Britney Spears And Janet Jackson Play Less Than Full Houses On Current Tours

Britney Spears and Janet Jackson have a lot in common: They both are talented (even though many question their singing abilities), they both specialize in high school cheerleader-style dance moves, and both are gay icons. Unfortunately, both artists are having a difficult time playing to full crowds despite the hype from their PR teams.

On Billboard‘s latest Boxscore list, there is some bad news. Britney comes in at No. 7, but that’s with nine shows reported at the AXIS at Planet Hollywood. None of the nine shows were sold out. In fact, Britney sold 25,752 tickets out of 37,501 available. As bad as that seems, Britney Spears has already made a lot of money from her Las Vegas residency last year. Perhaps, for now, it would be a good time to end the residency before shows have to get cancelled.

Then, there’s Janet Jackson, who has been under fire for chart manipulation tactics that are considered by some to be completely desperate. Many sites, including Showbiz411 and Hits Daily Double, have noted that Janet is using such “marketing” tactics as bundling albums with ticket sales, t-shirts, and even Uber rides. Billboard, a magazine who has been under fire for allowing less-than-kosher chart tactics to happen previously (see Lady Gaga’s 99 cent album sale), says nothing here is illegal, although many disagree.

There is a current petition on Change.org from an alleged fan that claims concertgoers are receiving albums with concert t-shirts, although there was never any intention on buying a CD. The petition also states that concertgoers are even being told that the purpose of the album giveaway is to increase Janet Jackson’s Unbreakable chart position. However, some Janet Jackson fans have left comments after the petition and accused the whole controversy of being racist and unnecessary.

Janet Jackson’s Unbreakable World Tour has been successful, but it’s not the record-breaking ticket sales event that PR execs would like you to think. On Billboard‘s Current Boxscore chart, one of Janet’s Florida dates comes in at No. 71 with a show that failed to sell out. This follows shows in Tampa, Minneapolis, and Grand Rapids, MI, that have also failed to sell out. Live Nation still hasn’t reported over half of Janet’s dates, so many are wondering why.

It’s quite possible that Live Nation is just overwhelmed this season and just hasn’t had enough time to report ticket sales for 12 shows, even though some of those shows occurred two months ago. They did, however, waste no time in reporting sellouts for shows in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Toronto.

There will be a lot of people who will claim that ageism is the reason why Britney Spears and Janet Jackson are reporting less-than-stellar ticket sales in many places. However, Madonna proves that notion completely false. At 57 years old, Madonna has been selling out venues all over the world, including a 40,000-seat stadium in Stockholm, Sweden, recently. Unlike with Janet Jackson, Live Nation hasn’t stalled in reporting the sales for any of her shows.

In any case, the fact remains that Britney Spears and Janet Jackson could still make some money at the Box Office — something they can’t do with their records. Then again, unless you are Adele or Taylor Swift, barely any artist makes money with record sales. Twenty years from now, we will still be talking about Britney Spears and Janet Jackson.

[Photo by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images]