Michael Kiwanuka fears touring costs could put off musicians: “I worry the quality of artists may diminish”
Michael Kiwanuka has reflected on the financial struggles that come with touring, and expressed his “worry” that rising costs could deter new musicians from playing live.
The singer-songwriter opened up about the issue during a new interview with Music Week, and explained that he has already felt the strain from playing outdoor gigs throughout the summer.
“I just finished festival season and I could feel the hole it made in my pocket,” he began. “For artists that make music that has a human touch to it, you need to tour to connect with people. That’s something you can’t replicate, something where you can create a synergy and a fan for life, and on top of that, you can pay back the fans that are streaming, listening and spreading your music to people.”
He continued, recalling how the monetary issues can feel like a deterrent for new artists hitting the road, and at times prevent them from allowing them to reach potential new fans.
“If it gets too pricey, you can’t do that. I worry that the quality of artists we produce may diminish because they don’t learn the grassroots, what it is to play and connect with your audience.”
The comments come amid a recent report by rehearsal and recording studio network PIRATE, which revealed that 88 per cent of artists have noticed an increase in touring and gigging costs in recent years.
In the survey, it was also shared that 72 per cent do not make any profit from touring and 24 per cent make a loss.
Similarly, at the start of the year, members of Blur, the band formerly known as Easy Life, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and more told NME about the huge battles artists face when playing live, as well as how they hope the industry will improve going forward.
Speaking at the Featured Artists Coalition, Murray Matravers of Easy Life looked back at how the band were forced to cancel their North American tour due to the expenses.
“We were supposed to do about 2,000 capacity venues in Europe and like 500-600 in the US, but we had to cancel both of those tours because we couldn’t make it work financially,” he explained. “We’ve got two albums out, we’ve toured America three times already and we’ve done Europe before, but we had to cancel them both at the last minute because we were going to be losing tens of thousands of pounds.
“It was really difficult for a while because we live in a world where a – dare I say it – moderately successful band can’t play France and make it work financially. It’s a pretty fucked-up situation for artists. I’ve been there as an emerging artist staying in shit hotels and all that and assumed it would get better. I don’t mean to piss on anyone’s campfire but it really doesn’t; it gets more and more disappointing!”
Elsewhere in the interview with Kiwanuka, the musician revealed that he is hoping to help support new talent by revisiting his own record label, Movement, once he releases his fourth studio album ‘Small Changes’.
“We didn’t really get it fully off the ground as much as we would have liked… Having my own label or own outfit someday would be really nice, especially as I get older and younger artists are coming through,” he said.
“[A label] could be one way to stay connected to each generation, to offer a place for young songwriters, artists that are doing their own thing, carving their own lanes, to have a place to start.”
‘Small Changes’ is set for release on November 15 via Geffen, and can be pre-ordered here.
The struggles faced by both emerging and established artists when it comes to playing live was further highlighted by Featured Artists Coalition’s CEO David Martin in February, when he spoke about how the rapid decline of grassroots venues is taking a toll on the UK talent.
His comments came in light of a report into the state of the sector for 2023, showing the “disaster” facing live music with venues closing at a rate of around two per week. Presented at Westminster, the MVT echoed their calls for a levy on tickets on gigs at arena size and above and for major labels and such to pay back into the grassroots scene, arguing that “the big companies are now going to have to answer for this”.
“Across the FAC’s artist community, there is growing discontentment about this issue – and the lack of acknowledgement from the wider industry. There are many artists who have built significant fanbases for their recorded music, but who cannot make the economics of domestic touring stack up,” Martin said.
“They either have to scale back the ambitions of their live shows, or rely on favours just to cover costs. These decisions are often occurring at the most crucial moment, when artists are just breaking through and building ‘momentum’. It leaves them snookered, and struggling to pay musicians to present their music properly in a live setting.
“As well as stifling the development of new talent, it also stunts the development of new audiences – an essential factor to the future success of the UK’s live music sector.
The battles faced by artists when it comes to playing live is by no means a new development, although it does seem to have worsened in recent years. Back in 2022, various figures from the UK music industry spoke to NME about how the first summer of post-pandemic touring revealed that the complications of Brexit were “strangling the next generation of UK talent in the cradle”.
Best For Britain CEO Naomi Smith told NME that the government needed to act now in order to open the pipeline of new UK talent to develop by being allowed to afford to tour in Europe.
“Arguably, music is Britain’s most famous export, so it’s just insanity that the government is refusing to improve the Brexit deal for UK musicians and are strangling that next generation of talent in the cradle,” said Smith. “It’s palpable, from what we’ve heard, just how much this is damaging emerging artists and the smaller and lesser-known bands.
“The bigger artists that basically operate as large corporations can get workarounds with the trade barriers, but the smaller ones are struggling.”
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
