As vaccinations become available and countries loosen indoor and outdoor entertainment restrictions, Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino announced a significant increase in ticket demand.
“Fans are buying tickets and events are selling out faster than ever,” Rapino said on a conference call after the company’s already dismal first-quarter financial performance. The company’s revenue of $239 million was down 76 percent from the previous year’s $993 million as net losses increased from $185 million to $300 million and the number of events fell from 7,095 to 664.
Despite the above, trends are improving in the industry, from movie theaters to Broadway. Since the last quarter of 2019, the second quarter of 2021 will represent the first year-over-year growth. Live Nation has stated that it is “confidently planning” re-openings in the United States, especially for outdoor shows, and that it expects other major markets to follow suit this summer. “We’re just seeing demand like we’ve never seen before,” said the CEO. “Garth Books just broke every Ticketmaster record this morning” as his forthcoming concert at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, sold over 50,000 seats in less than 30 minutes. Live Nation announced that its concert backlog and sponsorship agreements for 2022 are up double digits from 2019 and that the company is signing new clients.
Bonnaroo, Electric Daisy Carnival, and Rolling Loud festivals in the United States have sold out in record time with 11 festivals scheduled in the United Kingdom this summer, including three of the biggest — Reading, Leeds, and Parklife — for which tickets have already sold out and Rhythm and Vines, New Zealand’s biggest festival, is similar. As more information about the reopening timelines becomes available, the organization will begin to launch new tours including Dave Matthews, Luke Bryan, and Maroon 5. Many-a-musician will embark on multi-year tours that will take them through the United States, Europe, and, in some cases, Asia or Latin America, “setting us up for a strong multi-year growth run.”
As the pandemic has been a particularly tough on live shows Live Nation has reduced prices, increased capital, and announced that it already has $2.1 billion in cash on hand to finance activities with the planned return of concerts this summer. Because the company controls big stadiums across the globe as well as Ticketmaster, the world’s largest ticketing company, last month, a coalition of influential House Democrats urged Joe Biden’s administration to look at Live Nation’s 2010 merger with Ticketmaster, claiming that the deal “strangled competition in live entertainment ticketing and harmed consumers and must be revisited.”
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Author : Luke Traina
Photo : Andrew King