When Jennifer Lopez canceled her entire “This Is Me … Live” tour on Friday, she explained her reason in a pair of statements.The singer said the tour — which included a now-nixed July 22 concert at Ball Arena — was keeping her from spending time with her children, family and close friends, according to the announcement.
She was “heartsick and devastated about letting” fans down, she added. “Please know that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary.”
Embarrassingly low ticket sales tell a different story. Along with The Black Keys — which canceled its Sept. 24 Ball Arena date (and entire tour) the last week of May — a Ticketmaster seating chart published by Variety showed that hardly any of the seats for J Lo’s concert had been purchased. And that was after she had already cut seven shows in April, and tweaked the name of the tour to include the words “greatest hits.”
A comparison between Ticketmaster’s seating charts for Denver and those in other cities, including Tulsa, Okla., and Pittsburgh, similarly showed tens of thousands of unsold tickets, Variety wrote.
Black Keys’ charts? More or less the same, which explains why the blues-rock band said it was retooling its current tour for more “intimate” venues — though it’s unclear if it will try to stick to the 31 markets already announced. Tickets for that and the J Lo tour will be refunded within 14 to 21 days, Ticketmaster said.
So who else has canceled shows? Omaha rock band 311 said its upcoming European tour dates fell victim to the “rising costs of touring overseas,” which made certain parts of the tour “unfeasible,” NBC News reported. Specific show dates from Pink, Justin Timberlake and the Jonas Brothers also have disappeared from ticketing websites with little or no warning, NBC said.
In late May, the U.S. Department of Justice sued mega-promoter Live Nation, alleging the company that owns Ticketmaster holds a monopoly over live events that has harmed consumers. So the reaction to the J Lo tour cancellation on social media focused on ticket prices. But that doesn’t explain why other huge tours are selling out, despite expensive seats.
On one hand, it’s an artist-specific concern. Musicians are subject to the changing ways in which we view them throughout their careers. There is clearly little national appetite for a live J Lo comeback. On the other hand, it’s a miscalculation on the part of promoters, who overestimate demand and end up illustrating how modest their artists’ draws actually are.
Empower Field at Mile High hosts concerts with at least twice the capacity of Ball Arena, and musical acts ranging from Taylor Swift to The Rolling Stones (June 20) seem at home there. Those fans are willing to pay top dollar for shows, but some big acts charge less than others. Billy Joel fans headed to his Coors Field concert on July 12, for example, can still find tickets for $53, which is about half what the nosebleeds for The Rolling Stones cost.
The difference is partially in the logistics of big tours. How much do you need to charge to make up for production costs — and support the dozens of people, and dozen-plus trailers, typically required for an arena concert? Will canned, paid promotion work in the absence of viral videos? In J Lo’s case, the announcement of her tour arrived with her “This Is Me… Now” movie, which got lukewarm reviews for its mix of bold choreography and self-aware commentary.
Same with the middling “Trolls 3,” which featured Timberlake as part of a strategic comeback that didn’t take.
Promoters may have miscalculated demand, but mounting a mainstream comeback is also tough, especially after years away from touring. One can only rely on marketing data so much until tickets go public.
Competition remains fierce, which is another factor in low-selling tours. Denver is a tour-routing mecca, drawing all kinds of artists to partake in the city’s voracious live-music appetite. Despite record-high average ticket prices, music fans here are generally well-served by their heroes.
As vexing as they can be, big tours still work. But artists who haven’t hit the road in a while should look hard at whether they’re justified — and if sticking to modest venues will ensure sold-out shows, as opposed to thousands of empty seats.
In an age of influencers and advertising onslaughts, audiences still decide the winners. Despite those marketing strategies and blustery promotion, celebrities can still be humbled — and take lessons from the fact that they can’t force a comeback, no matter how much they want it.
