By Freya Hoare
When the recent pre-sale happened for Olivia Rodrigo’s upcoming ‘Unraveled’ tour, It sent fans opinions unravelling on social media due to not only the prices but for the sheer amount of dates in specific places. In more recent times, artists are preferring to host residencies in specific venues instead of performing in different cities. In Olivia Rodrigo’s circumstance, she is hosting nine dates at the O2 arena in London, whereas logistically, with her varying fan base up and down the UK she could host one night in Wembley arena and disperse the rest of the tour around the UK. Number-wise Rodrigo’s current touring situation sees her in total hosting 180,000 people. In that case, there should be no worry about her being able to sell out a substantial set at Wembley stadium.
While it makes sense for artists like Harry Styles and Ariana Grande to do these types of residencies at venues as they in no doubt have the fanbase to sell these venues out night after night, with slightly smaller artists like Olivia Rodrigo she may see sales begin to slack ever so slightly as people who originally bought tickets for the supposed “final night of the tour!” will now be sandwiched between the beginning and the end prompting them to sell their tickets. The most likely case, other than money, on why her team have decided to do this residency is possibly linked to them wanting to break as many records as possible while she has this superstardom.
The usual touring experience at Wolf Alice in AO Arena, Manchester.
Flipping to almost the opposite end of the spectrum, The rock band The Strokes have announced their long awaited new album Reality Awaits. Another trend in the music industry is artists announcing a tour before the album has even been released. While it is understandable that this is to create a hype around the approaching album it will also create an awkward scenario at the concert for fans because unless you are insane enough to follow the band around for the main duration of the tour, these songs aren’t going to be familiar at all. It also creates an atmosphere which separates die hard fans from the casual ones even though in the grand scheme of things it is never really that serious.
With these contrasting points it begs the question do big artists like touring anymore or is it just a line in their contract they have to adhere to? Over the past few years after Taylor Swift’s historical Eras Tour, the experience of concerts especially for fans has entirely shifted. What once was a fan first experience has turned completely to the artist being in control. Most artists seem to love performing to a crowd but when it comes to the mental and physical strain of actually flying around the world a lot of artists like Harry Styles are choosing the rest and recover route. Logistically, you can see why this is the new normal for concerts as it is obviously more environmentally friendly for the planet and that will be their main excuse for why the labels are pushing this idea. Also, because they don’t need to pay a team to take down the stage every night they are keeping costs down yet still raising the price of the ticket to make it seem more lucrative. Artists used to want to perform for their fans, but now as many artists are recoiling away from this personal relationship between them and their fans and as they have made their millions, they don’t feel the need to pull out all the stops for the best fan experience anymore.
A podcast with music journalists Izzy Hurcum and Leah Simons delving into why artists no longer adhere to the traditional touring route and are preferring to do residencies following the announcement of Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Unraveled’ tour.
