Beyonce's "Cowboy Carter" World Tour Is About To Kick-Off And Ticket Sales Are Abysmal, With Many Shows Still Having Thousands Of Seats Available
Variety - Beyoncé’s big country music Texas Hold ‘Em bet is not paying off with concertgoers, with thousands of tickets still unsold for her her Cowboy Carter Tour despite it kicking off in less than two weeks.
The official Ticketmaster site shows that the tour’s opening night of April 28 in Los Angeles still has over 3,200 unsold seats — with standard tickets available from $85 and resale tickets on the site from just $35. Sales have been even slower for the final two nights in the West Coast city, with over 3,800 standard tickets still available for each show.
And the East Coast hasn’t been faring much better. The tour’s last night in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium — the closest venue to New York City — still has over 5,500 tickets unsold, even though it was added on as an extra date due to supposed demand. Down in Georgia, the Atlanta show on July 14 has in excess of 5,800 tickets, including over 50% of floor seats — the most expensive tickets with the closest views of Queen Bey — still available.
Live Nation, however, have pushed back at the suggestion that Beyoncé is having trouble selling tickets. Last month, in a statement to Billboard, the events giant claimed that 94% of tickets for the Cowboy Carter Tour have been sold. Since then, two further dates in Las Vegas have been added, bringing the total number of tour stops to 32.
Let me preface everything and start by saying this: I like Beyonce.
I am not a Beyonce hater.
She's one of the biggest artists of all time. If you deny how talented she is, or how many hits she's made, you are just a plain old hater. You don't have to like her as person, but you're an idiot if you deny those things.
What I do have a problem with however, is how the music industry has moved heaven and Earth to shove everything she does down our throats, position her as something she's not, and call us crazy for disagreeing with it all.
Point in case- let's rewind to the Grammy Awards two years ago, in 2024.
Jay Z, longtime high-ranking Illuminati member, was "honored" with a lifetime achievement award from the academy.
During his speech, he went full Michael Jordan/Kanye and took the opportunity to put the academy on blast for never awarding his wife Beyonce, "Album of The Year".
Fast forward to this year's Grammys, where Beyonce's country album, Cowboy Carter, was nominated for freaking ELEVEN Grammys, (despite being meh). And low and behold, wouldn't you know it, it won "Album of The Year"?
It doesn't take a rocket scientist, or a country music expert to recognize this for what it was- an absolute joke.
She beat out Chris Stapleton for crying out loud.
But while I’m fully aware that a critique of her recent ticket sales may ruffle some feathers, it’s not her performance that’s on trial here. What we’re really talking about is a much broader issue, one that reflects the flaws in the music industry, and more specifically, the concert ticket market.
The entire music industry business model is and has been broken for a while now.
Look no further than the fact that festival tickets are so expensive now they're offering payment plans to attendees and 60% of attendees are taking them up on the offer! (With interest)
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Beyonce's tour has faced some serious struggles at the box office, and it’s a story that’s playing out in venues across the globe. From Los Angeles to New Jersey, thousands of seats are sitting empty despite this being one of the most anticipated tours of the year.
Again, talking indisputable facts here- she just snagged Album of the Year at the Grammys and her Renaissance World Tour in 2023 sold over 2.7 million tickets.
But as of mid-April, Ticketmaster is still showing more than 3,200 unsold tickets for the opening night in Los Angeles, with prices starting at a measly $85, prices that have even dipped lower on resale sites, some going as low as $35.
And it gets way worse.
Other cities like Atlanta and New Jersey are seeing similar issues with over 5,000 unsold tickets, even for premium floor seats.
How the fuck is this possible? When ticket sales for her previous tours were met with frenzied demand, what’s changed now?
It’s not that Beyoncé’s popularity has waned; it’s that the ticket market itself is fundamentally broken. Fans who fought to get tickets during the presale, only to be stuck with overpriced nosebleeds, are now witnessing better seats being sold at a fraction of the cost. And people are bullshit. And rightfully so. That frustration is palpable.
And it’s not just isolated to Beyoncé’s tour. This has become a common thread running through the industry.
Here’s the ugly truth that most people aren’t talking about: The reason ticket sales are struggling isn’t because fans don’t want to see their favorite artists- it’s because the music industry is being run by corporations that prioritize profits over fan experiences.
Looking at you Ticketmaster.
(Possibly the worst company in America next to Comcast- with by far the worst app and customer experience on planet Earth)
After its merger with Live Nation, Ticketmaster has become essentially the only game in town when it comes to selling tickets for major concerts. What we’ve seen since the merger is an aggressive push for “dynamic” pricing (i.e. surge pricing, aka price gouging) that inflates ticket prices to ludicrous levels.
For the lucky fans who manage to snag "presale" tickets, they’re often left with overpriced seats in the back of massive stadiums.
Then, as the show nears, those same seats drop to a more reasonable price- essentially leaving loyal customers who played by the rules out of pocket.
It's fucking bonkers. The complete opposite of how it should be set up.
You are essentially penalized for being a diehard fan, and committing your money early to the show.
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In the case of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour, we saw this play out in real-time. Fans were scrambling for tickets during the presale, only to be left with the short end of the stick. Those who managed to score better seats at premium prices are now watching as these very same seats are listed for a fraction of the price. This isn't just a Beyoncé problem, this is a system that’s screwing over every concert-goer in the game.
But again, this is what happens when you let private equity, and Wall Street bros. get involved with shit they have no fucking clue about.
Fans are the lifeblood of the industry, and yet, they’re treated like disposable commodities. These inflated prices aren’t just hurting the wallets of fans—they’re completely distorting the entire concert-going experience.
We already know that ticketing platforms like Ticketmaster charge ridiculous fees. These fees are tacked on during the purchase process, making what seems like an affordable ticket even more expensive than it appears. For some, this makes the cost of attending a show skyrocket. The transparency is non-existent, and the customer service is borderline nonexistent.
Beyond the price tag, there's also the absurd complexity and frustration of trying to get tickets in the first place.
You can’t even blame fans for their anger when tickets go on sale for $100 and then quickly skyrocket to $500 because of the “high demand.”
It's a fucking joke.
What’s left is a bunch of frustrated fans who feel like the system is rigged.
And they're not wrong.
They’re stuck with overpriced tickets, bad seats, and no real options for redress. What happened to the days when you could go to a concert without feeling like you needed to take out a loan to pay for it?
Glad you asked.
The artists aren't to blame here.
Record deals are structured now where the artists income is pretty much dependent upon everything except for creating and selling their "art".
Artists see dick for "selling" their music nowadays. Thanks to streaming mostly.
Everything is pennies now and those pennies get divided up between anybody who had a friend of a friend who was in the same zip code as the artist when that record was actually recorded. Publishing rights, masters rights, PROs, they all get their pound of flesh and whatever is left over usually goes to the artist.
Enter "the 360 deal".
As a result of people not forking over $18 at Newbury Comics for a CD anymore, the carrot that record labels have used to dangle in front of artists for the last couple of decades has been the 360-deal. Which entitles the label to a piece of everything their "artist" does to generate revenue. Usually in exchange for a nice fat "advance".
Not a huge piece, but a piece.
That means everything involved with touring- where all the money is nowadays. Ticket sales, merch, meet & greets, VIP experiences, merch, the studio produced tour documentary, and merch.
The combination of corporate greed, ticketing monopolies, and an increasingly disconnected relationship between fans and artists has created a system that no longer serves the people who make the music industry thrive.
The reality is that the industry's current trajectory is unsustainable.
Fans will eventually tire of paying extortionate prices for subpar experiences, and they’ll start looking for alternatives. That time might finally be here.
It’s time to rethink the way we do concerts.
Whether it's through eliminating unnecessary fees, rethinking surge pricing, or finding new ways to connect fans with tickets, something has to change.
Because ow long are we going to let the corporations dictate the fate of the music industry before this thing is completely in the tank?
p.s. - my favorite 3 Beyonce records -