Pomplamoose Tour (Part 1: the Salaries)
It’s easier to spend time dissecting Pomplamoose’s tour statistics article than focus on the tragedy of the Michael Brown/ State vs. Darren Wilson case, so I’ll acknowledge this, but continue to distracting myself.
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Yesterday, Jack Conte’s article about his band losing money on tour made major waves: Read it here.
I love Pomplamoose. (I wanted to take my wife Natalie to the Chicago show, but we closed on our house that weekend. I missed going to the Cleveland show, but had my own gig to play.)
I’m a super fan.
Most people are saying positive things about this article, and while I have some minor critiques of the tour expenditures, there have been some misconceptions that are annoying.
A few folks are missing Jack’s main theme and point of his article: That being in a band is about making it every day, by working, by taking on risk. That a creative class is rising up in the music world.
I agree with that 100%.
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Some bands have taken issue with expenses for irrational reasons. They are comparing a DIY, indie punk tour to this tour, which isn’t apples to apples.
Here’s my take on two misconceptions:
1. The band members salaries
Many DIY bands who have never heard of Pomplamoose took issue with the payments to the bandmates.
Pomplamoose is a duo, and they hired professional musicians to join them on the road for 28 days. Pomplamoose’s expense for these bandmates is quite reasonable.
The fact that they took a band on the road is also reasonable. They were playing mostly 400-800 capacity rooms, and they wanted bring an engaging performance. They are commanding decent crowds.
So: $48,098 for salaries and per diems isn’t extreme.
They have four musicians and two crew members. For simplicity, let’s assume everyone got paid the same rate.
$48,098 divided by 6 = $8016.33 for a month of work per member. And maybe rehearsal time, too.
Look at it this way: $8016.33 divided by 24 gigs = $334.01.
Guess what. That’s a typical payment to make as a musician. I make between $200-300 for my Michigan bar gigs before tips and sales.
And these musicians and crew are on the road for 28 days, away from home, families, regular life!
These musicians and crew members were doing this tour for a reasonable payment. They probably had a fun time playing these great gigs, but it’s work. They are hired to do a job. They aren’t part of a band collecting royalties, but hired guns.
So punk bands, and DIY bands, stop saying the bandmates got paid too much. You need to look at this as hiring session players.
Pomplamoose treated their crew as well as they could. I bet Jack and Nataly wished they could have paid everyone more.
Part 2. the hotel costs
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