How much do touring musicians get paid?

[ijwthstd]

This honestly sounds frighteningly low to play music for a living at that level. Even “doing what you love”.

Was thinking the same thing, then thought about how many touring musicians these country bands have. That's a whole lot of people to transport around and accommodate. But to your point, doing a 90 show run is only 45K on the HIGH end of $500 a show, and that does seem low to be out with some of the acts that he mentioned who you'd think were getting a pretty decent guarantee. But what do I know. I buy vinyl from the Tuff dude.

A lot of country tours are weekends only or 3 shows a week.

[aznsquirt]

This honestly sounds frighteningly low to play music for a living at that level. Even “doing what you love”.

I don't see why. When you buy a ticket you're paying for some combination of seeing a specific person or persons, a "band" and/or songs.

If you don't care who the guy is playing second guitar along side *insert famous person here*, why should they?

[Playboyliquor59]

Some people like myself like to be gone 10 months out of the year and it’s what we’ve been doing since teenagers. In all honestly, if it’s about money this isn’t the right business unless you’re the 5% who have the luxury of finding a balance.

[KISStian]

My neice's fil plays bass for a Mark Knopfler and, just by visting the house a few times, I can say he's doing quite well.