[jeffgrant]

My experience has been that the artists themselves get very little out of touring.

Also, typically 40% of all merchandise sales at the venue go to the venue.

I was the IT Manager at Nettwerk during Lilith Fair, and we were able to side-step that 40% by having people simply order and pay for their merch at the venues, but we wouldn't provide the items to them... we'd send their orders back to our mail-order department in Vancouver every night and have it filled and shipped out next day to them. They had the option of getting the merch right then and there at the venue, but with that 40% additional cost. 80% or so of the concert-goers opted to wait the extra 2-4 days for their order. (That loophole has since been "handled" by the venues.)

Most of my experience has been that the tours try to break even, with the understanding that it builds up the fan base, supports local radio stations (providing more local airtime), and general marketing.

Nettwerk manages Bare Naked Ladies, and I can tell you that they did not get rich off of their touring, but the results of their touring made them rich.

As a matter of fact, their touring schedule/etc was made up almost on the fly... the SoundScan data (sales in various areas) were analyzed daily, and where ever there was a "hot" selling area, the tour made their way there to "fan the flames". The end result was that the logistics of the tour were quite inefficient... it ended up costing more time/effort for the tour, but the results were HUGELY successful.