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Live Index

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Touring

Routing, density, guarantees and the cost of moving a show between markets.

Overview

Touring economics determine which cities receive shows at all. Routing decisions concentrate activity in some markets and thin it in others.

We model routing as market gravity: the pull a market exerts given population, venue supply, travel cost and historical performance.

Research on touring

  • The Middle Is Disappearing

    The strongest end of touring can prosper while the developmental middle—clubs, theaters, mid-level artists, regional promoters and independent…

  • The Venue Ladder

    A city's live-music capacity is not adequately described by the number of venues it contains. Artist development depends on a sequence of economically…

  • Market gravity: why some cities are routinely skipped

    A routing model that estimates the pull each market exerts, and identifies cities systematically underserved relative to their fundamentals.