Some artists feeling 'blue dot fever,' fans say, as high ticket prices make concertgoers more selective
Fans are diagnosing big musical acts with "blue dot fever" — with some saying it's due to high ticket prices.
The term comes from the blue dots on Ticketmaster's website for any given show, representing unsold seats. Some upcoming concerts have lots of them, as fans have been quick to point out — which they speculate has led to cancellations of concerts or whole tours in extreme cases.
Post Malone, Meghan Trainor and the Pussy Cat Dolls have all cancelled shows or entire tours in recent months — and while some of them have cited other reasons for doing so, fans have still pointed to their tours as part of the trend.
The problem comes down to the cost, said Eric Alper, a music publicist and industry expert — tickets are more expensive and fans are already contending with a high cost of living.
Indeed, ticket prices for the top 100 worldwide tours increased by 37 per cent between 2019 and 2025, according to data from Pollstar, a leading entertainment industry publication.
Fans weren't as fussed by high prices right after the COVID-19 pandemic, Alper said, because they were so eager to be in the crowd again. But that feeling is wearing off, and higher prices for necessities like food and gas have made people pickier with which shows they're willing to pay for.
"If they spend a lot of money on Rush, that doesn't leave them a lot of money to go, say, see Oasis or Nine Inch Nails," Alper said.
Veronica Avila decided to attend Post Malone's show at Toronto's Rogers Stadium, she said from outside the venue on Tuesday night. But that meant she couldn't get tickets to see Morgan Wallen or Chris Brown, who are also touring right now.
"I've wanted to see other celebrities, and I can't afford it," she said.
These days, Avila says she usually picks one concert a year to attend, mainly due to the price.
While plenty of fans like Avila turned out to see the rapper-turned-country artist perform on Tuesday, there were still lots of blue dots visible on the seating map hours ahead of the concert.
Post Malone cancelled the first month of his stadium tour with Jelly Roll earlier this year, saying he wanted to finish his upcoming album before hitting the road, which led to the blue dot fever comments by some online.
And in May, the Pussycat Dolls cancelled all but one of their North American dates, after taking an "honest look" at that section of their reunion tour.
The group didn't explicitly name low ticket sales as the reason, but multiple outlets reported that many tickets were available for a number of the U.S. and Canadian dates before the cancellation.
Meanwhile, some fans are waiting until closer to the day of a show to buy tickets, said Melissa Vincent, a music journalist and researcher, in hopes that ticket prices might come down. That could, in theory, leave more blue dots on a seat map.
SeatGeek spokesperson Cameron Papp said roughly a third of summer concert ticket orders are now placed within days of an event, a slight increase compared to last few seasons.
But Ticketmaster said it rejects the idea that concerts aren't selling.
"Of all the shows Live Nation has on the books this year, less than one per cent have been cancelled. That’s not ‘blue dot fever’ — it’s a normal touring year," a Live Nation spokesperson said in an emailed statement, adding that ticket sales increased in the first quarter of this year.
Spokespeople for both SeatGeek and StubHub told CBC News that demand for tickets overall isn't waning.
Even if cancellations are not widespread, both resale companies say that fans are making more conscious decisions about which concerts they spend their hard-earned money on.
"We’re seeing a sharpening of demand, but when fans decide a show is worth it, the demand signal is as strong as it’s ever been," said Jack Sterne, a spokesperson for reselling site StubHub.
Elaborate tours mean more costs for artistsAs ticket prices have risen, so have fans' expectations, said Alper, the music publicist.
"They want to see the choreography. They want to see the pyrotechnics.… They want to feel like they are at an event."
Touring has always been expensive, said tour manager Jen Ochej, who has worked with Canadian artists like Lights and Jessie Reyez. But elaborate productions have caused touring costs to go up, she said, because they require more people, trucks and fuel to get big set pieces and more equipment from city to city.
Live Nation executive Dan Wall told CBC News in a May interview that all of that extra production value has added to the price of tickets in recent years.
It also means that more mid-sized artists are having a tougher time on tour, Ochej said, and she worries about what could happen to live music if ticket prices keep climbing.
"My fear is that it's going to become something that only … the people with a lot of money can afford, on both sides," Ochej said. "That only the artists with a lot of money can afford to go on the road and only the fans with a lot of money can afford to be in the audience."
Even if touring doesn't guarantee a payout, Alper says it has become a big part of how some artists make their money, given how little streaming pays.
And if live shows were to become less lucrative, it's possible artists will prioritize other revenue streams, he said, like trying to have their music played in TV or movies, or selling more merch.
"They are going to diversify their brands into doing things that have to do very little [with] the recorded part of the music."
cbc.ca
