Lorde says the global economic downturn, three years' worth of shows happening at once and concerns over health risks could lead to more tour cancellations from global musicians.
In her latest newsletter, the 'Royals' hitmaker sounded off about a "storm of factors" impacting the industry, including her cancellation of a 2023 concert in New Plymouth due to low ticket sales.
"Basically, for artists, promoters and crews, things are at an almost unprecedented level of difficulty. It's a storm of factors," she said.
"Let's start with three years' worth of shows happening in one. Add global economic downturn, and then add the totally understandable wariness for concertgoers around health risks.
"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 mind boggling 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 shit about money, but I know enough to understand that no industry has a profit margin that high. Ticket prices would have to increase to start accommodating even a little of this, but absolutely no one wants to charge their harried and extremely-compassionate-and-flexible audience any more f**king money.
"Nearly every tour has been besieged with cancellations and postponements and promises and letdowns, and audiences have shown such understanding and such faith, that between that and the post-COVID wariness about getting out there at all, scaring people away by charging the true cost ain't an option.
"All we want to do is play for you."
She also revealed while she was "fine", there were concerns other artists may be forced to quit the industry for good.
"Profits being down across the board is fine for an artist like me. I'm lucky," Lorde said.
"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! The math doesn't make sense.
"Understandably, all of this takes a toll - on crews, on promoters, and on artists. You'll notice a ton of artists cancelling shows citing mental health concerns in the past year, and I really think the stress of this stuff is a factor."
Lorde's comments come after Newshub revealed Aotearoa's live music industry was the "busiest it has been in decades".
However, that had proved to be a double-edged sword as people who work in the live music industry said they'd seen a noticeable slowdown in ticket sales.
"In Australasia right now, we are probably three to four times busier than we've been in at least the last 10 years," tour manager Sarin Moddle said.
"[It] certainly puts a strain not only the ticket sales, but also the crews and the vendors and the supplies, and the infrastructure."
