UndertheWire
07-31-2017, 11:41 AM
The subject of it being more lucrative to tour as Eagles rather than solo artists comes up quite often, particularly after the decision to continue to use the Eagles brand for shows.
I've been looking at the pollstar charts for the top 200 US tours for the last two years.
Eagles at #30 in 2015 (https://www.pollstarpro.com/files/charts2015/2015YearEndTop200NorthAmericanTours.pdf).
Joe/Walsh + Bad Company at #148 and Don Henley at #149 in 2016 (https://www.pollstarpro.com/files/Charts2016/2016YearEndTop200NorthAmericanTours.pdf).
Eagles, average gross per show, $1,250,000.
Joe Walsh+Bad Company, average gross per show, $316,000
Don Henley, average gross per show, $354,545
Even if they are keeping costs down when touring solo, they still employ and have to accommodate a lot of people. Don has said he doesn't make any money on his solo tours.
The next question is whether Don would make more taking all the profit from a solo show than he would from his share of an Eagles show.
The Don solo gross is 2/7 of the Eagles gross. Coincidentally, Don's share of profit from an Eagles show was 2/7 (according to Felder). Therefore if there were no costs, this would mean that Don made the same profit from an Eagles show as a solo show. Of course, there are costs and so long as the Eagles costs are less than 3.5 times the solo costs, Don's better off with the Eagles.
For example, if a solo show costs $350,000 and an Eagles show $950,000 (ie 3x)
Profit on solo show = 354,545 - 350,000 = 4,545
Profit on Eagles show = 2/7*(1,250,000-950,000) = 85,714
Of course, Joe only gets half what Don gets for an Eagles show but then he gets less than half what Don gets for a solo show, so he also is better off with the Eagles.
I've been looking at the pollstar charts for the top 200 US tours for the last two years.
Eagles at #30 in 2015 (https://www.pollstarpro.com/files/charts2015/2015YearEndTop200NorthAmericanTours.pdf).
Joe/Walsh + Bad Company at #148 and Don Henley at #149 in 2016 (https://www.pollstarpro.com/files/Charts2016/2016YearEndTop200NorthAmericanTours.pdf).
Eagles, average gross per show, $1,250,000.
Joe Walsh+Bad Company, average gross per show, $316,000
Don Henley, average gross per show, $354,545
Even if they are keeping costs down when touring solo, they still employ and have to accommodate a lot of people. Don has said he doesn't make any money on his solo tours.
The next question is whether Don would make more taking all the profit from a solo show than he would from his share of an Eagles show.
The Don solo gross is 2/7 of the Eagles gross. Coincidentally, Don's share of profit from an Eagles show was 2/7 (according to Felder). Therefore if there were no costs, this would mean that Don made the same profit from an Eagles show as a solo show. Of course, there are costs and so long as the Eagles costs are less than 3.5 times the solo costs, Don's better off with the Eagles.
For example, if a solo show costs $350,000 and an Eagles show $950,000 (ie 3x)
Profit on solo show = 354,545 - 350,000 = 4,545
Profit on Eagles show = 2/7*(1,250,000-950,000) = 85,714
Of course, Joe only gets half what Don gets for an Eagles show but then he gets less than half what Don gets for a solo show, so he also is better off with the Eagles.