Following a dangerous year for the concert industry, Live Nation, the largest event promoter in the world, is reporting comfortable profits. In the third quarter of 2021 alone, the concert giant reported $2.7 billion in revenue. By comparison, in the third quarter of 2020, they reported $184 million in revenue.
To break down this near 1500% increase, concert and music festival profits went from $154 million to over $2 billion. Live Nation-owned ticketing platform Ticketmaster earned $374 million in profit after losing almost $20 million in 2020. Advertising revenue faced a smaller increase in profit, going from $17 to $47 million, but such numbers are still highly favorable.
Given the comparable increase in the number of concerts between 2020 and 2021, these numbers aren’t too shocking. Live Nation hosted a total of 360 concerts in Q3 of 2020 and over 8,000 in Q3 of 2021. 2022 is looking even stronger as 22 million tickets have been sold for events planned for next year.
Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation, shared the following statement regarding the positive trends for the company:
“As we get close to turning the page on 2021, I remain more convinced than ever on the power and potential of live entertainment, and the strength of our position. No industry was more impacted by the pandemic over the last two years, and no industry has so proven its durability of demand in the face of such disruption.
I fully expect we will continue to have bumps in the road in the coming months, and it will take some time for international artists to be touring on a truly global basis, but the fundamental strength of live entertainment and Live Nation has proven out, and I expect we will only continue to grow from here.”
Click here to read the full quarterly report from Live Nation.
