In her latest newsletter sent to fans, Lorde was very blunt about how hard it is right now financially to tour.

She writes that it’s “a storm of factors” making it hard, including “three years’ worth of shows happening in one,” wariness around health risks and a global economic downturn. She then goes on to point out a factor most fans would never consider.

“On the logistical side there’s things like immense crew shortages extremely overbooked trucks and tour buses and venues, inflated flight and accommodation costs, ongoing general COVID costs, and truly mindboggling freight costs. To freight a stage set across the world can cost up to three times the pre-pandemic price right now. I don’t know [crap] about money, but I know enough to understand that no industry has a profit margin that high.”

She adds, “Profits being down across the board is fine for an artist like me. I’m lucky. But for pretty much every artist selling less tickets than I am, touring has become a demented struggle to break even or face debt. For some, touring is completely out of the question, even if they were to sell the whole thing out!”

She concludes, “I wanted to put all of this in your minds to illustrate that nothing’s simple when it comes to touring at the moment, and if your faves are confusing you with their erratic moves, some of this could be playing a part.”