Not touring

It's an entire revenue stream that they'll be missing out on (including t-shirt sales and the like), so they're a whole lot more reliant on record sales. I'd imagine artists that don't play live are under considerably more pressure to sell than those that don't.

I think this came up a bit ago, but, as I see it, it's twofold:

1. Basically, people have to have some reason to listen to something. If you're X band without any history, and you don't have somebody famous in your band, and you're not radio fodder, then how do people discover you and build an audience? You're not out there playing live, so you can't build a following by opening for larger bands or what have you. It's not impossible: you might get something on a movie soundtrack or something. But it's difficult.

2. Touring and performing live is essentially a shitload of free advertising for the label. It means the band gets written about in local press when it otherwise wouldn't, hopefully means people come to the show and get excited and buy CDs. Without that source of revenue, it becomes much harder to break even.

Also, of course, bear in mind that there are kajillions of bands killing themselves to get record deals. Given that, a band would have to be Pretty Fucking Good to get a major record deal.

All of which brings up an interesting question: who is the most successful musician or band to never tour?

Most successful to never tour?Hmm,that's tough.Brian Eno went twenty- seven years without touring from 1974 to the tour accompanying his last album.I guess the answer would probably be someone like Enya.

Nick Drake hardly played live at all, and certainly not with a full band. Then again, look what happened to him. It was years after their first hits before Pet Shop Boys toured too. Has video made this question moot?

Well if my own recording career ever gets going I think I'll have to add myself to this list, because I'm frightened of crowds.

Studio perfectionists the Beatles, Steely Dan and XTC all "retired" from live performance to concentrate on recording. Seems as if there must be others.

it seems easy enough to "retire" from live performances, but it looks like not doing any from the beginning is rare and next to impossible, right?

Kate Bush? Or am I mistaken?

Kate quit touring after her first one (17 costume changes and all) nearly killed her, but she did tour at one point. Also, are we talking about live performance altogether, or just bonafide tours? I opt for the former, actually, since that would cut the number down considerably. Lots of people don't tour, but very few don't play live at all.

I assume this thread concerns more rock-oriented bands and not electronic musicians, since a large amount of them (read: many of the ones who are not also DJs) don't tour, such as large chunks of Mille Plateaux, BoC, etc. (Again, live performance vs. touring comes into play here.)