Blue dot fever | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 A little bit more music news. Now, I just learned something, and as someone who's worked in the music industry for a long time, I'm a little embarrassed that I did not know this term. But there is a term in the touring industry called blue dot fever. This is from musiclly dot com. Again, this is another one of these websites that I really like as far as getting access to music industry news, and of course it's very handy doing a show like this. Actually, let's start with the first. There's two articles about this, so blue dot fever.

0:31 I did not know that this is a thing, or I knew that it was a thing. I guess I didn't know that it had a name. Again, this is from music Ally. So this is the first story that just went up a couple days ago, Ticketmaster, Live Nation and the quietly canceled tours catching blue dot fever. Oh actually, hang on, Uh. This website wants me to sign up for a free account, which is fine, except I'm trying to do this in real time. All right, Let's let's read the newest story because this will update us. So here's what blue dot fever is.

1:09 So it says here Thursday. Again, this is from music ally dot com. It says, actually, yesterday we wrote about the blue dot fever phase or phrase that's been prominent in music trade media this week, following a spate of big tours being canceled or delayed amid rumors of poor sales as the and by the way, you know, the inflation that is really gripping the economy, affordability issues and so forth. They absolutely affect the touring industry, no doubt about it, and touring itself has become increasingly cost prohibitive in the last few years, it says here.

1:45 As the company involved in many of those tours, Live Nation has now responded to speculation that blue dot fever is a worrying trend for twenty twenty six, and as you may have guessed, it has an alternative view. Quote. Of all all the shows Live Nation has on the books this year, less than one percent have been canceled. That's not blue dot fever. It's a normal touring year, unquote, said Live Nation's a spokesperson to music Ally told music Ally quote, In fact, twenty twenty six is shaping up to be a record with concert sales up eleven percent for the year.

2:24 Unquote. That surprises me, especially with the price of tickets. These are figures for all the shows Live Nation is putting on, rather than just the bigger arena and stadium shows that are the focus of the blue dot fever talk. So I guess, and again I'm just learning the serm. I guess when you talk about blue dot fever, that tends to apply more to the big tours, arena and stadium tours, and Live Nation is kind of lumping in. You know, you've got theaters, you've got smaller venues, and Live Nation of course controls.

2:54 I mean, it is a monopoly, let's call it what it is. And they control and Live Nation and Ticketmaster are the same thing for people who no, Ticketmaster is a subsidiary of Live Nation. Live Nation controls most the vast majority of the national artist touring industry in this country. But so they're putting some spin on it. They're saying, well, there's no blue dot fever. Look where ticket sales are up eleven percent for us. But again that's including everything, not just the big arena and stadium tours, which is where the blue dot fever talk comes into play.

3:30 Apparently, so it says you're going back to the article. Even so, the stats open a new speculation path. A lot of big artists are out on tour this year, and a lot of them are clearly doing good box office business. But this is a highly competitive environment. So the trend may be that when a promoter gets it wrong, where the venue size and or ticket prices don't match the true demand for that artist, it can be really wrong and obvious very quickly. So the debate is not our big concerts in trouble, but perhaps it's more about why specific tours have overshot so brutally and whether external factors costs in particular, are making the subsequent downgrades, delays, and cancellations swifter than in the past.

4:18 So there you go. So, you know, I learned something new. Like I said, I was not aware of this blue dot fever phenomenon or that that was a term. Uh, but apparently it is. And you know, and again like I said, when there's difficulty in the economy in this case, you know, we talk about affordability and inflation and all that, it does very much affect the concert business. What's the first thing that you have to cut back on is entertainment. Right when you're when you're having difficulty, you know, I mean, if if you've got to choose between you know, groceries or buying a ticket to see a concert, and these tickets are so incredibly expensive, you know you gotta you gotta spend your money at the grocery store, right