Tichtheid wrote: Tue Jan 26, 2021 8:32 am
There is a long post by Fish, he of Marillion fame, doing the rounds on FB, he talks about the problems musicians now face when touring in the EU.
I'll try to summarise some of the points, no doubt I'll lose some of it.
The costs of visas for touring come to £250 per person per country, he has a band of 6 musicians including himself plus a back tech team of 4, so £2500 per country.
The carnets they need signed at every border only used to be needed in Norway and Switzerland, border patrols would be perfectly within their rights to examine every item they carry with them to make sure they are not importing or exporting anything for sale.
The checks add time on to journeys, they need to hire two drivers because it's not worth the risk of missing or being late for a gig as a result of a driver being out of time allowance. There is the added cost of hotel and catering bills.
There used to be a reciprocal tax agreement, he gives the example of paying 19% tax in Germany off the top of gig fee, but that could be put down against UK tax because he had a German agent for those gigs there. At the time of writing he had no idea if this agreement was still in place, it applies to every country they tour in the EU.
On top of that they have to register for NI in each country now.
In order to sell merch, which makes or breaks a tour's viability, they have to register for VAT in each country they tour, but all VAT on goods has to be paid in full before any merch leaves the UK. He gives an example of £13K he has to pay out in VAT for a tour bus in Germany alone which he becomes liable for until the accountant he now has to hire can file a claim for it on his return.
Then there is the issue of 90 days in every 180 you are allowed to be in the EU, many techs make their living from touring with more than one band, they will have previously been on the road for ten, eleven months of the year, riggers, sound engineers, lighting techs etc etc, it's better for bands to hire local in the EU now.
The UK music industry is huge worth several billion pounds, live shows have become the main income for artists because streaming has all but killed off album sales.
The bottom line is that it will still be okay for the Iron Maidens, the Adeles, The Cures, they will have teams dedicated to sorting this stuff out, they always had that, but where do the next generation of these bands come from?
The current crop of bands and artists below that level are going to struggle.
Fish says he has been looking for answers to dozens of questions, but because everything was left so late he is faced with bookings and outgoings for a tour late this year, but has no idea if it is going to be financially viable to do it.
I know two people from separate bands other than Fish who are in a similar situation, much of their income was from touring in the EU, another friend is a guitar maker, he reckons he won't sell any more instruments to anyone in the EU, his costs have gone up 20 to 25% for customers there.