Everyone's cancelling left and right. People are actually calling out their faves now for bad tours. I don't remember it ever being like this. Why are people so fed up and rejecting tours when they didn't in the past?

I think the post-covid run on live entertainment, where people were literally starved to go to especially concerts, is just over + people are running out of money so IF they spend their coins on someone's overpriced show, they want it to HIT.

Probably when they started charging a months rent for a single ticket

3 minutes ago, fantafantanocoke said:

I think the post-covid run on live entertainment, where people were literally starved to go to especially concerts, is just over + people are running out of money so IF they spend their coins on someone's overpriced show, they want it to HIT.

yup, I think that's exactly it.

I mean the music itself isn't earning money anymore, so most revenue is made by touring. That is why you see acts with one or two eras jumping bigger capacity venues.

We are also in a cost of living crisis, people can only spent money once.

Add that together and you have overpriced tickets for too ambitious venues for an audience who cherry picks and choose what they attend.

Post covid , touring demand surge, led to artist's/promoter's over estimating their demand and touring way too large of venues

Zayn, Pussycat dolls, Meghan Trainor in arenas was alway going to struggle to sell

Prices for their tickets pre-cancellation were affordable, it's just that there isn't arena level demand for them, even if the tickets were just #10.

When artists started taking advantage of their fanbases without the resumes to back it up. If you can barely sell a million records physically then you have no business wanting to charge these astronomical prices for your tours.

Edited May 23May 23 by NEUTRON

1. Concerts became huge after the pandemic and artists took that surge for granted

2. Everything's much more expensive now so people have less disposable income to spend on tours

People are starting to realize standing up next to sweaty strangers screaming while loud music is playing for 2 or more hours is not an enjoyable experience, let alone something you want to pay for. I was ahead of time, as usual

Tours for actually popular artists are still selling out despite high prices (Harry, Olivia)

It's washed artists trying to tour way too large of venues that's leading to the cancellations

10 minutes ago, J-esper said:

I mean the music itself isn't earning money anymore, so most revenue is made by touring. That is why you see acts with one or two eras jumping bigger capacity venues.

We are also in a cost of living crisis, people can only spent money once.

Add that together and you have overpriced tickets for too ambitious venues for an audience who cherry picks and choose what they attend.

The first part isn't entirely true. Unless you're in arenas and have an excellent contract it's very easy to lose money on tour. Small venues are disappearing all the time. The major labels are making profits. This platitude is really only true for people like ATRLs favs, and even then they're basically slaves to touring schedules.

OT: Live Nation's 360 deal with Madonna was the beginning of the end. They control everything from music promotion to merchandising to venues to ticketing, and they fix prices at every step in the chain. They make record labels look like charitable organizations with how predatory their model is to everybody involved. People end up dead or broke if they rock the boat too much in this industry, it's why huge names stay quiet while their fans go into poverty for tickets only for tours to be cancelled for not being profitable enough. Madonna literally almost died and still went out on tour. Gaga broke her hip and was doing a rave themed show a year later. Beyonce has been pushed out on the road with 1 year old twins. Taylor completely surrendered multiple years of her life for the eras tour. The people getting rich off of tours are ruining their health and lives to do it because they're contractually obligated. There's a reason girls like Miley and Ariana are terrified of touring.

Edited May 23May 23 by Sheep

• when artists' management assumes streaming success will translate into touring demand and it doesn't

• booking stadiums when arenas would be more suitable

• booking arenas when small theaters/clubs would be suitable

• not properly accounting for what the experience is going to be like in all parts of the venue

Most annoying thing is you spend so much money on the tickets, flights, hotels… but still got stressed of be able to "login" to buy the tickets with most of them end up on reselling market. I didn't want to get stressed like that so I didn't buy tickets anymore. Prefer going to fan meeting in a smaller venue where you actually see your fav acts, not on screen or restricted views.

14 minutes ago, Sheep said:

The first part isn't entirely true. Unless you're in arenas and have an excellent contract it's very easy to lose money on tour. Small venues are disappearing all the time. The major labels are making profits. This platitude is really only true for people like ATRLs favs, and even then they're basically slaves to touring schedules.

OT: Live Nation's 360 deal with Madonna was the beginning of the end. They control everything from music promotion to merchandising to venues to ticketing, and they fix prices at every step in the chain. They make record labels look like charitable organizations with how predatory their model is to everybody involved. People end up dead or broke if they rock the boat too much in this industry, it's why huge names stay quiet while their fans go into poverty for tickets only for tours to be cancelled for not being profitable enough. Madonna literally almost died and still went out on tour. Gaga broke her hip and was doing a rave themed show a year later. Beyonce has been pushed out on the road with 1 year old twins. Taylor completely surrendered multiple years of her life for the eras tour. The people getting rich off of tours are ruining their health and lives to do it because they're contractually obligated. There's a reason girls like Miley and Ariana are terrified of touring.

Okay thanks for explaining

28 minutes ago, Toxic Love said:

People are starting to realize standing up next to sweaty strangers screaming while loud music is playing for 2 or more hours is not an enjoyable experience, let alone something you want to pay for. I was ahead of time, as usual

This basement dwelling Gen Z living off an iPad and a vape ass take

Touring didn't go wrong. Godga, Taylord and Beysus set the bar too high these other can't compete where they don't compare l.

It's because of the prices. also modern civilization is collapsing and popstars are charging 400+ dollars for bad seats. They truly are disconnected from the general Public.

Streaming numbers inflated their egos and when they saw Beyonce selling millions of tickets despite outstreaming her, they thought, "Oh I can do that too." Bots can't fill stadiums, arenas, or even theaters.

The girls can't afford pyrotechnics anymore. Demi's tour looks so cheap. It's not a concert if you don't have pyro and/or fire.

Edited May 23May 23 by Fleahive

Unless people stop buying overpriced products nothing will change

Tour with demand ain't cancelling.

Some of these hasbeen and neverbeen just need to be realistic with their target. They should understand when they can't pull arena size tour anymore or ever, especially not with $200 for nosebleed kinda tickets. They're not a main pop girls that can pull that kinda game.

Touring saw a massive boom during the 2023-2024 post-COVID era. Now the industry is slowly falling back into a more regular mode of how it was before lockdown.

I think a lot of artists had the idea that this touring boom was the new normal, but it isn't. People's spending habits in regards to live events are not the same as in 2022-2024.

Scalping has become a massive issue but ticketmaster/artists do nothing to stop it.

ppl are broke.

55 minutes ago, NEUTRON said:

When artists started taking advantage of their fanbases without the resumes to back it up. If you can barely sell a million records physically then you have no business wanting to charge these astronomical prices for your tours.

51 minutes ago, cat1867 said:

Tours for actually popular artists are still selling out despite high prices (Harry, Olivia)

It's washed artists trying to tour way too large of venues that's leading to the cancellations

2 minutes ago, Vitaly said:

Tour with demand ain't cancelling.

Some of these hasbeen and neverbeen just need to be realistic with their target. They should understand when they can't pull arena size tour anymore or ever, especially not with $200 for nosebleed kinda tickets. They're not a main pop girls that can pull that kinda game.

I think these arguments actually disguise and conceal an uglier side to the current touring dynamic that people often overlook. Since major artists have started selling their tickets for astronomical prices when they do have the star power - and in some cases using things like dynamic pricing to squeeze every last dollar they can out of their fans, leveraging all of the demand that they have - they're effectively using their positions as market leaders to say to fans "you can afford to see me in concert if you only see me in concert".

In 2026 the idea of utilising your disposable income to see a range of artists live has become pretty intractable, even if cheaper tickets for smaller acts were routinely available. Much of the consumer spend has been concentrated on the biggest of the big now that those acts have realised what they can get away with charging, leaving little room for anyone else in the touring world. Sadly, spending hundreds and hundreds just to see your fave live (and no one else) has become the new norm, and I don't think this is a problem that will go away if smaller artists just 'become more realistic' with their prices.