High cost of taking the act on the road

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SCOTT JAGOW: Hello, Cleveland. Or wait, is it Detroit? A lot of rock bands are on their summer tours, one city tonight, another city tomorrow night. Touring is vital to musicians, but it’s also expensive. Especially with the price of gasoline. Here’s Lisa Napoli.

LISA NAPOLI: There’s a reason you pay close to $500 a ticket — if you can get one — to see the Rolling Stones or Madonna.

That entourage, the lights, the sets cost a fortune to haul around. Tour managers say they’re budgeting twice what they used to for fuel.

Gary Bongiovanni of Pollstar says its the not-yet-famous acts that’ll really get hit this summer.

GARY BONGIOVANNI: They were barely getting by when gas was a buck and a half a gallon and now that it’s three dollars it’s certainly gonna have a much bigger impact on them.

But the show must go on.

If artists expect to make it to the next level, Bongiovanni says they need to keep touring, whatever the cost.

In Los Angeles, I’m Lisa Napoli for Marketplace.