How 'blue dot fever' is affecting concerts
Live music remains popular, but many concerts are struggling with unsold tickets and cancellations. While superstars fill stadiums, smaller venues and acts are facing a
Live music remains popular, but many concerts are struggling with unsold tickets and cancellations. While superstars fill stadiums, smaller venues and acts are facing a crisis. The term "blue dot fever" has been circulating in the media for some time now. "Blue dots" refer to available seats on US ticket sales platform Ticketmaster. Lots of empty seats right before a concert can spell trouble for both artists and organizers — including cancelled shows. With more and more concerts afflicted by this "illness," is the future of the concert scene uncertain? The economy of superstars The situation is quite different for big name stars. Leading musicians like Beyonce, Oasis and Coldplay still easily fill large stadiums. According to official Pollstar charts, Beyonce had the most successful music tour in 2025, generating over $400 million (Є359 million) in revenue. The Oasis Live '25 tour was one of the biggest box office successes in recent years. Coldplay also remains a strong crowd-pleaser, with many concerts on their current world tour selling out instantly. Yet all big concerts share a common challenge: rising costs, as points out Johannes Everke from Germany's Federal Association of the Concert and Event Industry: "Due to increasing personnel costs, rising technical costs, energy and inflation, we have soaring production costs in comparison with 2019." As a result, tickets are becoming more expensive, meaning fewer fans can afford them. However, the impact of these rising costs are not evenly experienced across the board. Stephan Thanscheidt from FKP Scorpio, one of the largest concert and festival promoters in Europe, confirms this. "Several factors are in play here, such as some megastars having huge legions of fans who’d never miss their idols for anything.
And if they need to keep an eye on their spending, many people would choose to go for a large concert, perceived to be a major event, over several smaller ones if they need to keep an eye on their spending." Beyonce topped the list of the highest-grossing tours of 2025 with her 'Cowboy Carter Tour' Image: Cover-Images/IMAGO The late US economist Alan B. Krueger called this "the economics of superstars," in which only a few superstars generate most of the revenue. What about the stars of tomorrow? Johannes Everke believes the live music market is under significant strain. Typically, organizers rely on revenue generated from large concerts to fund smaller, lesser-known acts. However, this model is at risk of collapsing if the profit margins are reduced. Everke says that while large ticket sales at mega-events guarantee high revenue, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the promoters are gaining big profits due to ticket prices rising at a slower rate compared to promotion costs. "The circle of life means supporting smaller bands for a period until they become big enough to start making money. You then take those profits in turn and reinvest in so-called product development by supporting smaller acts once again," Everke told DW. He started out with intimate concerts and now fills stadiums: Ed Sheeran in 2011 (left) and 2024 Image: M. Harris/Capital Pictures/C. E. Junior/Fotoarena/IMAGO One prominent example is Ed Sheeran, who, along with others, was supported by FKP Scorpio over the years before becoming a top-selling star. "Many of our current successes began as passion projects, and we couldn't always know whether they would end up being financially successful," Stephan Thanscheidt confirms. "It wouldn’t be possible without cross-financing new ideas or artists we believe in.
The BriefWire