They’re not wrong…concerts were expensive before, but especially now with inflation in this day and age.
cloudydays2021 on
There will be a handful of other tours that are going to be canceled before summer is officially here.
GrecoRomanGuy on
>The rise of fuel costs since the war in Iran began will have changed the financial picture of artists and their teams, Durant said.
Gee, thanks a lot Mr. President.
Stinkycheese8001 on
At $50 a ticket, for a pair you’re still looking at almost $200 when you add in taxes and the various Ticketmaster fees. The idea of ‘affordable’ sure has changed.
SeanSweetMuzik on
Some of the artists who have had to cancel tours may have misjudged what the actual demand was for them and their shows. Some of the venues are far too large for them.
No-Figure-8279 on
Who is telling these artists they have the demand? I wonder if their teams are pushing them to do arenas when they arent ready
TrueRedditMartyr on
Tickets to see Haute and Freddy near me well over 100 dollars resale. This place used to cost like, 20 bucks to get into. Resellers buying anything at all and trying to make insane profit is whats killing us, on top of these sites charging bogus fees.
And if I go to the box office and you charge me a fee, fuck you! The Masquerade in Atlanta can suck my dick for turning 20 dollar tickets into 40 AT THE DOOR!
Roxy_j_summers on
I read this article yesterday. My boyfriend and I work in entertainment, he tours, I work with touring artists on the management side. This is spot on.
Formal-Radish1413 on
Honestly i hope this drives acts back to theaters and smaller venues. Very few music acts sound good in a baseball or football stadium or basketball arena.
Book a 3000 seat theater for 2-3 days straight. Then drive for a day and set up at the next theater.
Its a way better fan experience too. Everyone has an assigned seat. No GA standing areas. Theres no need to wait outside for the whole day. Fewer instances of shows being stoppec for passed out people.
AND i imagine its less strenuous on the act themselves since they are effectively getting a day off every time they travel to the next show location. Most tours go for 3-4 days then get an off day/travel day anyway.
sardinesz on
What does “blue dot fever” mean though?
SparksOnAGrave on
Support small venues and indie bands!
Smooth-Assistant-309 on
I’m glad someone wrote about this.
Touring became a lazy cash grab. What have the people in this article actually been doing for their fans? What have they been releasing lately?
The idea that they should be entitled to sell out an arena is wild to me.
bbyxmadi on
No demand and/or tickets way too expensive. Tired of Ticketmaster
Puzzled-Charge-9892 on
There’s also just way too many people touring at once and people will have to pick and choose who to prioritize seeing
I can’t imagine Meghan Trainor or The Pussycat Dolls with only half of their original members were at the top of a lot of people’s list
Illustrious-Pound266 on
Supply, meet demand.
pigsbounty on
Honestly these “lower” tier pop artists just need to be more honest with themselves about their popularity. I don’t know why Meghan Trainor or Zayn would think there’s some big demand to see them perform. I’m sure artists like Beyoncé, TS, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo etc won’t have much difficulty undertaking a successful/profitable tour.
terpico on
Ticketmaster sucks
RadPhilosopher on
I think one thing people haven’t taken into account (and the article mentions) is that a lot of people travel to another city to see a show, and rising fuel costs have impacted the total cost of the trip beyond just the ticker price.
lurkinghere411 on
Entertainment prices for music, theater, and sports all need a reset. It is insane that most events are barely accessible for under $100
Legitimate-Lock-6594 on
I swear on my broke social worker ass if Bruno mars cancels any of his dates I will hunt his short ass down.
It all makes sense. (And speaking of my original comment). After seeing him live the first time in 2011 with floor seats thanks to a radio contest win, I’ve only splurged on concert tickets for the experience. And I only see artists I’m truly huge fans of. So I’m saving larger and larger amounts of money and using more credit cards more often to pay for these like 1-2 shows a year.
But again, I’m ending up at either big stadium shows or a second run arena show like I did with lady Gaga earlier this year where she knew there was demand.
Master-Village-5075 on
Zayn’s tour was baffling from the moment it was announced. He did a Vegas run in a 5K theatre in January that was struggling to sell and they definitely cut extending it beyond 7 shows. They slashed the prices in half a month before the shows which pissed a lot of fans off. immediately after they announced an arena and stadium tour with even higher prices? They started offering the $30 tickets a week before cancelling the US leg.
I’ve seen some speculation that touring + an arena tour might’ve been part of his contract when he signed with mercury a few years ago. That they gave him the support based “potential” plus the fact that he’d never fully toured in 8+ years as a solo artist. It’s just that not even 6 months ago he wasn’t filling much smaller venues, why would you not adjust and realize that the plan wasn’t gonna work?
Vivid-Blackberry-321 on
A lot of stars only seem to be touring in specific cities as well (like only NYC or only east coast) which drives up the cost of attending when you have to fly/drive/book a hotel. Hotels also jack up prices when a big star is in town, making things even worse.
lonelylamb1814 on
Well the problem is everybody wants to do these huge arenas, you have to wonder who makes these decisions. Take Robyn, for example, her last UK tour she did 2 nights in a smallish venue in London. This time around she’s doing arenas in 3 or 4 cities, so she’s gone from having to sell <10k tickets to having to sell 60k. It makes no sense it’s like everyone’s forgot how numbers work. Same with Janet Jackson who ended up cancelling my show (I knew as soon as it was announced she couldn’t come close to selling out an arena in Scotland). Keyshia Cole thinking she could sell out multiple arenas in the UK when she’s never even charted an album here is the most egregious example – of course that was cancelled.
Be realistic, people!
Also it’s funny how dynamic pricing never seems to drop below face value when shows aren’t selling, but it can go way way way above it if it’s popular. It’s not truly dynamic pricing then.
IlexAquifolia on
I imagine that many smaller artists who are trying to book arena tours are doing it because the cost of touring is such that arenas are the only way to be profitable. They can’t pivot to smaller venues because their costs wouldn’t shrink much and their net ticket sales would be too low to cover the cost. So they gambled on arena tours, which is now coming up against the reality of rising fuel costs and reduced demand due to inflation.
I don’t think it’s that they’re that deluded about their popularity, it’s just the only way for them to have a tour at all… but they ended up on the losing side of that bet.
Opening-Awareness478 on
It seems like everyone is touring this summer- young acts with new releases, bands on comeback tours from the last 10-20 years, big bands that never stopped touring, and even the actual classic rock etc.
There are at least a dozen shows I want to go to but with ticket prices high, gas & groceries high etc, I won’t go to many, if any.
Also, decision fatigue. Some of the older acts I would consider if it wasn’t such a busy concert year
bachelurkette on
Olivia Rodrigo’s ticket pricing was kinda wack this week, going to live music is my splurge thing (DINK) so usually I will just pay whatever face value gets me the seats I want and say “go with god” to my bank account but even I cringed a little this time. Sabrina at the same venue, same general seating area last year was nearly $400 less for a set of 2.
Not that I think Olivia is at any risk of canceling at all lmao, just bringing that up for pricing commentary. But it’s too bad the cancellation wave is happening because there is often *some* demand for these artists, they’ve just wildly overprojected it and could probably have sold out a theater or an outdoor venue but not an arena. And now nobody gets to see them at all.
dandelion_bandit on
You love to see it
SigmaKnight on
So far, I have only had to face one K-Pop group I had tickets for canceling their tour. I am worried about the others I have tickets for and the ones that haven’t began to sell, yet.
SunlightNStars on
Has it ever occurred to anyone that the reason Meghan trainor cancelled her tour is because she’s bad….
29 Comments
They’re not wrong…concerts were expensive before, but especially now with inflation in this day and age.
There will be a handful of other tours that are going to be canceled before summer is officially here.
>The rise of fuel costs since the war in Iran began will have changed the financial picture of artists and their teams, Durant said.
Gee, thanks a lot Mr. President.
At $50 a ticket, for a pair you’re still looking at almost $200 when you add in taxes and the various Ticketmaster fees. The idea of ‘affordable’ sure has changed.
Some of the artists who have had to cancel tours may have misjudged what the actual demand was for them and their shows. Some of the venues are far too large for them.
Who is telling these artists they have the demand? I wonder if their teams are pushing them to do arenas when they arent ready
Tickets to see Haute and Freddy near me well over 100 dollars resale. This place used to cost like, 20 bucks to get into. Resellers buying anything at all and trying to make insane profit is whats killing us, on top of these sites charging bogus fees.
And if I go to the box office and you charge me a fee, fuck you! The Masquerade in Atlanta can suck my dick for turning 20 dollar tickets into 40 AT THE DOOR!
I read this article yesterday. My boyfriend and I work in entertainment, he tours, I work with touring artists on the management side. This is spot on.
Honestly i hope this drives acts back to theaters and smaller venues. Very few music acts sound good in a baseball or football stadium or basketball arena.
Book a 3000 seat theater for 2-3 days straight. Then drive for a day and set up at the next theater.
Its a way better fan experience too. Everyone has an assigned seat. No GA standing areas. Theres no need to wait outside for the whole day. Fewer instances of shows being stoppec for passed out people.
AND i imagine its less strenuous on the act themselves since they are effectively getting a day off every time they travel to the next show location. Most tours go for 3-4 days then get an off day/travel day anyway.
What does “blue dot fever” mean though?
Support small venues and indie bands!
I’m glad someone wrote about this.
Touring became a lazy cash grab. What have the people in this article actually been doing for their fans? What have they been releasing lately?
The idea that they should be entitled to sell out an arena is wild to me.
No demand and/or tickets way too expensive. Tired of Ticketmaster
There’s also just way too many people touring at once and people will have to pick and choose who to prioritize seeing
I can’t imagine Meghan Trainor or The Pussycat Dolls with only half of their original members were at the top of a lot of people’s list
Supply, meet demand.
Honestly these “lower” tier pop artists just need to be more honest with themselves about their popularity. I don’t know why Meghan Trainor or Zayn would think there’s some big demand to see them perform. I’m sure artists like Beyoncé, TS, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo etc won’t have much difficulty undertaking a successful/profitable tour.
Ticketmaster sucks
I think one thing people haven’t taken into account (and the article mentions) is that a lot of people travel to another city to see a show, and rising fuel costs have impacted the total cost of the trip beyond just the ticker price.
Entertainment prices for music, theater, and sports all need a reset. It is insane that most events are barely accessible for under $100
I swear on my broke social worker ass if Bruno mars cancels any of his dates I will hunt his short ass down.
It all makes sense. (And speaking of my original comment). After seeing him live the first time in 2011 with floor seats thanks to a radio contest win, I’ve only splurged on concert tickets for the experience. And I only see artists I’m truly huge fans of. So I’m saving larger and larger amounts of money and using more credit cards more often to pay for these like 1-2 shows a year.
But again, I’m ending up at either big stadium shows or a second run arena show like I did with lady Gaga earlier this year where she knew there was demand.
Zayn’s tour was baffling from the moment it was announced. He did a Vegas run in a 5K theatre in January that was struggling to sell and they definitely cut extending it beyond 7 shows. They slashed the prices in half a month before the shows which pissed a lot of fans off. immediately after they announced an arena and stadium tour with even higher prices? They started offering the $30 tickets a week before cancelling the US leg.
I’ve seen some speculation that touring + an arena tour might’ve been part of his contract when he signed with mercury a few years ago. That they gave him the support based “potential” plus the fact that he’d never fully toured in 8+ years as a solo artist. It’s just that not even 6 months ago he wasn’t filling much smaller venues, why would you not adjust and realize that the plan wasn’t gonna work?
A lot of stars only seem to be touring in specific cities as well (like only NYC or only east coast) which drives up the cost of attending when you have to fly/drive/book a hotel. Hotels also jack up prices when a big star is in town, making things even worse.
Well the problem is everybody wants to do these huge arenas, you have to wonder who makes these decisions. Take Robyn, for example, her last UK tour she did 2 nights in a smallish venue in London. This time around she’s doing arenas in 3 or 4 cities, so she’s gone from having to sell <10k tickets to having to sell 60k. It makes no sense it’s like everyone’s forgot how numbers work. Same with Janet Jackson who ended up cancelling my show (I knew as soon as it was announced she couldn’t come close to selling out an arena in Scotland). Keyshia Cole thinking she could sell out multiple arenas in the UK when she’s never even charted an album here is the most egregious example – of course that was cancelled.
Be realistic, people!
Also it’s funny how dynamic pricing never seems to drop below face value when shows aren’t selling, but it can go way way way above it if it’s popular. It’s not truly dynamic pricing then.
I imagine that many smaller artists who are trying to book arena tours are doing it because the cost of touring is such that arenas are the only way to be profitable. They can’t pivot to smaller venues because their costs wouldn’t shrink much and their net ticket sales would be too low to cover the cost. So they gambled on arena tours, which is now coming up against the reality of rising fuel costs and reduced demand due to inflation.
I don’t think it’s that they’re that deluded about their popularity, it’s just the only way for them to have a tour at all… but they ended up on the losing side of that bet.
It seems like everyone is touring this summer- young acts with new releases, bands on comeback tours from the last 10-20 years, big bands that never stopped touring, and even the actual classic rock etc.
There are at least a dozen shows I want to go to but with ticket prices high, gas & groceries high etc, I won’t go to many, if any.
Also, decision fatigue. Some of the older acts I would consider if it wasn’t such a busy concert year
Olivia Rodrigo’s ticket pricing was kinda wack this week, going to live music is my splurge thing (DINK) so usually I will just pay whatever face value gets me the seats I want and say “go with god” to my bank account but even I cringed a little this time. Sabrina at the same venue, same general seating area last year was nearly $400 less for a set of 2.
Not that I think Olivia is at any risk of canceling at all lmao, just bringing that up for pricing commentary. But it’s too bad the cancellation wave is happening because there is often *some* demand for these artists, they’ve just wildly overprojected it and could probably have sold out a theater or an outdoor venue but not an arena. And now nobody gets to see them at all.
You love to see it
So far, I have only had to face one K-Pop group I had tickets for canceling their tour. I am worried about the others I have tickets for and the ones that haven’t began to sell, yet.
Has it ever occurred to anyone that the reason Meghan trainor cancelled her tour is because she’s bad….