"Tour cancellations and a drop in audience demand has given U.S. ticket-seller Live Nation a reputation of inconsistency," industry observers in the US are saying. "Everybody recognizes there is a problem. The biggest problem is that everybody (concert venues, promoters and musicians) makes their prices individually," added Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of Pollstar, who was quoted in the New York Post. A Wall Street player also said: "Investors are frustrated with Live Nation because of the inconsistency in the numbers," referring to the difficulty of predicting its profits over the past few years.

High ticket prices seem to be a culprit in the downtrend... the low demand for high priced tickets and a weak economy - the average concert ticket price hit €56 in early 2010. One music industry blogger, Bob Lefsetz, wrote:

"...Unilaterally. Supposedly 200 at CAA alone." about cancelled gigs.

"Our whole musical business culture is bankrupt. The major labels can’t build acts because they’ve got no revenue and no one working there. They can put their energies behind one or two horses at most. Labels used to support clubs. But they can no longer afford to, and club promoters are not incentivized to lose money, because they know when the act grows, it’ll just go to Live Nation or AEG. Agents felt they were in a winning position. Acts would always get paid, no, let’s make that OVERPAID! But it’s one thing for the promoter to lose money at a show, it’s another thing for the act to lose the date entirely. Who’s going to give the bad news? Where does the buck stop?

Looks like Live Nation is crying uncle. And can you sue Live Nation for breach of contract when most of your business is done with the behemoth? Acts and managers are going to have to adjust. The free ride is over. Especially for those who haven’t had hits in eons. You’ve now got to earn your pay. And that pay is going to be a lot less. The days of the act making a profit and the promoter losing his shirt appear to be over."