When Post Malone canceled the first few weeks of his Live Nation stadium tour with Jelly Roll on Friday, the rapper-turned-country star publicly said it’s because he wants to work on new music before hitting the road.

Some music sites instead cited low ticket sales, and music sources say Malone has come down with a condition that’s going around the industry right now: “Blue Dot Fever.”

“Seems that Post Malone came down with a serious case of Blue Dot Fever,” said a source, “and it’s contagious.” The “blue dots” refer to available seats at a show according to a Ticketmaster seating chart.

ABC station KVIA in El Paso, Tex., said of Malone’s axed Sun Bowl show, “Ticketmaster showed a majority of tickets not sold,” putting a Ticketmaster seating chart of the approximately 50K-seat venue onscreen with a sea of blue dots and saying, “the blue ones are empty seats.” (Malone has not had a new album since 2024, and just went on an 80-gig, all stadium tour from April 29 to September 21, 2025, before announcing the now-paused “Big Ass Stadium Tour Part 2.”)

Malone said publicly that the cancelations were not because of low ticket sales, but, “Truth is, I promised y’all beautiful people new music, and I don’t have the time to finish it before tour starts. We ain’t ready for tour just yet, so I’m making the decision to push the tour back about 3 weeks to get this music done.”

Also coming down with an alleged case of “Blue Dot Fever”: Meghan Trainor last month canceled her entire “Get In Girl” tour from Live Nation, but publicly cited work-life balance as the reason for pulling the plug after welcoming her third child in January. (Some reports alleged that ticket sales were partly to blame.) Trainor also did not acknowledge the alleged ticket issues, and told fans: “Balancing the release of a new album, preparing for a nationwide tour, and welcoming our new baby girl to our growing family of five has just been more than I can take on right now, and I need to be home and present for each and all of them at this time.”

Zayn Malik has also put his entire Live Nation summer tour on ice, but cited unspecified health reasons after sharing a photo from a hospital bed a couple weeks ago. Tickets for the U.S. tour were “soft, judging by seating maps on Ticketmaster,” Variety reported. Either way, Malik updated fans on his health by telling them: “I’ve been at home recovering and I’m doing well and will be better and stronger than before.”

Whatever the case, one veteran ticket doctor said the Blue Dot Fever is because, “Everybody’s high on their own supply. Will the artists finally push back? It’s hurting the fans. The question [for Post Malone] is, ‘Why is he doing another stadium tour?’ Post Malone will probably need to cancel a bunch more dates. Guess what? Nobody bought tickets — everything is priced so high. It’s all a bad situation.”