Live Nation Entertainment just had its ‘best quarter ever’.
The company’s revenue for the three months ending September 2018 was a record $3.8 billion, up 11% year-on-year.
Live Nation also says that it’s on track to sell 90 million tickets this year, having already sold 85m so far.
During the nine months ending September 30 2018, Live Nation saw 71m fans attending 24,000 shows across 40 countries, which was an 8% increase on the same nine month period in 2017.
Live Nation cites its concerts business as its “flywheel”, attracting over 33 million fans to shows globally in the quarter, up 12% year-over-year.
In turn, the increased attendance at its shows in the quarter drove record results in the company’s on-site, ticketing and sponsorship businesses.
According to Live Nation, it has 1,000 sponsors across its on-site and online platforms and for the nine months to September 30, it’s festival sponsorship net revenue was up 12% year-on-year.
“We continue to find innovative ways at scale to connect brands with the nearly nine million fans attending over 100 festivals worldwide,” said the company in as statement.
Live Nation’s average ticket pricing at its arenas and amphitheaters is up 14% year-on-year, which it says is “driven by front-of-house pricing” which is up 25% year-on-year.
The company claims that collectively, these increases have grown artist earnings by over $300 million across roughly 6,000 shows.
“We see tremendous opportunities to continue the global expansion of our concerts and ticketing businesses.”
Michael Rapino, Live Nation
“As we approach the end of 2018, we are confident that our strong performance will deliver another record year of results,” said Michael Rapino
President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Entertainment.
“All of our businesses — concerts, sponsorship and ticketing — have delivered growth year-to-date through September, and based on their key operating metrics, we expect each to deliver record revenue, operating income, and AOI for the full year.
“As we look forward, we see tremendous opportunities to continue the global expansion of our concerts and ticketing businesses, and for further growth in sponsorship and ticketing from the concerts flywheel.”Music Business Worldwide
