Why Zayn, Post Malone Canceled Tours — but Olivia Rodrigo Is Still Selling Out
The period of sky-high concert-ticket prices is exposing pop music’s center class — or, a minimum of, who is not among the many 1%.
A slew of high-profile artists have lately made headlines for downsizing, suspending, or outright canceling their area excursions, from heartthrob Zayn Malik and chart-topper Post Malone to legacy lady group the Pussycat Dolls, who had been refreshingly candid with followers about why solely one in every of their scheduled US dates would go forward.
“When we announced the PCD FOREVER Tour, we hoped to bring the show to fans across the world,” the group said in a statement. “After taking an honest look at the North American run, we’ve made the difficult and heartbreaking decision to cancel all but one of the North American dates.”
Although Malik, Malone, and fellow tour canceler Meghan Trainor have cited different causes for his or her modifications of coronary heart — health struggles, scheduling challengesand family obligationsrespectively — followers and media retailers alike have speculated that low ticket gross sales could possibly be a minimum of partially in charge. As the web started circulating screenshots from every tour’s Ticketmaster venue maps displaying swaths of still-empty seatssome have dubbed this phenomenon “blue dot fever,” framing the pattern as a backlash in opposition to a damaged, overpriced ticketing system.
But whereas it is well-documented that dwell music lovers are fed up with forking over piles of money, do not get too excited: This in all probability is not an indication that the good concert-ticket squeeze is coming to an finish. More doubtless, it is a sequence of hiccups within the average concertgoer’s cost-benefit analysis.
As Rebecca Haw Allensworth, visiting professor at Harvard Law School, previously told Vox: “Most of the drive behind those really big, expensive concerts is just people’s willingness to pay.”
The live performance business continues to be booming for bona fide A-listers
Olivia Rodrigo headlines Lollapalooza in 2025. Erika Goldring/WireImage
It seems that not every performer can price-gouge and get away with it.
That privilege is essentially reserved for superstars like Taylor Swift and Beyonce — figures whose live shows are designed as grand spectacles and handled as once-in-a-lifetime alternatives — and the brand new era of pop giants following of their wake.
Olivia Rodrigo skilled such intense demand for her upcoming area trek that she added over 20 reveals to her unique schedule, together with a 10-show run at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, breaking Jay-Z’s document for the longest residency. Harry Styles will play a whopping 30 reveals at Madison Square Garden later this yr — and regardless of prime tickets costing 4 figures, his followers flocked to the presale in document numbers.
These success tales aren’t reserved for artists making strictly pop music both, but somewhat for artists making fabulously widespread music, regardless of the style. Noah Kahana folk-rock phenom whose first-week album sales rival these of Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish, comfortably offered out their 2026 stadium tour — greater than 1 million tickets throughout 30 live shows, per The Wall Street Journal. Even with Ticketmaster’s Face Value Exchange — a program artists can choose into that prohibits resellers from charging greater than face worth — the toll to see Kahan up shut this summer time may run about $500 per fan. When tickets went on sale, even nosebleed seats hovered across the three-figure mark.
These eye-popping worth tags have develop into normal fare for giant stars, particularly since pandemic restrictions lifted; the typical ticket worth in 2026 is $144, Fortune reportedin comparison with $82 in 2020.
Peering into their hole wallets, followers tend to blame Live Nationwhich a federal jury lately discovered responsible for holding an unlawful monopoly. Still, a lot of the issue might be traced to easy provide and demand. Superfans of Rodrigo, Styles, and Kahan have evidently deemed these splurges worthwhile, signaling to the dwell occasion business that there is nonetheless cash on the desk. If individuals are keen to pay, ticket prices are likely to keep rising. Live Nation reported record-high concert attendance in 2025 and $3.79 billion in revenue within the first quarter of 2026 alone, a 12% enhance from the identical interval final yr.
Meanwhile, the live-music increase could have led some artists to overestimate their star energy and gross sales potential.
“The acts that really have community around them, and authenticity, are doing incredibly well,” Howie Schnee, president and co-owner of the live performance promotion firm CEG Presents, advised me. “Noah Kahan is an obvious example of that. And of course, in the jam-band world, Billy Strings and Phish and Goose — a lot of people who follow those acts, that’s their No. 1 favorite band. Could anyone ever say the Pussycat Dolls are their favorite act?”
Mid-tier pop stars are attempting — and failing — to make the most of the second
The Pussycat Dolls carry out in 2008. Vince Bucci/Getty Images for Maui and Sons
The signs of “blue dot fever” are extra contained than they could seem, Schnee stated, noting they’re extra indicative of overenthusiastic reserving methods than “emblematic of the industry overall.”
Although Malone is a well-liked artist by any metric, he is presently within the midst of a rustic rebrand, and it is unclear what number of followers will observe his tour bus into new territory. Tickets for his subsequent tour, co-headlined by Jelly Roll, went on sale earlier than Malone’s new album was even completed — prematurely assuming the scale and eagerness of his paying viewers.
Malik, Trainor, and the Pussycat Dolls, in the meantime, have all achieved industrial success and cultural relevance prior to now — but one No. 1 hit from a decade in the past would not justify the rising value of an area ticket in the present day.
In an period when a ticket to any common pop live performance threatens to interrupt the financial institution — we’re not even counting the rising prices of transportation and lodging to get to the live performance within the first place — followers have gotten extra selective. Personally, as a proud pop lady who grew up with “Buttons” and “Don’t Cha” on my iPod, it is no contest: I’d somewhat skip the Pussycat Dolls reunion gimmick ($120 for higher bowl at Madison Square Garden; I checked) and put that cash in the direction of a costlier ticket to see Rodrigo sing “Drivers License” live.
As for Schnee, in only a few days, he is bringing his household to see Bruce Springsteen at Madison Square Garden. Even as somebody with greater than 30 years of business expertise, he discovered the entire value mind-boggling: “Throw in gas, parking, food, whatever,” he rapidly calculated, “it becomes $1,400 for one night.”
Schnee added that he would not swallow that expense for any common Joe with a guitar. If an artist is charging area costs, they higher be having an arena-sized affect on the zeitgeist.
Despite the economic anxiety and uncertainty plaguing many people, Schnee stated, the demand to see some artists within the flesh is “recession-proof” — emphasis on some.
“People definitely have to make a decision,” I concluded. “They can’t do it all.”
