Is blue dot fever the cause of tour cancellations?

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]to the epidemic spreading across the music industry. Have you heard of the so-called blue dot fever? It's a term coined by the internet and tabloid newspapers after concerts are cancelled due to low ticket sales. The main symptom represented by the little blue dots on ticket masters venue map.

[00:00:16]Artists including Post Malone, the Pussycat Dolls, and Megan Trainer all cancing concert dates as speculation grows over week ticket sales. It comes as the average ticket price in 2025 hit $135.

[00:00:29]and as you know skyrocketing during resale. So are concert goers at their breaking point over prices? Let's bring in p contributor and host of the decibel and docket podcast Dave Brooks. Dave, thanks so much for joining Top Story tonight. So what do you think is this? I I mean I know at some point there's going to be a reckoning with Americans and the prices they're paying for live events. Is it this or are is it the axe not destroying enough fans?

[00:00:53]>> Oh, it's a little of both. I think I think that you know there's obviously demand isn't really strong for some of these acts. I mean look at Post Malone.

[00:01:01]He just toured last year and just did stadiums. You know he's definitely got enough demand to headline stage coach festival last weekend but you know fans aren't necessarily buying tickets for this stadium tour with Jelly Roll. Maybe it's a little bit demand. I also think it's ticket prices. Some of them are very expensive and fans are spending their money in other ways. Yeah, we're seeing resales climb dramatically. Do you think Americans are saying enough is enough even with the resale market?

[00:01:30]>> Yeah, I think I think people have had major price fatigue. Prices have continued to climb year-over-year. They finally flattened um from 2024 to 2025.

[00:01:43]Uh we'll be seeing what happens in 2026.

[00:01:45]Yeah, people are tired of paying these exorbitant prices for tickets and they're choosing to spend their money elsewhere.

[00:01:52]>> Post pandemic, right, we saw this resurgence in people wanting to see live music. I'd argue is also there with sports as well. Sports is still one of the, you know, only segments of television that is growing and streaming as well. Um, do you think the industry right now is oversaturated with performances or are people just adding too many dates to their calendars?

[00:02:12]There's just I mean you can say oversaturated there's a lot of stuff out there and and and like any marketplace whether it's uh film or concerts some things are going to fail uh and some things are going to work. There's plenty of things that are working right now, but it's just once we kind of get these high-profile cancellations all kind of clown together and then, you know, someone in the that the newspaper comes up with a funny term like blue dot fever, it kind of sticks and it it resonates with people, you know.

[00:02:42]>> It's weird though because there are other I don't know live acts that seem to be doing well. Like when you when you look at the sphere, it feels like any act that goes to the sphere does pretty well.

[00:02:53]>> Yeah, absolutely. And no doubts about to play the sphere pretty soon. And I think they're going to do tremendous um you know we've seen data company play there um Eagles um there's so many Yeah. Yeah. And it could be and that's because the sphere I I've been in the sphere. It's an incredible experience. It's unique. You're not going to see anything like it and people will pay money to see spend big bucks to go to Sphere. So >> here's the complicated question for you now. Country acts though still seem to be selling out. So what's going on?

[00:03:22]>> Country music is very strong right now.

[00:03:24]you Luke Combmes working way people really like to go to country concert and they're pretty reasonably priced.

[00:03:31]>> We thank you for watching and remember stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or watch live on our YouTube channel.