Somewhere near Cobourg, Ont., a tour bus powered by recycled cooking oil sputtered to a halt.<\/p>\n
Inside was B.C. singer-songwriter Miina and her crew, midway through a 24-date cross-country journey built on a scrappy hypothesis: that with enough ingenuity, and fryer grease, a musician could still make the economics of touring work in 2026.<\/p>\n
The bus, a converted 1972 Greyhound running on leftover oil collected from roadside diners, was meant to help her sidestep fuel costs \u2014 which continue to surge amid the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.<\/p>\n
For a while, it worked. Then, on the way to a gig last month, it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re about halfway through our tour, but in rural Ontario \u2014 unfortunately, the furthest spot from home \u2014 our bus decided to have a little bit of a malfunction,\u201d Miina says.<\/p>\n
The breakdown forced the dream-pop artist to postpone several shows and cost thousands to repair.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bus acts up now and then, she says, and bandmate Pat Ferguson is usually mechanically savvy enough to troubleshoot \u2014 but not this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good when we get to fly by gas stations and not have to fill a tank,\u201d she says. \u201cBut it is hard work, too… and there\u2019s unexpected expenses that change things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her experience points to a broader crisis facing Canadian musicians, who say touring has become an increasingly high-risk gamble. As fuel, food and accommodation costs soar \u2014 and audiences grow more cautious about spending amid inflation \u2014 artists are being forced to scale down, absorb losses or rethink touring altogether.<\/p>\n
\u2018I GO INTO DEBT A LOT TO GO ON TOUR\u2019<\/p>\n
For independent artists like Miina, ticket and merch sales remain the most reliable source of income: \u201cIt\u2019s a big aspect of what keeps this whole project going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many artists say streaming royalties alone don\u2019t come close to a living wage, with one tour manager describing earnings as \u201ca fraction of a penny\u201d per stream.<\/p>\n
Live show fees and merch sales can make up more than 75 per cent of an artist\u2019s annual income, according to the Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA).<\/p>\n
But these days, breaking even is far from guaranteed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I go into debt a lot to go on tour,\u201d says Halifax folk-pop artist Jenn Grant. \u201cIt would be helpful if people bought tickets earlier, but it\u2019s hard for people to buy tickets, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant, who has been touring her 10th album \u201cQueen of the Strait,\u201d says rising costs have forced her to shrink her operation the last couple years.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of my touring has been pared down to a duo or trio because we can\u2019t afford a band and we can\u2019t afford the lighting person or the sound person or the tour manager, which can be stressful,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Grant has also been bringing her two kids on the road, which means the added cost of a tour nanny.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlights are crazy, gas is crazy. Sometimes I ask myself if I think it\u2019s a good idea to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indigenous singer-songwriter Aysanabee says he fronted more than $80,000 of his own money into a recent cross-country tour \u2014 even with strong ticket sales, grants and merch revenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil you get to a certain level, you\u2019re kind of just hoping you\u2019re breaking even,\u201d says the four-time Juno winner.<\/p>\n
The biggest expense, he says, is transportation. Even without a tour bus \u2014 he rented a Sprinter van and trailer \u2014 flights, vehicle rentals and gas \u201ceat up a massive chunk of the budget.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On top of that, Aysanabee insists on paying his crew a livable wage.<\/p>\n
\u201cArtists are kind of this small business that employs a lot of people,\u201d he says, listing off the chain: musicians, tech staff, front-of-house engineers, photographers, hotels, rehearsal spaces, merch designers, factories, shipping, storage, publicists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of economy that gets created. Prices of everything go up when gas goes up.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s why, he says, \u201cit\u2019s kind of like the death of the middle-class artist.\u201d<\/p>\n
TOURING IN CANADA ESPECIALLY HARD<\/p>\n
Those pressures are amplified by geography.<\/p>\n
\u201cTouring is wildly expensive, especially in Canada, because the cities are so far apart,\u201d says Aysanabee, who\u2019s currently traversing the country to support his EP \u201cTimelines,\u201d featuring stripped-down versions of songs from his catalogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the U.S. or Europe, you can drive an hour or two to the next city\u2026 In Canada, you have to drive for an entire day, sometimes two days, to the next gig. That\u2019s everyone\u2019s fees for the day, and there\u2019s no show, so you have no money coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Touring has always been a precarious business, says tour manager Jen Ochej, but rising costs are squeezing margins to the point where some artists may have to tap out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s having a huge effect on a lot of artists,\u201d says Ochej, who\u2019s worked with Jessie Reyez, Lights and the Dears.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m afraid we\u2019re going to start seeing more tour cancellations with artists who just can\u2019t afford the cost of being on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Efforts are underway to shore up parts of the live music ecosystem.<\/p>\n
This week, the Ontario government committed more than $20 million to nearly 400 festivals and events through its Experience Ontario 2026 program, a move it says will bolster the cultural and economic vitality of live music.<\/p>\n
FACTOR also just launched a $2-million program for Canadian promoters and festivals, meant to help them take a chance on homegrown acts, even when ticket sales are uncertain.<\/p>\n
Grant says she\u2019d like to see more governments step up for musicians. Her home province of Nova Scotia recently announced $130 million in cuts to government grants, slashing funding for arts, tourism and culture programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be great if arts and culture in general were more supported. It\u2019s something that the world really needs in a significant way right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
FANS AND ARTISTS FEEL RIPPLE EFFECT OF WAR<\/p>\n
At the same time, audiences are tightening their spending, creating another layer of pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou take a hit when you walk outside. You take a hit when you go to the grocery store. You take a hit when you\u2019re going to a show,\u201d says Broken Social Scene frontman Kevin Drew.<\/p>\n
Ochej says audiences are becoming pickier, often saving up for major arena acts \u2014 \u201cthe Harry Styles\u2019 and the Taylor Swifts\u201d \u2014 rather than turning out for emerging or mid-tier artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018If live music is a premium product, then I\u2019m going to be super selective about which concerts I go to and maybe not take a chance on a show that\u2019s not guaranteed to be this huge, once-in-a-lifetime thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
A recent CLMA report found the sector contributed $10.92 billion to Canada\u2019s GDP in 2023, but warned escalating ticket prices for top-tier acts are squeezing fan budgets, leaving less money for smaller shows.<\/p>\n
Even established acts are feeling the strain.<\/p>\n
For Broken Social Scene \u2014 the Toronto indie collective whose teeming ensemble has never made touring cheap \u2014 the current climate makes an already precarious balancing act even harder.<\/p>\n
Drew says the band expects to shoulder losses when it embarks on a North American tour with Metric and Stars this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been taking hits for a long time now, and again we made a decision to do this. I can\u2019t complain about things that I chose to put myself into.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the math is getting tougher.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the prices have gone up except for the prices of the band,\u201d Drew says. \u201cIt\u2019s essentially a conversation that we have to have three times a year \u2014 figuring out how to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bandmate Brendan Canning isn\u2019t losing sight of the geopolitical instability driving up fuel costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got big players taking the lion\u2019s share of the wealth in this world, so the trickle-down effect is that people have to pay more to support the wars. We\u2019re no different than anyone else lining up at the pump.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, for all the financial strain and global anxiety, Canning says the band feels a renewed sense of purpose in hitting the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether we\u2019re living in World War III right now, or the war against ourselves, all you can do is be some kind of small messenger,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is ultimately what the band was built upon: Here\u2019s your beacon of hope \u2014 one night only, everyone convening under one roof.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says that\u2019s why touring, however costly, still matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what music is supposed to do. It\u2019s supposed to be a healing property. So if we\u2019re not out there serving the community en masse, then the goal is a bit lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Somewhere near Cobourg, Ont., a tour bus powered by recycled cooking oil sputtered to a halt. Inside was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[415,13761,525,17,13763,235,407,389,13762],"class_list":{"0":"post-29760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-business-economy-entertainment-music","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-cost","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-touring"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}