Photo Credit: Martin Bennie
Empty seats on venue maps show that demand for concert tickets can’t keep up with the price, but artists continue to blame logistics and timing. Is this a blip or is something more serious brewing?
Over the past few weeks, an increasing number of artists have postponed or removed dates from their tours—or cancelled entire tours altogether—including Post Malone, Meghan Trainor, and the Pussycat Dolls. But usually, the reasons given don’t include poor ticket sales.
However, astute fans believe “blue dot fever” is the real culprit. The phrase gets its name from the indicators that represent empty seats on Ticketmaster, which denote unsold tickets.
But rising ticket prices have beset fans for years; the post-COVID live music boom saw concertgoers doling out their savings to see big-name favorites like Taylor Swift to a record-breaking turnout. So what’s changed?
Well, a lot of things. For starters, the money fans saved during lockdown went to shows in 2021 and 2022, following pent-up desire to get out of the house. Now, rising fuel costs, inflation, and geopolitical discontent have created a perfect storm that shows consumer tolerance for rising ticket prices has become untenable.
“Now, there’s a little bit of coming back to earth,” said JR Lind, senior writer at Pollstar. “And that’s running into inflation and rising fuel costs that we’re seeing across the broader economy. Affordability is going to start affecting concerts.”
Indeed, rapper Post Malone cancelled six dates at the beginning of his tour with Jelly Roll last week, citing his need to finish new music. Pop star Meghan Trainor cancelled her tour altogether, saying she needed to spend time with her family. The Pussycat Dolls cancelled all but one date on the North American leg of their reunion tour.
In all cases, blue dots populate most, if not all, sections of countless venues on these tours. Of these artists, the only ones who even hinted at weak ticket sales being to blame were the Pussycat Dolls.
But even with such severe cases of “blue dot fever” plaguing the touring industry, Live Nation reported healthy revenue for the first quarter. The touring giant said that revenue jumped 12% year-over-year to $3.8 billion, even as fans online actively lamented increasing ticket prices. Business for upcoming shows this year was also up 22% to $6.6 billion, according to Live Nation, which has sold 107 million tickets so far this year—an 11% increase from last year.
And that’s even amid Live Nation’s record legal bills stemming from federal investigations and subsequent litigation. The company reported $450 million in legal expenses, which contributed to an operating loss of $371 million.
So fans are still going to shows, but they seem forced to pick and choose amid the soaring prices of tickets (and everything else). Concertgoers are more likely to attend big-name shows, like Taylor Swift or Beyonce, and when those cost more than the average concert, they’re left deciding whether they want to see one major event that year or several smaller ones. Guess which one they’re more likely to pick.
