The biggest musical acts face muted concert demand

The Future. Despite Live Nation reporting record revenues and ticket sales this year, some tours that you would expect to be hits have turned out to be flops… leading some tours to cancel before they even begin. With so much competition for fans’ attention, some big acts may choose to play in venues much smaller than they typically would to ensure that they can have the optics of a sold-out tour.

Concert crisis
Live music seems to have an over-saturation problem, according to Insider.

• Artists like Jennifer Lopez, The Black Keys, Troye Sivan & Charli XCX, and Wallows had to cancel tours or scale them way back due to soft ticket sales.
• Others like Cardi B, Justin Timberlake, and P!NK have also been dealing with underperforming tours, while major festivals like Coachella sold fewer tickets than expected.

So, what’s going on?

• Everybody’s on tour to make up for the lull during COVID, so competition is tough.
• Tickets are expensive, with the average ticket to see one of the top 100 acts costing $123.25 (and that’s to say nothing of how difficult it is to secure a ticket).

Those factors have led people to be extra discerning about what shows they choose to attend, opting to spend their money on one big cultural event (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé) or currently hot artists (Zach Bryan, Olivia Rodrigo) rather than spreading the wealth.