Photo Credit: Live Nation
Live Nation stock cracked a 52-week high today after the Ticketmaster parent revealed that it had generated a whopping $5.63 billion during 2023’s second quarter.
The Beverly Hills-based promoter just recently posted its Q2 ’23 financials, emphasizing at the start of the appropriate report that north of 117 million tickets had been sold to Live Nation shows on the year as of the second quarter’s conclusion.
This figure is said to represent a 20 percent year-over-year (YoY) hike, and similarly, Ticketmaster, despite being the subject of multiple customer complaints, moved 151 million fee-bearing tickets (up 22 percent YoY) between January’s start and June’s end, per the document. (About 150 million passes, referring to close to 79 million fee-bearing tickets and roughly 70 million non-fee-bearing tickets, were sold on the quarter, per the document.)
Bearing in mind these stats, the initially highlighted $5.63 billion in total quarterly revenue marks a 27 percent YoY boost, with a 29 percent YoY spike attributed to concerts ($4.63 billion), an identified 23 percent YoY jump behind ticketing ($709.3 million), and a 15 percent YoY improvement for sponsorship and advertising ($302.9 million).
Overall, thanks in large part to close to $300 million in adjusted operating income from the comparatively low-cost ticketing side, Live Nation reported $589.7 million in total operating income for the quarter.
And on the attendance front, the Clockenflap owner disclosed a 307-event YoY decline (for an estimated 12,241 events during Q2) but nevertheless pointed to a YoY attendance increase of 3.23 million persons (37.07 million estimated fans) amid ongoing growth in Latin America and Asia.
Similarly, the KOMI backer shed light upon “$4.3 billion in event-related deferred revenue” (up 37 percent YoY) and emphasized the corresponding “double-digit attendance growth” that’s anticipated for the third quarter.
During their business’s Q2 earnings call, Live Nation execs made clear their ambitious vision for the company’s growth trajectory throughout 2024 and beyond, expressed the belief that a forthcoming full-scale pivot to all-in pricing won’t disrupt ticketing revenue (“we haven’t seen any impact on our primary ticket sales”), and touted the perceived potential associated with Latin America’s quick-growing music markets.
“There’s a more diverse pipeline of artists breaking from all corners of the world,” Live Nation president and CEO Michael Rapino relayed, “and at the same time tours are going to more markets – particularly in Latin America and Asia. This was our strongest second quarter ever, with 2023 on pace to be a record year, and early indicators for 2024 giving us confidence in continued growth.”
Earlier today, Live Nation stock (NYSE: LYV) cracked a 52-week high of $101.74 per share – a figure that reflects an approximately 47 percent increase from 2023’s beginning, but a comparatively modest eight percent uptick from late July of 2022.
