Live Nation gears up for ‘big banner year’ in 2025
Live Nation posted $6.02 billion (€5.6bn) revenue in a record Q2 2024 as bosses say it is “business as usual” at the company, amid the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit.
Revenue was up 7% on the equivalent quarter last year, while operating income rose 21% to $466 million and AOI 21% to $716m, with the key metrics pointing to another record-setting year for the firm.
Year-to-date ticket sales for its 2024 concerts are 118 million – 1m higher than at the same point 12 months ago – powered by double-digit increases for arena, amphitheatre, theatre and club shows. LN’s venue management outfit Venue Nation has hosted 24 million fans year-to-date – up 10% – and is on course to host more than 60m fans this year.
“We continue to see strong demand globally, with a growing variety of shows attracting both casual and diehard fans who are buying tickets at all price points, which speaks to the unique experience only live concerts can provide,” says Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino.
“Venue Nation’s strategic investments in hospitality and infrastructure are driving strong returns as more attendees maximise their onsite experiences.
“While operating income will be impacted negatively by one-time accruals, we are on track to deliver double-digit AOI growth for the year and look forward to a very busy 2025.”
“The good news is, as we predicted, ’25 looks likely to be a big banner year again”
Taking questions from shareholders during yesterday’s earnings call, Rapino noted the positive results came in spite of a quieter period for stadium concerts – in part, due to Paris hosting the Olympic Games – and added that 2025 was shaping up to be “a big banner year”.
“We’re thrilled that we can still grow the business coming off two years of extraordinary growth, given where we were in 2019, so it’s still a strong year for us overall,” he said. “Stadiums were always the challenge, international was always going to be a stadium issue given Paris Olympics. Most of France shut down for that month, and most of that affected a lot of the stadium business for the summer.”
Rapino continued: “The good news is, as we predicted, ’25 looks likely to be a big banner year again. We’re looking right now at our stadium pipeline for ’25. It’s bigger right now than it was two years ago for ’23. Our amphitheatre and arena is bigger right now than it was last year at this time in terms of our pipeline. So we’ve always thought 2024 would be the year of AOI and amphitheatres and arenas and ’25 will be back to a solid continual growth of stadiums.
“As we’ve always predicted post-Covid, we’d be back to an 8%, 9% compounded annual growth as an industry on the top line, and we’ll see that come back to life next year and probably more.”
“This is a supply driven business,” added Berchtold. “The demand is there, notwithstanding the fact we have a lot fewer stadiums this year, we’re actually still growing our show count. We’re still growing our fan count.”
International markets remain a key driver of the growth, he said.
“I think what we’re seeing is an acceleration of the continued globalisation on the demand side, the artist seeing that they can go everywhere in the world,” reflected Berchtold. “We’ll have some shifts in terms of venue types and exactly which markets have which level of activity. But there’s nothing that would suggest that we’re really deviating from historical trajectories on the ongoing growth of the business.”
“If you’re in my legal department, you’re working on the DOJ. If you’re running any one of my divisions, it’s business as usual”
Asked whether the DOJ lawsuit was impacting strategic decision-making at the company, Berchtold said: “We’re able to isolate. So if you’re in my legal department, you’re working on the DOJ. If you’re running any one of my divisions, it’s business as usual.”
Berchtold pointed to opportunities around new venues (“I had a venue meeting this morning. We looked at 10 new venues that we’re looking to build across the US, Latin America and Asia in the pipe”) and ticketing, referencing Ticketmaster’s recent acquisition of leading African ticketing platform Quicket (“Last week, we expanded ticketing in South Africa and have a few more of those on an international basis”).
“So lots of opportunities still ahead of us, and business as usual in the divisions,” he concluded.
Berchtold also played down concerns regarding tour cancellations, saying there had been no more than normal.
“In terms of our cancellation rates, we’re seeing historical norms below last year,” he said. “They historically run kind of 4% to 5% of shows, about 1.5% of fans, absolutely in line with historical trends. I think most of the reports that we’ve seen have been efforts to take one or two data points out of a very large number of tours and shows, and we’re just not seeing anything unusual there.”
The Q2 report also mentioned $279.9m in “Astroworld estimated loss contingencies” for the first half of 2024. All wrongful death lawsuits filed over the 2021 festival disaster were settled earlier this year.
Live Nation’s share price was up to $95.08 this morning, giving the company a market cap of $22bn.
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Capacity increase for New Zealand’s Spark Arena
New Zealand’s Spark Arena is upping its capacity after celebrating its biggest year since opening in 2007.
More than 655,000 fans attended the Auckland arena and its neighbouring club venue, The Tuning Fork, in 2023 – breaking the previous record of 619,000 set in 2018.
The achievement equates to 41% of Auckland’s population, or 13% of the national population, attending an event at Spark Arena, which has officially increased its capacity from 12,000 to 13,280.
“This will mean more tickets will be available to fans that otherwise might miss out and it will also be beneficial for Spark Arena and promoters to attract even more world-class talent and the globe’s biggest acts to Aotearoa, New Zealand,” says Spark Arena general manager Mark Gosling.
Last year, the Live Nation-operated venue welcomed artists including 50 Cent, Lizzo, and Paramore, as well as hosting the largest country shows ever in New Zealand with sold-out shows by Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs. Record audiences also turned out for the first major performances by K-Pop group P1Harmony, Taiwanese musician Jonathan Lee and Indian singer/songwriter Diljit Dosanjh.
“We are proud our venue brings significant social and economic value to communities as the gateway of entertainment for the country”
“2023 was a big year for our dedicated and skilled team who have worked around the clock to deliver a wide range of events for Kiwis at the highest level,” adds Gosling. “It is fantastic to see New Zealanders really get behind events and we are proud our venue brings significant social and economic value to communities as the gateway of entertainment for the country.”
Over the past couple of months, Spark Arena has hosted Jonas Brothers, Queens of the Stone Age, three sold-out shows with SZA and smashed all-time nightly attendance records with both Blink 182 and Fred Again.. Upcoming acts include Macklemore, Brooke Fraser, Tate McRae, Jerry Seinfeld and Iron Maiden.
Spark Arena will also play host to the World Choir Games this July featuring around 250 choirs from more than 30 countries.
Across Australia and New Zealand, the Live Nation Venue Nation division also oversees the Tuning Fork in Auckland, San Fran in Wellington as well as the Palais Theatre and Festival Hall in Melbourne, and Anita’s Theatre in Thirroul, New South Wales, along with the Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane and Hindley Street Music Hall in Adelaide.
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Ben Weeden upped to CFO of Venue Nation
Live Nation veteran Ben Weeden has been named chief financial officer of Live Nation’s venue management company, Venue Nation.
Venue Nation, which is led by president Sherri Sosa, consists of over 200 owned and operated venues across the globe.
Weeden has been with Live Nation for 22 years, serving most recently as chief operating officer of the company’s clubs and theatres division.
Weeden’s promotion comes shortly after Sherri Sosa was named president of Venue Nation
In that role, he had oversight of talent booking, marketing, operations and business development of Live Nation’s owned or operated small and mid-sized venues.
The portfolio includes the House of Blues and Fillmore brands, as well as 35 exclusive partner venues around the US.
Under Weeden’s watch, those venues hosted around 10,000 events and accounted for roughly eight million ticket sales a year.
Weeden’s previous roles at Live Nation include COO of North American music, director of North American music operations, director of European music operations and manager of European business development.
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