“You make money touring and you give your music away for free, which is why tickets cost so much.” Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French on making a living in music

Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French has given his thoughts on the “criminal” music industry that has fundamentally changed how artists make a living.

Anyone who has attended a live show by an established artist in recent years can’t have failed to notice how much more a ticket costs than it did pre-pandemic.

And while the desire of music fans to get out to a show after spells of worldwide lockdowns played a part in prices rising, the seeds were sown long before Covid-19 came along.

French says artists now essentially give their music away for free as a way to promote their shows, when in years gone by the industry was propped up by record sales.

Miserly royalty payments from streaming services mean bands like Twisted Sister need to stay active on the road if they are to make ends meet.

French tells the Pod Scum podcast: “The record industry is a criminal organisation. They screw artists left, right and sideways. They always have. And so what? Artists are gonna get screwed some way, somehow.

“In those days you made money selling records and you lost money touring. Now you make money touring and you give your music away for free, which is why tickets cost so much.

“Because in the old days the record sales, theoretically, were buoying the whole business and helping you out.”

French’s comments echo something that Exodus‘ Jack Gibson said recently – that the band are essentially “travelling t-shirt salesmen”.

Touring to make a living may be a solution for some artists, but it isn’t always sustainable. Recently, Metal Hammer reported that metalcore stars While She Sleeps were stepping back from touring for the forseeable future.

Despite growing success as a live act, While She Sleeps say the pressure became too much. Other artists have also stopped touring as the seemingly never-ending need to be on the road made living a regular life extremely challenging.

Metal Hammer’s report ends with the stark warning that “if music persists as it is now, more and more of the bands we treasure will be burnt into stepping away from the stage.”