The Pretenders are losing money on concerts while also seeing cash from album sales dwindling because of streaming, singer Chrissie Hynde has revealed.
The star said she and her bandmates still greatly enjoy playing live at small venues, even though their management would prefer the profits from large outdoor stadium concerts.
The American-born musician, whose band’s back catalogue includes the No. 1 ‘Brass in Pocket’, said: “I love playing clubs, and after that lockdown James (Honeyman-Scott), my guitar player, and I, we were saying ‘well, there’s no point in doing this unless it’s fun’. We had a real think about why we do this.
“Everyone else has got bigger, and I just kept wanting to get smaller. So I said ‘Let’s play clubs’.
“Of course, my management said ‘Oh, we can’t get any’!”
In the end, it was left to the band to work on finding the smaller venues, and their current tour dates included clubs around the world, while British gigs included the 1,500 capacity O2 Ritz in Manchester and Electric Ballroom in London, as well as the unlikely Cheese & Grain in Frome, Somerset, and the Bearded Theory Festival in Walton-on-Trent.
Interspersed among the intimate gigs were performances at several giant US sports stadiums to sustain a living.
Many artists have accused companies like Spotify of passing on an unfairly small cut from their platforms’ subscribers.
It has meant a growing dependence on ticket sales, but many artists have come under fire from fans for bumping up prices, and in some cases introducing ‘dynamic pricing’, which sees prices rise with increased demand.
Hynde, however, said The Pretenders have chosen to put pleasure before profit on their current tour.
