The Good, the Bad and the Maybe

If the real money is in touring, as music’s best accountants have been saying since long before most people reading this were born, then 2022 has been a really, really good year for ED SHEERAN, who Billboard says has sold more tickets than anybody else (and hasn’t invited lawsuits and investigations in the process), and BAD BUNNY, who grossed the most, $373.5 million, in the 12 months ending Oct. 31. LIVE NATION continued to be the dominant live music promoter and CAA the leading agency, and for the first time ever, the top 10 touring acts, who also included HARRY STYLES, the WEEKND and the double bill of DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY CRÜE, all grossed over $100 million.

But inflation and supply-chain issues (including the supply chain of humans amid waves of belt-tightening and layoffs) and the logistical nightmare of touring in a post-Covid world in which Covid still very much exists all conspired to put giant asterisks next to those achievements. In the lede of its story about how “From the Top, Touring Looks Better Than Ever”—note the hedge of those first three words—Billboard wonders if 2022 was “the worst ‘best year ever.’” Asked by Music Business Worldwide how things are looking as 2022 comes to a close, AEG PRESENTS boss JAY MARCIANO sounds like a man asked to predict what the stock market’s going to look like three weeks from next Thursday: “Anyone that tells you they know what’s going on is probably using the benefit of their experience in the last 24 hours. Ask them that question in seven days, they might answer differently!”

Rising costs are eating into the revenues. Fans remain reluctant to buy tickets too far in advance for all but the most blockbuster, sure-to-sell-out tours. Artists, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, feel like they have no choice but to raise ticket prices, but they also feel like they can’t because their fans can’t afford it. More than a quarter of music fans who attended festivals in summer 2022 expected to go into credit card debt to do so, 5 Magazine noted in a story about how the 2022 festival season was “brought to you by MASTERCARD.” CADENCE WEAPON says it’s awful out there. LORDE says it’s awful out there. Lots of indie musicians say it’s awful out there.

And then there’s Baltimore hardcore band TURNSTILE, who spent 2022 tearing through venues around North America and the world and watching its numbers go through the roof. “Touring’s been very long, but very rewarding,” guitarist PAT MCCRORY tells Pollstar. Though maybe that’s just because Pollstar asked him on a good day. Ask him again in seven days, or seven months. (Or maybe it’s just because the real music, as purists have been saying since long before you were born, is in touring. Or, as Turnstile singer BRENDAN YATES tells the mag, “You write a song and then touring is when you bring it to life.”)

As bad years go, it was a good year. Or was it the other way around?

Etc Etc Etc

This DAMON KRUKOWSKI essay about signal-to-noise ratio is more about ELON MUSK, TWITTER, high tech and media than it is about sound recording, but it’s a powerful argument about the importance of the noise in that equation, as well as the subjectivity of the very determination of what constitutes noise and what constitutes signal, which means it kind of is about sound recording anyway, and it's a crucial read whether you’re walking into a studio or into a social media rabbit hole... Hey APPLE MUSIC, please share this proprietary technology with APPLE TV so I can *raise* the level of the voices on movies and TV shows... Syncing the CRAMPS... Death metal singer or bat?

Rest in Peace

Canadian composer JOHN BECKWITH... German acoustic guitarist/composer STEFFEN BASHO-JUNGHANS... JANIS HUNTER GAYE, one-time wife of Marvin, inspiration for many of his songs, occasional backup singer, manager of their daughter Nona Gaye and one of the instigators of the landmark “Blurred Lines” plagiarism case.