Touring involves lots of upfront cost and may or may not recoup those costs or reach profitability. Same for merchandise. As with any business venture there are so many factors outside your control that can go wrong many of which are compounded by being away from your fixed address.
Things I or my friends experienced off the top of my head:
- spike in gas prices while on the road and or van getting far loss milage fully loaded than expected
- theft and or breakdown of equipment and or Kerch and in one case the van with all the bands gear and merch in broad daylight during a rest stop bathroom break
- illness or injury of band members requiring cancellation of shows
- venues getting shutdown or booking errors by the venue
- unplanned bail costs
All those things and more even you have a competent manager or band member who can do management and budget.
For musicians who haven’t reached the stage where they no longer need day jobs touring means taking time off work which isn’t always easy.
There’s more but I have to leave and can’t add to this now
