A new trend emerges: musicians are canceling tours. Why? Is it because of legit health or practical reasons, or are the artists scared to sing to a half-full house?
In the past few months, there have been quite a few stars who have announced that they are either canceling or postponing their tours. It was in April that Meghan Trainor called off her entire tour in order to be home and present for her family. Pussycat Dolls(PCD) cancelled a majority of their North American dates. And Post Malone just announced that he will need to postpone the first three weeks of his tour because it is not yet ready. There have been other tour cancellations this year, such as Amber Mark, Demi Lovato,Dolly Parton, Barry Manilow, and Zayn Malik, who have all cited health reasons for doing so.
What fans are speculating is that the artists have something called blue dot fever. In which they avoid the anxiety of putting on a show where the majority of the tickets remain unsold. It is also described as the term for the alarming sight of numerous blue dots on Ticketmaster seating charts, indicating a high volume of available, unsold seats.
At least for the PCD, it definitely seems that way; arenas felt like a bit of a stretch. Because they don’t have a hit song to ride the coattails of, nor have they had any viral nostalgia moments. For Trainor, she doesn’t seem to have the same dedicated fan base she used to when she was first starting. She has tried to maintain this with social media and her podcast. Her latest album Toy With Me debuted at the bottom of the Billboard 200 according to Forbes. It’s a pretty stark number when you’re about to embark on a grand tour.
@fox.la From Post Malone to Meghan Trainor, “Blue Dot Fever” is hitting the music industry hard. With the price of groceries and gas soaring in LA, fans are choosing essentials over concert tickets. bluedotfever summerconcerts gdla+ #gooddayla
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The more significant reason behind these tour cancellations is that it’s less about the artists themselves and more about the affordability. There is no use in beating around the bush; people are broke. When it comes time to decide whether you want to eat, pay your rent, pay your bills, or go to a concert, some things are going to win out over the latter. Concert tickets seem to be more expensive than ever. With most arena seats costing at least three digits for even the nosebleeds.
Fans just don’t believe it’s a wise investment. It’s even riskier with Ticketmaster and LiveNation. As they are still overrun with bots who then resell those tickets on the same platform for double or more the face value. The system that has made people second-guess themselves. Question if it’s worth it if you can’t get your money back if it doesn’t work out. Live music just doesn’t seem as accessible as it was before. And artists are only upping the ante, becoming more ambitious than ever with their tours. They have created an Ouroboros-style loop where ticket sales directly fund production and crew costs. All the while, trying to appeal to the fans is a worthwhile goal for the tour.
It just seems that while fans want to support their favorite artists, they need to support themselves first. It seems the only way for live music is small venues, underground artists. Or watching a video from someone who could attend the concert. As painful as the FOMO might be, it’s more painful not to have a place to live. We feel that if artists take this into consideration and try to work around it, it could work. But they must accept earning less money than usual. It comes down to whether the artist is there to be able to do what they love. Or do it for the money.
