Ever Wanted To Know How Much Your Favourite Artist Charges Per Gig?


We all know it’s the live gigs that are where musos make their crust. Relentless tour dogging on a well-trodden in road, loading up the van/bus/private jet and playing show after show after show. But how much exactly do your favourite artists like Taylor Swift, Lorde, or Katy Perry earn per gig? A new list of leaked prices shows exactly how much they charge for private events, and it’s a bit of an eye opener.

Though the lists themselves should be taken with something of a grain of salt, given the source comes from an agency who specialises in US college and military bookings, it’s a pretty decent estimate of who pulls in the big bucks, along with who’s probably kidding themselves given that it’s not 2003 anymore.
The biggest earners won’t surprise many people. Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Dave Matthews, Bon Jovi, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, and everyone’s favourite vindictive girl next door Taylor Swift all pull in $1million+ per gig. The next tier down features artists like Lady Gaga, Foo Fighters, Katy Perry, Adele, and Coldplay all raking in $500k-$750k each time they grace the stage.
But further down the list is where the bargains start to appear. Got yourself a spare $150,000 of fuck you money to splash about? You’ll be able to get Lorde, Foster the People, Bob Dylan, Usher or Robin Thicke to come and do a private gig for you.
Feel like chasing value and getting multiple cheaper artists and curating yourself a private little festival? Tyler, The Creator, The Roots, Ice Cube, The Gaslight Anthem, Presidents of the USA, Tame Impala, Andrew WK and Solange Knowles will cost you a grand total somewhere around the $200,000 mark all up. Not a bad deal at all, really.
But then again there’s 3 Doors Down, who in 2014 are still trying to charge $250k to play that one song that people sort of liked and probably still gets played on Triple M drive time radio.
Check out the full list of the big earners below:

And to view the entire list, check it out at Priceonomics.
Who says punk rock can’t pay the bills?
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris via Getty Images.


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