The Tay-Bey quarter… Live Nation had its strongest quarterly performance ever and is on pace for a record year after hit tours from Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. The Ticketmaster owner crushed expectations with 32% sales growth. The bulk of Live Nation’s $$ comes from producing concerts (think: promotion, operations) and selling merch. In addition to the nearly $7B it raked in from the concerts biz, Live Nation made $833M from ticketing. It’s come a long way:
100 to zero, real quick: As we hunkered down at home in 2020, Live Nation saw its sales plunge 84% from 2019.
Reopening rush: In mid-2021, Live Nation started seeing the effects of pent-up demand for concerts as bookings for 2022 shows soared.
Boom times: That enthusiasm backlog is still fueling the concert industry, letting Live Nation charge higher ticket prices without losing volumes.
Far-from-cruel summer… Live Nation has sold a record 140M tickets so far this year, already topping last year’s total. Consumers are splurging on pricier concert tix and attending more shows, but they’re also spending more at venues. As fans loaded up on BeyHive hoodies and Eras Tour tees, Live Nation’s “per-fan profitability” had a double-digit jump last quarter. Other big tours included Harry Styles, Lizzo, Blackpink, and Bruce Springsteen, but Tay-Bey alone generated billions in revenue for the industry.
“Funflation” may be peaking… Consumers have been shelling out for experiences, and now the cost of everything from Disney park visits to NFL games and concerts has soared. Funflation was fueled by trillions in excess pandemic savings (recall: stimmy checks, low interest rates), but now the extra $$ Americans saved during the pandemic is almost gone. When experiential spending cools, it could create tough yearly comparisons for fun-focused companies.