Why aren't people going to this summer's biggest concerts?

In recent weeks, big-name acts like The Black Keys, Jennifer Lopez, and Bad Bunny have either cancelled shows or reorganized their tours due to low ticket sales.

Are these merely isolated setbacks, or do they point to a more troubling future for the concert industry in the streaming age?

Music journalists Jem Aswad and Maura Johnston join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to explain the challenges that even some of the most popular acts are facing in the current economic climate.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: Maura, I always have this temptation in my mind to connect high streaming numbers with a high number of tickets sold. But over and over again, we seem to get this evidence that people will stream your music, but they will not turn up to see you live. Do you see those ideas as particularly linked?

Maura: I mean, streaming is such a low commitment endeavor. It's $9.99 or $14.99 a month, and you can put whatever song you want to hear on, and then go to the next thing. Whereas with a show, even before the fees that get added on, tickets are expensive. Especially now, what do you save money for when the cost of living has gone up a lot lately? So people are being more judicious about their spending, and they'll save their money for the shows that are big deals, whether it's the Eras Tour in Amsterdam or the Grateful Dead show in Las Vegas. I think that a lot of artists need to bring up their production values and make their shows events.

Jem: Something I would say to that is, something that has really changed in the age of streaming: those of us who are old enough to remember buying CDs and buying records, that was an investment. You are investing in this artist. You believe in this artist; you're putting your money down. You're maybe walking home with the album under your arm so everybody can see it. That's something that you see in a different way now. Because people are flocking to Justin Timberlake's concerts or Madonna's hits tour who could not care less about their last three albums, you know? It's what that artist meant to them at the time.

So, if there's a one-hit wonder with a big streaming hit, that is not the same level of investment of an artist that you grew up with, or an artist that you followed for three or four albums. Even if you're not paying attention to the new ones, like the Stones' tour is doing great and nobody has cared about a Rolling Stones album for 40 years. So it's really that there are different levels of investment here.

Elamin: I remember when I went to Sunrise Records after having worked several hours of minimum wage in order to be able to afford this one album. The investment certainly was different than just being able to stream a song. Maura, yesterday on this podcast we talked about why people aren't going out to see movies as much anymore. Obviously the concert industry is very different, but do you see a connection between those two worlds?

Maura: Absolutely. I feel like music is sort of a leading indicator for digital age media consumption because it's so atomized and bite-sized, and because there's so much more. I remember during the peak of peak TV, people were like, "500 shows in a year? What?" And it's like, that many albums come out, like, every month, and that doesn't really count singles. But I think also there's something to be said about the media landscape in general.

I feel like the demise of mass media, of this place where you can go to find out what's going on, without having to sign up for a fan club or a mailing list, is really kind of killing the way in which people who aren't as plugged in get information…. I feel like there's this disintegration of these promotional outlets and the way in which everybody consumes media now, which is very single-serving. You don't have your eye kind of fall on a page and be like, "Oh, that looks interesting. I'll check it out." So it's hitting music, but I think it's starting to hit the other cultural industries as well.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Stuart Berman.