Stay Nation Leisure has introduced a brand new program referred to as On the Highway Once more, which offers journey stipends for touring artists who carry out at choose North American membership venues. The 77 taking part venues may even not cost artists merchandise promoting charges. The stipend, which Stay Nation plans to supply for “the subsequent few months” at the least, will present artists with $1,500 in “fuel and journey money.” This system attracts its identify from Willie Nelson’s track of the identical identify. Discover a video that includes Nelson under.
Together with the advantages for artists, Stay Nation is providing unspecified “monetary bonuses” to native promoters, tour reps, and venue crew members who’ve labored over 500 hours in 2023. The corporate has additionally pledged $5 million to Crew Nation, a worldwide aid fund for reside music crews. The corporate says it expects to disperse “tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in further earnings to membership artists and crew” by way of the tip of 2023 by way of this system. Pitchfork has reached out to representatives for Stay Nation Leisure for clarification on the size of this system and different particulars.
It’s presently unclear how lengthy the On the Highway Once more program will exist, and likewise whether or not extra venues are capable of take part. Stay Nation Leisure has greater than 200 venues in its portfolio, and stadiums and amphitheaters are understandably excluded for now, however so are smaller golf equipment just like the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco and Paradise Rock Membership in Boston. This system is probably going to supply a short-term increase to touring artists acting at taking part venues. It might additionally add stress to unaffiliated mid-size promoters, lots of which have confronted elevated consolidation from Stay Nation and its fundamental competitor, AEG Presents.
On the Highway Once more follows an prolonged marketing campaign from artists protesting the charges that venues cost artists for the privilege of promoting their merchandise at their exhibits—charges that may attain as excessive as 40 p.c of gross sales. In 2022, the Featured Artists Coalition, Union of Musicians and Allied Staff, and Canadian rapper Cadence Weapon launched the #MyMerch marketing campaign calling for an finish to merchandise promoting charges.
