Quote:Roadies: Unlikely Survivors in the Music Business
The shakeout that is rattling the music business is turning up some unlikely survivors: roadies, the black-clad backstage grunts of live shows.

“I know musicians who play on the road who make less money than the tech guys I know,” says Jimmy Davis, the stage manager for country singer Hank Williams Jr.

Roadies’ elevation to “concert technicians”—the term many practitioners favor—is reshaping their culture. Sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll are out; efficiency, tech skills and professionalism are in. “We’re the Marines of the music business,” says Tom Weber, who got his start filling in for an absent roadie at a Kiss show 40 years ago.

...Record sales also continue to slump. Last year, 257 million albums were sold, across CDs, digital albums, vinyl records and cassettes, down almost 60% from 1994, according to Nielsen Music.

That makes bands increasingly reliant on live performances to make money, spurring demand for stage hands, instrument techs, sound mixers, lighting specialists and tour managers. The physical labor needed to erect elaborate, high-tech stages has spared most roadies. Their jobs can’t be moved to China or be done by a robot—at least not yet.

“Employment opportunities in the live-music industry have never been better,” says Gary Bongiovanni, the editor of Pollstar, a trade publication. “While record-company jobs have nearly disappeared, road- and tech-production-crew gigs continue to grow.”...

The North American concert industry was valued at $6.2 billion in 2014, Pollstar estimates, up from $1.4 billion in 1994....
http://www.wsj.com/articles/roadies-unlikely-survivors-in-the-music-business-1426780184?tesla=y&mod=e2tw