As reported by Music Business Worldwide, Live Nation Entertainment published its financial earnings for the first quarter of 2022, results that display an impressive revenue of $1.8 billion. The “concert giant” has just wrapped up their “best first quarter ever.” This amount comes from the amalgamation of all of the company’s earning sources: concerts, ticketing, advertising and sponsorship.
Live Nation execs reference the glaring reason behind the uptick in earnings, the loosening restrictions as a result of the pandemic and peoples’ subsequent urges to pack themselves back into music venues.
While COVID-19 has not yet reached its endemic stage and WHO warns against treating it as such, people at large have made it clear that live music is back on their list of priorities. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino echoes this sentiment: “live events remain a clear priority for consumers as our social lives restart.”
People are hungry for plans and social events after large-scale events hit the brakes and no longer made their way onto people’s calendars. Rapino says, “artists are back on the road and fan demand has never been stronger.”
In the reports released by Live Nation, they show comparisons between the sales this year and last, many of which detail dramatic changes. They report that the total estimated tickets sold in Q1 of 2021 is about 17.1 million tickets. For Q1 of 2022, they report they have sold approximately 111.3 million tickets; this is an increase of over six times.
The drastic rise is evident even compared to pre-pandemic years such as 2019. Rapino says, “all leading indicators point to double-digit growth in fan attendance at our concerts this year relative to 2019.” Live Nation reports it’s sold more than 20 million concert tickets this year than after Q1 of 2019.
Rapino and Live Nation as a whole look forward to continue this record-breaking streak; they “[remain] optimistic that we are just getting going as all leading indicators reinforce record activity levels and financial results.”
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