Usher's forthcoming US tour is having box office problems according to media reports.

Many are putting the blame on his support act August Alsina. It is not an ideal pairing.

Usher known for mainstream and commercial appeal, and upstart Alsina is an unknown to that demographic with vulgar and explicit lyrics usually associated with ratched rappers.

Live Nation is said to be very concerned.

I predict 'a change is gonna come'.

[Edited 10/5/14 9:13am]

No-one EVER decides not to buy a concert ticket for a headliner because the support act isn't to their liking. Mostly you're not even aware of who the support even is when tickets go on sale.

like I said in the other thread...

Postpone the tour,finish the album,wait until the album is released and has had a few hit singles,then go out on a summer 2015 tour (with a better opening act).

Problem solved

TOTAL BS if Beyonce couldnt sell out MSG a few years back with Alicia Keys, then the problem has nothing to do with opening acts or shitty music. People may just be tired of it, this tour and the venues for USHER at this point need to be scaled WAY BACK.

SoulAlive said:

like I said in the other thread...

Postpone the tour,finish the album,wait until the album is released and has had a few hit singles,then go out on a summer 2015 tour (with a better opening act).

Problem solved

Problem solved.

He planned a tour at the wrong time.His album isn't even finished! He hasn't had any recent hit singles.That's a recipe for disaster.

I think this is an interesting example of the new music economy at work. People don't buy albums anymore right? They watch stuff on Youtbe and listen to it on Spotify. A few pay for itunes & mp3 downloads.

Now when I used to be regular buyer of records, it meant something to me. I only had so many records, and if I had an Usher record, it was guaranteed to get played a lot. So if he came around on tour, I'd recognize he was one of "my" folks and I'd want to support him. Today, nobody has that relationship. Usher is one of those things they listened to 4 years ago when he was hot. He's like a youtube meme, Chris Crocker or "Chocolate Rain" guy.

I saw the previous thread on this & looked up tix for his LA show; there are still seats available in almost every section. But blaming the poor performance on an unknown opening act is chickenshit. I guess they gotta blame somebody.