Blue dot fever | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: A little bit more music news. Now, I just learned something,

0:03 Speaker 1: and as someone who's worked in the music industry for

0:05 Speaker 1: a long time, I'm a little embarrassed that I did

0:08 Speaker 1: not know this term. But there is a term in

0:11 Speaker 1: the touring industry called blue dot fever. This is from

0:15 Speaker 1: musiclly dot com. Again, this is another one of these

0:18 Speaker 1: websites that I really like as far as getting access

0:21 Speaker 1: to music industry news, and of course it's very handy

0:24 Speaker 1: doing a show like this. Actually, let's start with the first.

0:28 Speaker 1: There's two articles about this, so blue dot fever. I

0:31 Speaker 1: did not know that this is a thing, or I

0:33 Speaker 1: knew that it was a thing. I guess I didn't

0:35 Speaker 1: know that it had a name. Again, this is from

0:38 Speaker 1: music Ally. So this is the first story that just

0:40 Speaker 1: went up a couple days ago, Ticketmaster, Live Nation and

0:43 Speaker 1: the quietly canceled tours catching blue dot fever. Oh actually,

0:53 Speaker 1: hang on, Uh. This website wants me to sign up

0:58 Speaker 1: for a free account, which is fine, except I'm trying

1:03 Speaker 1: to do this in real time. All right, Let's let's

1:05 Speaker 1: read the newest story because this will update us. So

1:08 Speaker 1: here's what blue dot fever is. So it says here Thursday. Again,

1:11 Speaker 1: this is from music ally dot com. It says, actually,

1:13 Speaker 1: yesterday we wrote about the blue dot fever phase or

1:17 Speaker 1: phrase that's been prominent in music trade media this week,

1:21 Speaker 1: following a spate of big tours being canceled or delayed

1:25 Speaker 1: amid rumors of poor sales as the and by the way,

1:29 Speaker 1: you know, the inflation that is really gripping the economy,

1:35 Speaker 1: affordability issues and so forth. They absolutely affect the touring industry,

1:39 Speaker 1: no doubt about it, and touring itself has become increasingly

1:43 Speaker 1: cost prohibitive in the last few years, it says here.

1:45 Speaker 1: As the company involved in many of those tours, Live

1:49 Speaker 1: Nation has now responded to speculation that blue dot fever

1:53 Speaker 1: is a worrying trend for twenty twenty six, and as

1:56 Speaker 1: you may have guessed, it has an alternative view. Quote.

1:59 Speaker 1: Of all all the shows Live Nation has on the

2:02 Speaker 1: books this year, less than one percent have been canceled.

2:06 Speaker 1: That's not blue dot fever. It's a normal touring year, unquote,

2:11 Speaker 1: said Live Nation's a spokesperson to music Ally told music

2:16 Speaker 1: Ally quote, In fact, twenty twenty six is shaping up

2:18 Speaker 1: to be a record with concert sales up eleven percent

2:23 Speaker 1: for the year. Unquote. That surprises me, especially with the

2:28 Speaker 1: price of tickets. These are figures for all the shows

2:31 Speaker 1: Live Nation is putting on, rather than just the bigger

2:34 Speaker 1: arena and stadium shows that are the focus of the

2:37 Speaker 1: blue dot fever talk. So I guess, and again I'm

2:40 Speaker 1: just learning the serm. I guess when you talk about

2:42 Speaker 1: blue dot fever, that tends to apply more to the

2:45 Speaker 1: big tours, arena and stadium tours, and Live Nation is

2:48 Speaker 1: kind of lumping in. You know, you've got theaters, you've

2:50 Speaker 1: got smaller venues, and Live Nation of course controls. I mean,

2:54 Speaker 1: it is a monopoly, let's call it what it is.

2:56 Speaker 1: And they control and Live Nation and Ticketmaster are the

2:59 Speaker 1: same thing for people who no, Ticketmaster is a subsidiary

3:02 Speaker 1: of Live Nation. Live Nation controls most the vast majority

3:08 Speaker 1: of the national artist touring industry in this country. But

3:14 Speaker 1: so they're putting some spin on it. They're saying, well,

3:18 Speaker 1: there's no blue dot fever. Look where ticket sales are

3:20 Speaker 1: up eleven percent for us. But again that's including everything,

3:25 Speaker 1: not just the big arena and stadium tours, which is

3:28 Speaker 1: where the blue dot fever talk comes into play. Apparently,

3:30 Speaker 1: so it says you're going back to the article. Even so,

3:33 Speaker 1: the stats open a new speculation path. A lot of

3:38 Speaker 1: big artists are out on tour this year, and a

3:40 Speaker 1: lot of them are clearly doing good box office business.

3:44 Speaker 1: But this is a highly competitive environment. So the trend

3:49 Speaker 1: may be that when a promoter gets it wrong, where

3:52 Speaker 1: the venue size and or ticket prices don't match the

3:55 Speaker 1: true demand for that artist, it can be really wrong

3:58 Speaker 1: and obvious very quickly. So the debate is not our

4:02 Speaker 1: big concerts in trouble, but perhaps it's more about why

4:06 Speaker 1: specific tours have overshot so brutally and whether external factors

4:11 Speaker 1: costs in particular, are making the subsequent downgrades, delays, and

4:15 Speaker 1: cancellations swifter than in the past. So there you go. So,

4:19 Speaker 1: you know, I learned something new. Like I said, I

4:22 Speaker 1: was not aware of this blue dot fever phenomenon or

4:26 Speaker 1: that that was a term. Uh, but apparently it is.

4:29 Speaker 1: And you know, and again like I said, when there's

4:32 Speaker 1: difficulty in the economy in this case, you know, we

4:37 Speaker 1: talk about affordability and inflation and all that, it does

4:41 Speaker 1: very much affect the concert business. What's the first thing

4:45 Speaker 1: that you have to cut back on is entertainment. Right

4:49 Speaker 1: when you're when you're having difficulty, you know, I mean,

4:52 Speaker 1: if if you've got to choose between you know, groceries

4:54 Speaker 1: or buying a ticket to see a concert, and these

4:57 Speaker 1: tickets are so incredibly expensive, you know you gotta you

5:01 Speaker 1: gotta spend your money at the grocery store, right