase in the total number of shows, More of those shows are stadium and arena shows with high ticker prices effectively made more exorbitant by ticket resellers.
If a show selling 10,000 to 20,000 $75 – $300 and up tickets comes to town that’s a million or more dollars that’s no available to fans to go to a club show.
With that as a backdrop, too often artists have to make tough choices.
While most artists can’t afford to lose money on a gig, they also know that performing live is great for PR and the best way to build meaningful, lasting and profitable connections with fans.
So before an artist, manager or agent says yes to a live show or tour, it’s important to ask:

Is playing live worth it?
As a booking agent and when teaching students for Berklee, I suggest starting with the answer to these two questions when evaluating any performance opportunity:
- Is this a venue/show/festival that fans of this artist and genre of music will want to go to?
- How much will this show forward the artist’s career vs the money earned
Assuming the answer to both questions is positive then the goal should be to try to do the gig.
Maybe the guaruntee offered is enough or perhaps it can be negotiated. Maybe the you know you can sell enough merch and VIP to cover any shortfall. Can you book other routed dates that make the tour profitable even though every show is not?
Is playing live worth it? Often the answer is still yes.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of the Skyline Artists Agency