A spate of cancellations and tour changes by big-name artists has raised questions about whether the post-pandemic live music boom could be cooling as consumer spending fatigue meets the high ticket prices.
Friday, Jennifer Lopez announced that she would be canceling her 2024 tour, citing a desire to spend more time with his family. Meanwhile, the Black Keys they announced they were abandoning a stadium visit in favor of a series of shows in smaller spaces.
Both tours had recently become the talk of social media, namely screenshots showing empty seats on select tour dates. (NBC News was unable to directly verify its authenticity.)
Indeed, some of the evidence for a slowdown is anecdotal. SeatGeek said in an email that the average price of resale tickets to attend a summer concert has dropped to $213 from $257 this time last year. The company suggested some of the drop could be attributed to the absence of mega-tours like Taylor Swift's “Eras Tour” and Beyoncé's “Renaissance” outings last year.
For artists whose popularity has risen, there seems to be high demand and high prices. The average resale price for Olivia Rodrigo's “Guts” tour is $571, with the next highest at $409 to see Morgan Wallen, according to SeatGeek data first reported by Axios.
Many of these tours are sold through Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. I before facing major allegations of monopoly, a claim it denies, Live Nation reported its biggest ever first quarter, with revenue of $3.8 billion. Its concert business alone increased 26% to $2.9 billion, while “loved fans” globally increased more than 20% and 42% in North America.
However, official government data points to the possibility of a return to a more normal pace for sales of live music events after a post-pandemic boom. US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Last month, movie and concert ticket prices rose just 3.4% year over year through April, the lowest reading since 2021 and the second month in a row to show a slowdown.
Dave Clark, publisher of Ticket News, which tracks the live entertainment industry, said the period of explosive growth in live music following pandemic reopenings can be seen, in retrospect, as an aberration: people were simply more willing and more financially able to go. as many shows as they could after months locked indoors.
This year, Clark said, an account may be emerging.
“The days when there was enough demand to sell stages for top dollar just aren't there in this live event economy, outside of people like Taylor Swift who can sell whatever they want wherever they want,” he said.
At a time when many consumers are struggling to afford basic necessities, he said, “people are seeing some of the prices they're asking and just saying, 'It's tough.'”
Another factor may be a supply problem, Clark added: too many acts trying to tour at once, or too many times. In the pre-streaming era, bands toured as a way to market an album. These days, he said, it's been reversed, as returns on recorded music have plummeted.
“Now they're making records to sell the tour,” he said. “This paradigm has a lot to do with it. It's just a very crowded market.”
The Black Keys have just released a new album and their debut single hit #1 on Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart in March.
However, the rock duo announced they would cancel and reschedule their summer tour plans, switching arenas to other venues that offer a “more intimate experience,” according to the band. The new dates have not yet been announced.
The Black Keys aren't the only group to fall victim to costly concert fatigue.
Pop-rock band 311 have announced that they have canceled their upcoming European tour dates due to the “increasing costs of touring overseas” which have made completing certain parts of the tour “unfeasible” .
Other stars like Pink and Justin Timberlake have also recently canceled specific show dates, while the Jonas Brothers recently they postponed their upcoming European touralthough none officially cited financial concerns as reasons for doing so.
“I think with all this competition for fan dollars, obviously it was natural that some artists were going to lose out,” said Bill Werde, director of Syracuse University's Bandier Program for the Recording and Entertainment Industries.
There are still plenty of large-scale tours planned for this summer that, so far, don't seem to be affected by low demand. Hootie & the Blowfish have 48 dates booked this year, while Dave Matthews Band is slated for 34. Other headline acts hitting the road include Maroon 5, Zac Brown Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kenny Chesney and Chris Stapleton.
But experts say recent economic trends in the live music industry, especially the kind of consolidation now being targeted by the Justice Department, have resulted in fewer, smaller-sized venues.
This has made it more difficult for a given tour date to make financial sense for the artist, venue and promoter.
“Some shows, they can't afford to lower their prices; they can't afford to wait to try to sell the rest of the building,” Clark said.
If there is uncertainty that all stakeholders can at least reach a balance, he said, the program could be canceled.
These realities have collided with a more circumspect concert player. Brittney D'Mello, a 23-year-old K-pop fan from New Jersey who works in corporate marketing, posted on X about her frustrations with the current touring landscape.
“Tickets are too expensive,” D'Mello said. “There are only a SMALL amount of people (10%) who will spend more than $500 on vip/floor/premium,” he said. “The rest of us are on budgets and we're not going to spend $100 on nosebleeds,” he said, referring to the seats that are usually further from the stage.
“Everyone is on tour this year… and we only have money for 2-3 concerts MAX,” he added.
In a later interview with NBC News, D'Mello said he simply decided to limit the budget for his concert.
“I'm only going to see two artists who are my favorite artists,” he said. “But I will no longer go to concerts casually. And after going to concerts twice, I think I'll stop there.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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