In the year to mid-April, total ticket sales were up by double digits to 95 million<\/strong>, with stadium ticket sales up 80% YoY<\/strong><\/span>, Live Nation said. Gross transaction value at Ticketmaster was up 10%<\/strong><\/span>, while ticket sales volume rose 5% YoY<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n Additionally, 85%<\/strong> of all expected sponsorships for 2025 have been committed, up by double digits from last year, Live Nation said.<\/p>\n All of that points to \u201ca historic year for live music,” Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n \u201cTicket sales are pacing well ahead of last year, with deferred revenue for both concerts and ticketing at record levels.\u00a0To support even more fans seeing their favorite artists, we\u2019re continuing to expand our global venue network, adding 20 major venues through 2026. As the global experience economy grows, the live music industry is leading the way, and we\u2019re positioned to compound growth by double-digits over many years,\u201d Rapino said in a note to investors.<\/p>\n “As the global experience economy grows, the live music industry is leading the way, and we\u2019re positioned to compound growth by double-digits over many years.”<\/p>\n Michael Rapino, Live Nation<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n However, unexpected weakness in non-concert activity translated into lower-than-expected revenue in Q1.<\/p>\n Overall revenue at Live Nation came in at $3.38 billion<\/strong> in the quarter ended March 31, down 11% YoY<\/strong><\/span> or 8% YoY<\/strong><\/span> at constant currency. That fell short of a $3.62 billion forecast.<\/p>\n Earnings per share also missed forecasts, coming in at -$0.32<\/strong> versus the expected -$0.22.<\/p>\n CFO Joe Berchtold<\/strong> said on the earnings call that the revenue decline was driven by non-concert activity and revenue from third-party promoters, while concerts and in-house promotion saw an increase.<\/p>\n Live Nation shows sold through Ticktetmaster were up 12% YoY<\/strong><\/span>, while shows from other promoters fell 2%<\/strong><\/span>. Non-concert categories like sports, arts and family events were down 9% YoY<\/strong><\/span>, while concert revenue was up 4%<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we were doing our planning\u2026 a few months back on expectations for the quarter, at that point, we didn\u2019t have any reason to anticipate this lower level of activity in the other parts of the business,\u201d Berchtold said.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything that we\u2019ve seen points to supply, not no demand issues. It\u2019s just less supply, year-on-year.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid concerns of a possible recession and a global tariff war that has turned markets jittery, Rapino said he isn\u2019t seeing any signs of a pullback in consumer demand.<\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t felt it at all yet,\u201d Rapino said.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, up until last week \u2013 whether it\u2019s a festival on sale or a new tour or a show that went on sale \u2013 [we\u2019re seeing] complete sell through and strong demand, beating last year\u2019s numbers. So we haven\u2019t seen a consumer pullback in any genre \u2013 pub, theater, stadium, amphitheater.\u201d<\/p>\n Rapino noted that the sponsorships business remains strong.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still see brands flocking and exploring and we\u2019re attracting new brands all the time\u2026 So far, those three legs of the stool \u2013 consumer demand, sponsorship and on-site [sales] \u2013 we haven\u2019t seen what others are seeing yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Berchtold noted that Live Nation\u2019s H1 earnings were dragged down by the fact that advance ticket sales for the busier second half of the year aren\u2019t recognized in the earnings until the events take place, while costs incurred are included in earlier quarters’ earnings.<\/p>\n Revenue in the Concerts segment came in at $2.48 billion<\/strong>, down 14% YoY<\/strong><\/span> or down 11% YoY<\/strong><\/span> on a constant currency basis.<\/p>\n Ticketing revenue fell 4% YoY<\/strong><\/span>, or 1%<\/strong><\/span> at constant currency, to $694.7 million<\/strong>. Sponsorship and ad revenue came in at $216.1 million<\/strong>, up 2% YoY<\/strong><\/span> or 9%<\/strong><\/span> at constant currency.<\/p>\n Live Nation reported consolidated operating income of $114.8 million<\/strong>, versus a loss of $41.4 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Adjusted operating income (AOI) was $341.1 million<\/strong>, down 6% YoY<\/strong><\/span> or down 0.5%<\/strong><\/span> at constant currency.<\/p>\n Currency fluctuations impacted operating income by 11%<\/strong> and AOI by 5%<\/strong>, Live Nation said. About 60%<\/strong> of the impact was absorbed by Ticketmaster, Berchtold added.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile FX has rebounded for a lot of markets, for Mexico and Latin America, it\u2019s still a headwind,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to have a little bit of a reported impact in the short term.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would say we\u2019re still in the early innings of the industry becoming better at pricing, smarter at it.”<\/p>\n Michael Rapino, Live Nation<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Live Nation\u2019s leadership team also noted they continue to work on optimizing prices through greater tiering of ticket prices and efforts to sell the back of the house through lower prices.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say we\u2019re still in the early innings of the industry becoming better at pricing, smarter at it,\u201d Rapino said, adding that it\u2019s \u201csomewhere between a science and an art right now.\u201d<\/p>\n One result of those efforts is that year to date in the US, the average get-in price across stadiums was 8%<\/strong><\/span> below last year\u2019s levels, at $60<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Rapino said there\u2019s \u201cstill lots of opportunity for the industry to continue to price [tickets] better to sell-through, as well as maximize some of the [more in-demand] tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n Berchtold hinted to analysts that, if revenue continues to surprise to the downside, Live Nation has leeway to improve margins through cost-cutting.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we\u2019re generally growing, we learned during Covid \u2013 we know how to take costs out. And if we need to take costs out as a business, we\u2019re fully capable and ready to do that. We don\u2019t think we\u2019re in that situation, but we have every lever at our disposal [and] we\u2019ll continue to monitor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Currency fluctuations, non-concert activities and the effort to optimize ticket prices dragged down Live Nation’s earnings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":67766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[130682,122895,489,491],"class_list":["post-230588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-earnings","tag-joe-berchtold","tag-live-nation","tag-michael-rapino"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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