CTS boosts revenue, earnings for another record year
German live entertainment powerhouse CTS Eventim reported record revenue and earnings for the 2019 financial year.
Group revenue rose by 16.2% in 2019 to a total of €1.44 billion. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also grew substantially, increasing 25.6% from €228.1 million in 2018 to €286.5m in 2019.
Ticketing and live entertainment both contributed to the growth, with live entertainment revenue increasing 21.3% to 985.8m – over €170m more than in 2018 – and ticketing growing 7.7% from the year before to €481.6m.
Earnings in both sectors saw strong growth, with EBITDA more than doubling in live entertainment, increasing from €32.3m in 2018 to €66.1m last year. In ticketing, EBITDA increased 12.6% to €220.4m.
The company puts its growth down to major tours by the likes of Ed Sheeran and to the activities of those in its fast-expanding Eventim Live promoter network, which has grown from an initial 26 promoters across 9 countries to 34 tour operators in 15 markets.
Most recently, Eventim partnered with global touring pioneer Michael Cohl, signalling its intention to expand outside of Europe.
“We continued to grow significantly over 2019, while at the same time enhancing our market position at both national and international level”
Improvements to the company’s ecommerce operations facilitated a 5.6% increase in the number of tickets sold by webshops operated by the CTS Group, with 57.3m tickets sold over the year.
“In 2019 we delivered impressive proof of the successfulness and profitability of our integrated business model comprising ticketing services, live entertainment and content,” comments CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg.
“We continued to grow significantly over 2019, while at the same time enhancing our market position at both national and international level. The venues we operate also showed encouraging growth and are among the best in the world.”
Eventim’s venue portfolio includes the 18,000-capacity Lanxess Arena in Cologne, the 22,000-capacity Waldbühne in Berlin and the 5,000-capacity Eventim Apollo in London.
“CTS Eventim has long been an integrated entertainment corporation that offers its customers a full and highly diversified range of live events,” adds Schulenberg. “The company is constantly developing and changing, adapting itself to the needs and requirements of new markets and a new age.”
The full CTS Eventim annual report will be published on 17 March 2020 and will be available for download here.
Photo: GEDANKENtanken GmbH/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) (cropped)
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Spanish live industry reports another record year
The Spanish live music business generated a record €382 million (£333m) in 2019, representing its seventh consecutive year of growth.
According to the Live Music Yearbook, which is compiled by Spanish promoters’ association APM, turnover in 2019 exceeded the previous year’s record revenue by 14.6%.
Despite the positive results, the past year saw a deceleration of year-on-year growth, which had hit 20% and 24% in 2017 and 2018 respectively, following a cut in cultural tax in 2017 from 21% to 10%.
October, December, May, July and September proved to be the most profitable months of 2019, with more than €40m (£35m) generated in each.
The Spanish live music business generated a record €382 million in 2019
National tours by Manuel Carrasco, Marea and Alejandro Sanz attracted over 600,000 fans between them, with Carrasco alone selling 351,994 tickets.
In terms of international touring artists, Metallica and Ed Sheeran performed the best, drawing 122,000 and 108,386 fans respectively for just two shows each.
Morat, Muse, Mark Knopfler, Bon Jovi, Hans Zimmer, Bryan Adams, Bob Dylan and Rammstein were among other acts to visit Spain in 2019.
Formed in 2001, APM now has 78 members that together make up 80% of the Spanish live industry’s economic activity.
Last year, the association launched a festival arm, APM Festivals, as well as joining new Spanish music federation, Esmúsica.
Photo: Cristina Ruiz/Unnika (CC BY-SA 4.0) (cropped)
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Arena boss sets sights on 2m visitors goal
Staff at Lanxess Arena in Cologne have set their sights on breaking the 2million visitors barrier, after reporting the best half-year results in the venue’s history.
In the first six months of 2017, 1,448,823 visitors attended 135 events at the 18,000-capacity arena, including concerts by Bruno Mars, Phil Collins, Ed Sheeran and Kings of Leon. It ranked fourth in Pollstar’s global arena ticket sales, below London’s The O2, Glasgow’s SECC and Manchester Arena.
“I am proud of what our team has successfully achieved in these incredibly intense time,” says CEO Stefan Löcher.
“Now we want to crack the barrier of two million visitors. That would be a great success and a great way to end a fantastic year.”
“An estimated 10% of all tourist traffic in Cologne is caused solely by the Lanxess arena”
As a direct and indirect employer in the region, the arena contributes an economic value of €600million to Cologne and the region, according to a press release.
Visitor surveys show that 20% percent of people attending events at the venue spend at least one night in Cologne hotels. Half that number spend two to three nights in the cathedral city. That makes at least 600,000 hotel nights in Cologne for the year 2017.
“An estimated 10% of tourist traffic in Cologne is caused solely by the Lanxess arena,” notes Josef Sommer, managing director of the local tourist board.
The last record year, 2010, saw 1,247,736 guests attend 118 events between January-June.
Forthcoming events at Lanxess Arena in the second half of 2017 include Metallica, Lady GaGa, Shakira, James Blunt and Yello.
It’s official: Going to concerts makes you happy
Regularly seeing music live can have a positive effect on mood and increase happiness, researchers in Australia have discovered.
Surveying a random sample of 1,000 Australians, Melissa K. Weinberg and Dawn Joseph of Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, found that the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) – defined as participants’ level of satisfaction with their standard of living, health, achievements in life, relationships, safety, community, connection, and future security – of those who attend live music events or go out dancing were “significantly higher” than those who “did not engage with music in those forms”.
“Engaging with music by dancing or attending musical events was associated with higher subjective wellbeing than for those who did not engage with music in these forms”
According to Weinberg and Joseph, the social component of gig-going is particularly important, with “people who sang or danced in the company of others reporting higher scores on many domains of SWB [subjective wellbeing] than those who engaged with music alone”.
While the researchers found definitively that those who go to concerts were, on average, happier, there is a caveat: Those who are able to regularly see live music are also likely to be better off financially. “In Australia, attending musical events is costly,” says their study, which can be read in full here, “and may be a privilege afforded to those who earn a higher income.”
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