Photo Credit: Avenged Sevenfold by Stefan Brending (2eight) / CC by 3.0
Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows talks about post-pandemic touring and increased travel expenses — “It’s almost impossible.”
Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows spoke with English music YouTuber Bradley Hall about the realities of putting on a tour in the post-pandemic landscape. Among the topics discussed included increased travel expenses and the sheer amount of bands who have already cancelled tours.
“We’ve already seen a lot of bands cancelling tours. You’re gonna see a lot more,” said M. Shadows, whose real name is Matt Sanders. “‘Cause I know where we’re at. I know what we make. And I know that it’s incredibly hard for us, even. […] Like for instance, a big reason we’re going to all these different countries [on tour] is because we can go to the same countries and make very little to no money or we can go to new countries and make very little to no money. And so the idea has been, ‘Let’s go build the band out.’”
Sanders noted the band’s second-highest market is now Indonesia, and the region was actually their single largest market back when the band last appeared there in May. “My belief is that if you keep going to these places and opening up new markets and kind of putting a flag there, that if you can get the whole world streaming, it’s gonna kind of supplement this sort of gap that we were missing in the ‘90s and early 2000s when the labels and no one would pay attention to these places ‘cause there was no money to be made.”
He continued: “So yeah, it’s one of those things where […] touring is very hard right now for bands. It’s almost impossible. And you’re also having a big downturn in ticket sales right now. People have been blown out by ticket prices — because of the touring, because of the inflation — so every single thing stacks on top.”
“It’s kind of crazy to go see a couple of bands and it’s gonna cost you five, six hundred bucks. Or if it’s country artists, it’s a thousand dollars. If it’s Taylor Swift, it’s $3,200, or whatever it is,” Sanders explained. “And you’ve gotta think, if there’s not gonna be CDs coming in to the record label, there’s no tour support. They’re not making that kind of money anymore. So you’ve got this whole situation that is kind of dire.”
M. Shadows also discussed the concept of dynamic ticket prices, a practice that Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster has continually defended. “If I was to get into numbers right now and show you what we make at a show and what it costs, I think you would just go, ‘Are you kidding me? How can you bring in that much money and then no bandmembers make anything?’”
“Now, the reason dynamic pricing even ever got introduced is because the artist and the management said, ‘Why is the reseller making 10 [times] what the artist that’s on stage is making? There’s this many tickets that will sell for this much. Why aren’t we charging that much?’ And so what Ticketmaster did is they created a tool that allows artists to opt into this dynamic pricing,” the singer explained.
“Now it’s very clear Ticketmaster created a tool to allow artists to opt into this. It’s not Ticketmaster just taking all the top end. It’s the artists. And artists love to hide behind Live Nation and Ticketmaster and go, ‘Oh. We had no clue. Can’t believe it.’”
“The reality is that if you ask most people and you say, ‘If someone’s buying a ticket for a thousand dollars, do you want it going to a reseller or the artist?’ Most people will say, ‘We want it going to the artist.’ But they also don’t want the ticket to be that highly priced.”
Avenged Sevenfold embarks on a 12-date European trek in June, which includes major rock festivals like Norway’s Tons Of Rock, Czech Republic’s Rock For People, and Greece’s Release. The American leg of their “Life Is But A Dream…” tour kicked off back in March and saw them play cities they had never played before. These included Raleigh, North Carolina, and Manchester, New Hampshire.