Production Live! 2026: Might Have to Scale This Back (Production Budgeting 101)  

 Might Have to Scale This Back: Production Budgeting 101  

Moderator
Paul Bradley – CEO, Master Tour

Speakers
Butch Allen – Vice President of Global Business Development, TAIT
Eric Mayers – manager, Red Light Management
Chris Risner – tour accountant for Metallica
Elle Vasquez – Senior Account Manager, FBMM
Emily Waller – production manager for Doechii and Clairo 

Sticking to a tour’s production budget is about expectations, communication and making sure the team is on the same page. And it really just comes down to the math.

Elle Vasquez, Senior Account Manager at entertainment business management firm FBMM, sums it up: “Art and money is emotional but math isn’t. The tickets are a number, the budget is a number, your financial goals are a number. Every conversation [around the budget] that happens are delicate ones to have, but ultimately the numbers can’t change just because we want them to.” 

The “Production Budgeting 101” panel offered attendees a range of perspectives on the topic, from accounting to management and the production side. 

Butch Allen, Vice President of Global Business Development at TAIT, which supplies staging and automation for live events, noted that one of the biggest challenges he sees is folks “expect a show to develop at the speed of a text.” He adds, “Actually the place to put yourself in a hole is by not starting soon enough and making sure you have the right people at the table, from vision to physical delivery.” 

Red Light Management’s Eric Mayers, whose clients include Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek and The Decemberists, noted that it’s the manager’s role to start mitigating expectations about a realistic production design and immediately getting that budget into play. 

Emily Waller, production manager for artists including Doechii and Clairo, chimed in to say, “From a production standpoint, that conversation is ever evolving … What can we achieve in the timeline we’re on but also how can we maintain the creative vision. … Communication is everything.”

It’s critical the artist’s team is on the same page and understand the goals of the tour, says Chris Risner, tour accountant for Metallica – if the artist is to go home with a certain amount of money or if the tour is a tool to get the artist to the next level by expanding their fanbase. He adds, “It sounds simple but I’ve seen it be a large hiccup.”

Moderator Paul Bradley, CEO of Master Tour, concurred, saying, “Sometimes it’s an investment – you’re investing in a tour or a gigantic festival appearance that’s very costly but you’re hoping the investment triggers future interest in the artist.”

That said, Mayers reminded the audience that if a tour is designed or pitched in its infancy as an investment in getting an artist in front of new fans, it should always be about profiting. After all, the paradigm has switched from making funds from the tour rather than record sales and Mayers notes that going on tour and breaking even is not sustainable. 

Later in the conversation Mayers spoke about how even since the pandemic, all line items from hotel costs to fuel are higher, while ticket prices remain the same –  “if [artists] are going to stay in the game, they need bigger fees.”