Key Takeaways

• Tinashe explains how prioritizing creative control on tour often leads to financial loss.
• Amaarae shares that while she enjoys performing, she finds touring isolating.
• The conversation highlights how touring can be financially and emotionally taxing for artists.

In her Rolling Stone’s Musicians on Musicians conversation with Amaarae, Tinashe got candid about the financial realities of touring and the sacrifices that come with it.

The “Nasty” hitmaker explained that, despite public perception, touring isn’t always profitable — especially when artists prioritize creativity over cost. “It’s something that a lot of artists don’t talk about enough — the financial burden that touring takes. A lot of people think that you go on tour and you make all this money, win-win,” she said. “But in my experience, a lot of the tours I’ve gone on, I’ve ended up losing money because I have the vision of the creative and the things that I want to achieve.”

Tinashe added that striving for artistic excellence can come at a price. “A lot of times, the rooms, the tickets, whatever... you don’t end up getting to that place where you end up net positive,” she said. “There’s [always] some level of sacrifice if you want to kind of create the vision to the degree that you want to create it.”

Even so, the “2 On” singer shared that she’s grateful for how her career has grown. “Over the years, obviously I’ve been blessed to be able to play bigger rooms and make more money,” she reflected. “But I understand — especially new artists — it’s super tough to be able to tour and to go to these places and these fans and all these different cities that want you to come, and you’re like, ‘You don’t understand. It’s really, like, I can’t get there.’”

Amaarae on why she hates touring

At another point in their discussion, Amaarae asked if Tinashe actually enjoys being on the road. The Kentucky native said she loves touring but struggles to balance it with creating new music. “I have a really hard time doing both at once. Some people can make a project and be on tour at the same time,” she admitted. “I feel like I have to give all my energy to the project, and then all my energy to promoting it, and then all my energy to the tour.”

Amaarae then shared her own take: “I love to perform. I hate to tour.” The “Fineshyt” singer, who recently became the first Ghanaian act to perform a solo set at Coachella, described herself as “a real homebody” and doesn’t “really go out even.” She added, "I have a shell personality, and that’s who Amaarae is. All the music that you guys hear is just my imagination of a personality."

Tinashe recently wrapped her “Match My Freak: World Tour” in support of her seventh studio album, Quantum Baby. The project peaked at No. 199 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and No. 23 on the outlet’s Top R&B Albums chart. Her tour stops included shows across the U.S., Australia, Japan, the U.K., and Asia.

Meanwhile, Amaarae is gearing up for her four-night “The Black Star Experience Tour” in New York City, Washington D.C., Toronto, and Los Angeles. It kicks off Nov. 1 and will support her third studio album, Black Star, which peaked at No. 17 on Billboard’s U.S. World Albums chart and includes features from Naomi Campbell, PinkPantheress, Bree Runway, and Starkillers.