Why I Don’t Mind the New Residency Touring Concept

Excuse me while I sound like a music industry bootlicker.

Imagine this: your favorite music artist has announced a new album. They’re promoting it hardcore. They’ve got a lead single, a music video, merch, between two and two-hundred vinyl variants, and the only step that’s left is for the album to come out. Then they announce that they’re going on tour.

At first, your heart leaps out of your chest in excitement, and your mind starts to dream up scenarios that you’re front row at this show, you’re getting so much engagement with your favorite artist, and you're hearing their high notes or show-stopping vocal runs live.

Then, you snap into the present and realize your dream concert’s closest location to you is a plane ride away.

With the way that artists are “touring” their albums these days, you don’t have to imagine this story anymore. Some of my favorite artists are operating their tours this way now. Harry Styles has 30 dates in the US, but all of them are at Madison Square Garden. Fans in LA have a 6+ hour flight, hotel costs, and (if they’re lucky) vacation days to use in order to attend a show the whole way across the country.

Harry Styles fans in Europe, Australia, Mexico, and South America are feeling the pain of a residency tour, too. Entire countries or continents are flocking to one or two cities just to see him.

Residencies have existed far longer than Harry Styles’ Together, Together Tour, however. The first residency was in 1944 when Liberace performed in Vegas. In fact, Vegas is the residency act mecca; mega stars of the past and present have had month to year-long residencies. Britney Spears, Cher, Shania Twain, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Elton John, and many, many others have had long-standing Las Vegas residencies.

Lady Gaga also did a traveling residency with the Mayhem Ball, and Adele took her residency worldwide, much like Harry Styles.

Ariana Grande is playing several shows in just a few cities, and Olivia Rodrigo’s newest tour announcement includes a hybrid traditional-residency tour, with her moving from city to city in the US and EU, plus some long residency-style stops in major cities. She has 14 days across California, 9 days in New York, and 9 days in London.

The truth is, I don’t mind it.

Harry Styles at the Together, Together Tour (Image taken & owned by me)

The Caveat

I am well aware that this style of tour is pricing out many fans. I’m continuously disappointed by high ticket prices, especially when I’m not solely shouldering the cost of tickets anymore.

As a Pittsburgh-dweller, I’m no longer getting the luxury of driving a half hour, parking at the casino for free, and riding the train over to the concert venues. Now I’m paying for plane tickets, gas, a hotel, food, and other things necessary for travel. A $300 floor ticket isn’t just expensive for the ticket anymore. It takes the $300 + parking cost and turns it into $300 + flight + hotel + food = a ton of dough.

I don’t love this new model. Many have accurately flagged this as the artists’ management taking the cost of stage, artist, band, instruments, and other tour equipment and giving the travel cost to the fans. This is absolutely true, and quite obviously so. I can’t begin to imagine how much it costs to transport, construct, secure, and then tear down the Eras Tour stage every weekend. Oftentimes, the stages are also constructed and torn down by union labor (woo! Union labor!), making labor costs fair versus criminally low.

I agree that this is unfair to fans everywhere. For Harry’s tour, New Yorkers get the luxury of a train ride to MSG, but they had to fight the entire United States for tickets in their own city.

On the flip side, it’s taking many fans’ ability to see his show at all. For me, I can take a seven-hour car drive to NY and stay with family. This helps keep my costs down, but fans in Oklahoma have a tougher time getting there. The drive to NYC is incredibly long for them, and their airport may not fly direct, making this a headache.

Even fans in CA who don’t live near LAX will find getting to the show incredibly challenging and extremely costly. I’m well-aware that I’m very fortunate with my circumstances and even more fortunate that I can have an opinion on this.

I Want To Travel

To be frank, my blog is built on traveling to different places to see my favorite artists perform. While I focus heavily on the music aspect, I created the identity of this blog after traveling to Milan, Italy, to see Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour.

With the astronomical increase in ticket prices and my husband and I making smart use of our credit card points, it’s often cheaper for us and more fulfilling to take a trip out of the United States to see our favorite artists. We’ve also recognized that the chances of us grabbing international tickets are greater than domestic ones, as the international venues are as great as five times as large as ours.

Just think about it: Madison Square Garden’s capacity is around 20k a night, including floor space, whereas Wembley Stadium is 90k just in the seats.

My husband and I are at the point in our lives where we yearn to travel. We want to see as many places as possible before starting a family, and our favorite artists are giving us even more of an excuse to cross places off our bucket lists. We went to Italy for Taylor Swift, we went to Paris, then saw Harry in Amsterdam, we have tickets to Harry Styles at Wembley Stadium (a bucket list concert venue of mine), we’re seeing Ariana Grande in Montreal, and I’m certain our other favorite artists will take us to new places in the future.

We love to travel, and we love live music. This is just one reason why the residencies are okay with me.

The Eiffel Tower Sparkling (Image taken & owned by me)

It’s Healthier for the Artists

I also recognize that staying in one place for an extended period of time can help the artist. For artists who have issues performing, either due to traumas or health reasons, it can help them maintain a routine a little more easily than doing four different cities in seven days every week for a year.

I can see Miley Cyrus doing a residency due to her vocal chord issues. Selena Gomez’s chances of touring increase as she may be able to keep her Lupus more under control if traveling every other day doesn't impact her health. Ariana Grande can ensure security is better as the team can have weeks-long debriefs on necessary precautions to avoid another disaster like the terrifying Manchester Bombing on her last tour.

I’m lucky that I can say this, but I’m happy that my favorite artists can have a semblance of a steady routine if they’re set up in the same city for a month or two, rather than jumping from place to place nearly every night.

I also think these two things combined make for a better show and better memories.

It’s still early, but Harry seems more energetic on this tour than ever before. He seems so happy and so full of life. He’s hitting the high notes (don’t let TikTok convince you otherwise), he’s sprinting at full speed around his gigantic stage, and he’s remembering fans who have been to multiple shows.

Between tour nights, he’d been enjoying time out in Amsterdam with friends and his partner, Zoë Kravitz. He met fans on his off-days, then recounted the stories of meeting his fans during shows. He truly seems to be thriving this tour, and if a better show is the result of the residency, it makes traveling to see him even more worth it.

Harry Styles during the Together, Together Tour (Image taken & owned by me)

Concerts and Travel Go Together

I can recall so many magical moments from the tours I’ve traveled to over the years. My husband proposed to me on the Italy trip a few days before we saw Taylor Swift. It was magical to hear “Love Story” as a girl who recently saw the love of her life, “pull out a ring and say marry me,” as Taylor describes in that iconic song.

We enjoyed an afternoon in the Central Park rowboats before seeing Sabrina Carpenter debut “Please, Please, Please” at GovBall in New York City. We also rode the subway to GovBall before watching Chappell Roan play “The Subway,” an unreleased, never-before-played banger at the time.

[embed]Sabrina Carpenter sings “Please, Please, Please” live for the first time at GovBall (Video taken & owned by me)

My husband and I kissed in front of a sparkling Eiffel Tower two days before watching Harry Styles wave at us during “Golden,” then stare directly into our souls as he played “Fine Line.”

Harry Styles singing along to the trumpet outro of “Fine Line” (Image taken & owned by me)

These memories are made even more magical when intertwined. I’m always thankful when an artist still puts Pittsburgh on their tour map, of course. (Thank you, Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan, and Kacey Musgraves, for remembering the Steel City!) However, I’ll never pass up the chance to see a new, beautiful city that’s guaranteed to hold a special place in my heart. I’m thankful that my two loves, music and travel, can be enjoyed in tandem.

[embed]Harry Styles sings “Golden” (Video taken & owned by my husband, Tyler McMaster)

What are your thoughts on the new touring style? Who are you most-willing to travel to see? Do you have a concert venue you’d love to visit?