4 ms·

I never even thought about this part of the industry. I just assumed that the hotel did the artists' laundry

jmts 8y ago
I'd love to see that bill! Most hotel laundry services I've encountered seem to be priced for one or two critical items. Cleaning a week's worth of items would be prohibitively expensive for most people, and I would be surprised if big productions would be interested in burning several hundred, if not thousands of dollars a week per person just for laundry. On the flip side, it would be rather amusing to see the entire support cast for Madonna or U2 huddled about grumpily in a coin laundry waiting for other people to finish.
- puranjay 8y ago
  That's what I underestimated. I didn't realize a tour could have 150 full-time employees.
  - vonseel 8y ago
    Those are big big big tours. U2 is #1 by revenue in the 2010s - although that is over a two year period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_conce... Ed Sheeran pulled in $432M in concert revenue last year alone. That is supposedly the highest for single year. I’d love to see the numbers for a “regular” band, or even broken out examples by category of “stardom” - say, The Strokes level, Bon Iver level, newer up-and-coming artists like Phoebe Bridgers, and then finally your local touring bands and last but not least the guy busking at Whole Foods. As I understand it there is decent money to be made at most of those levels above local bar bands. But it ain’t easy. There’s a lot of people who go for it that frankly don’t have “it”, though. And some of them make it for a while. Hardly anyone makes it a lifetime career, like Willie Nelson or Elton John.
    - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
      Is that tour money added to the amount often attributed to the size of the music industry? I'm seeing a number of "only" $15 billion on wikipedia.
      - vonseel 8y ago
        A quick search shows Spotify alone paid $9.8 billion in royalties to artists in 2017. I see that $15B number looks like it's coming from some IFPI reports. I don't know what that org includes but it doesn't sound even close to accurate.
    - dkersten 8y ago
      I've been part of the production crew for small-time musicians doing once-off concerts (approx. 2000 attendees). Between artists (warm up act, main act, guest singers, dancers) and crew, there were probably about 30+ people with backstage access that didn't work for the venue. I can imagine if it was a tour, where all of these people need to travel, then the cost would quickly add up. So I can absolutely imagine that medium to big acts would be quite expensive.
- kaybe 8y ago
  From what I've seen, if you book in a group for a longer time in advance, you can negotiate for X amount of free laundry per day. Just as almost nobody pays the listed hotel room price, many people might not pay the listed laundry prices.
wodenokoto 8y ago
While I'm sure you can get bulk discount, last hotel I stayed at, had a list price of about $12 for 1 (one!) pair of socks. At that price point it seems both faster and cheaper to buy a new pair of quality socks.

jmts 8y ago

I'd love to see that bill! Most hotel laundry services I've encountered seem to be priced for one or two critical items. Cleaning a week's worth of items would be prohibitively expensive for most people, and I would be surprised if big productions would be interested in burning several hundred, if not thousands of dollars a week per person just for laundry. On the flip side, it would be rather amusing to see the entire support cast for Madonna or U2 huddled about grumpily in a coin laundry waiting for other people to finish.

puranjay 8y ago
That's what I underestimated. I didn't realize a tour could have 150 full-time employees.
- vonseel 8y ago
  Those are big big big tours. U2 is #1 by revenue in the 2010s - although that is over a two year period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_concert_tours https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_conce... Ed Sheeran pulled in $432M in concert revenue last year alone. That is supposedly the highest for single year. I’d love to see the numbers for a “regular” band, or even broken out examples by category of “stardom” - say, The Strokes level, Bon Iver level, newer up-and-coming artists like Phoebe Bridgers, and then finally your local touring bands and last but not least the guy busking at Whole Foods. As I understand it there is decent money to be made at most of those levels above local bar bands. But it ain’t easy. There’s a lot of people who go for it that frankly don’t have “it”, though. And some of them make it for a while. Hardly anyone makes it a lifetime career, like Willie Nelson or Elton John.
  - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    Is that tour money added to the amount often attributed to the size of the music industry? I'm seeing a number of "only" $15 billion on wikipedia.
    - vonseel 8y ago
      A quick search shows Spotify alone paid $9.8 billion in royalties to artists in 2017. I see that $15B number looks like it's coming from some IFPI reports. I don't know what that org includes but it doesn't sound even close to accurate.
  - dkersten 8y ago
    I've been part of the production crew for small-time musicians doing once-off concerts (approx. 2000 attendees). Between artists (warm up act, main act, guest singers, dancers) and crew, there were probably about 30+ people with backstage access that didn't work for the venue. I can imagine if it was a tour, where all of these people need to travel, then the cost would quickly add up. So I can absolutely imagine that medium to big acts would be quite expensive.
kaybe 8y ago
From what I've seen, if you book in a group for a longer time in advance, you can negotiate for X amount of free laundry per day. Just as almost nobody pays the listed hotel room price, many people might not pay the listed laundry prices.

wodenokoto 8y ago

While I'm sure you can get bulk discount, last hotel I stayed at, had a list price of about $12 for 1 (one!) pair of socks. At that price point it seems both faster and cheaper to buy a new pair of quality socks.