The Hollywood Reporter: The company’s concert business reported its highest quarterly attendance to date, in the three months ended Sept. 30, with more than 44 million fans attending 11,000 events. Total revenue for the quarter hit $6.2 billion, with more than $5 billion of that coming from the concert business, up 63 percent from a year earlier. Net income was $397 million, up from $86.8 million a year earlier.
7 comments:
I find this article to be really heartening. There's been more than a few articles on this blog reporting on the touring and concert industries struggling for various reasons - mental health, COVID outbreaks, finances, and so on. Live music is important to me both as someone who enjoys attending and has worked in the industry, so it's really nice to see the industry recovering from the pandemic.
On a side note, did anyone else notice how Live Nation talked about new ticketing legislation? There was actually an article on this blog a few weeks ago talking about this new law, so it's interesting to see how companies are responding to this. What I mean about Live Nation talking about the legislation, is that they seem to hold it in high praise, but they subtly say that they only employ the rule in areas where it is now required by law. It could be that I'm reading too deeply into the article, but to me it seems like Live Nation is pushing a popular opinion but not actually supporting it.
It’s good to hear concert sales are up more than ever. With the pandemic and Covid I thought live events would become more and more less popular with everything going virtual so it’s comforting to know people are still interested more than ever in live performance. However I will say we aren’t completely out of this pandemic and I don’t know how productive cramming as many people in a concert as possible is for the spread of new mutations. The high traffic of ticket sales however should help bring back in money lost from the pandemic and bring back work for bands and singers who haven't been able to perform at this level for a while. In terms of theatre however I think there is still a long way to go in that it’s already a dying art form and bringing people back old and new to theatrical live performance is tricky in itself. I hope theatre communities across the world are able to build back up like concerts in the future in a verison of the world where the pandemic is as over as it can be.
It’s great to hear that so many people want to see other people doing things on stage breathing the same air as them. I honestly worried that the pandemic would still be an ongoing issue when it comes to filling venues, or selling tickets to them. Especially with the economic effects of the pandemic still lingering, I am so glad that people who aren’t SUPER into theatre still want to spend their money seeing live performances. On the other hand, when I hear about a show selling out, or doing super huge numbers, I always worry about disease a lot more than I think any of us did pre-pandemic. I hope that with this ticket money, venues invest into ways to ensure that their audiences are the most well protected that they can be. That way we can both experience the euphoria of seeing something happen live, whilst also not experiencing the not-euphoria of a new mutation of our best buddy COVID.
I think this was more or less expected - so many people have been itching to go back to in-person concerts and events as COVID has .. gotten better? Still not sure about that, but things are balancing out at a new normal, and with more boosters, people are generally safer going to these larger events. This article did make me think about an article from a few weeks ago, about numerous artists canceling tours or performances to take care of their health and well-being (which we wholeheartedly support, to be clear). I wonder how that is affecting companies like TicketMaster and Live Nation. I would like to say that the artists’ well-being is far more important than the net income of Live Nation per quarter (or year, whatever you want). But, I do think the data would be an interesting thing to see and understand. Though, I see a world where people weaponize that against the artists, so maybe not a great plan.
Before I get too far into the article, I just want to comment that it doesn't surprise me how hungry people are for live entertainment. It's heartening to see that even within economic struggles, people still make art a priority. Even with more and more access to recorded music and televise sports events and movies, people still long to for live performances. There's an undeniable rush that comes with being in the room with other humans and connecting on a deeper level. Someone I worked with at an Amazon warehouse told me, during the height of the pandemic, that theatre was dead; I wanted to laugh. Theatre has survived far worse.
Anyway, I agree that full transparency about ticket prices is only fair. These hidden fees are so pervasive across all industries and it is frankly appalling. I'm glad to see that there is an overall push for ticket sales in live entertainment to be all-in. Listing all fees upfront gives the consumers more control over their spending and what they can actually afford. I don't think it'll affect profits at all, but if there are processing fees or taxes attached, these things should be included in the listed ticket price. I also think venues need to be more forthcoming about parking fees, as well.
It is pretty exciting to hear that the entertainment industry is picking up this fast as we continue to come out of the pandemic. Seeing stadium after stadium be sold out this summer on the Weeknd tour with about 50,000 people each night was something totally insane to see. It gave me hope for the future of the industry and, as a college student graduating at the end of the year, reassured me that now is definitely the perfect time to be entering a career in this industry. Live Nation is a total powerhouse of the entertainment industry. Their statistics should give a pretty clear picture of what sales and trends are like for the entire concert world as they do most of the business and sell most of the tickets. It is really impressive to see the wide scope in which they operate and how well they do it. I’m glad to hear that they are supporting the all-in ticketing law. As ticket prices increasingly become inaccessible, it is important that people know exactly what they’re paying for and how much it is going to cost before they’re too far in and realize they can’t actually afford it.
This article proves all the more reason for Ticketmaster to be up front with their fees. If concerts haven’t lost popularity in a post-lockdown, high-inflation era, it’s the least this mega corporation can do. Just the other day President Biden tweeted about the corruption of the company and how the public deserves to know how much they will pay before they are in the final stage of purchasing. It feels very manipulative. But with this high demand, I wonder if prices can even be adjusted to make them more reasonable. I find myself not even inquiring about some major performers because I feel like there is no way I would be able to afford it (unless it’s my favorite band of all time, Arctic Monkeys I’ll be there). Yes, yes, it’s for-profit, but still. I’m glad that Live Nation has advocated for more fairness in the ticketing process though.
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