Some 151 million people attended nearly 55,000 Live Nation events in 2024, an increase of 4% year-on-year, the events and ticketing company said in its full-year earnings report on Thursday (February 20).
The company said 60 million fans attended shows in venues operated by Venue Nation, its venue operating division, up by double digits from the previous calendar year.
Live Nation has focused in recent years on developing its own network of venues, and in 2024, it built and refurbished three new venues that attracted 2 million attendees. Return on investment on those venues was “at or above planned levels,” the company said.
The increased demand drove a 3% YoY increase in revenue to USD $23.16 billion, not adjusted for currency fluctuations. Adjusted operating income grew 14% YoY to $2.15 billion.
Earnings per share for the year were $2.74, more than doubling the $1.34 EPS recorded in 2023.
For calendar Q4, revenue was down 2% YoY to $5.68 billion, while adjusted operating income grew 35% YoY to $157.3 million.
Revenue from concerts came in at $19.02 billion in calendar 2024, up 2% YoY. In Q4, concert revenue totaled $4.58 billion, down 6% YoY.
(Live Nation’s latest earnings report corrected some errors in its Q1 and Q2 2023 numbers, which impacted its overall numbers for 2023. Among other things, the company adjusted its full-year revenue for 2023 downwards by $22.8 million. The above percentages are based on the new, adjusted numbers.)
Ticketmaster, the company’s ticketing division, sold 637 million tickets in 2024, up 2.7% YoY. Ticketing revenue came in at $2.99 billion, up 0.1% YoY, not adjusted for currency fluctuations.
In Q4, Ticketmaster sold 176 million tickets, up 4.1% YoY, while revenue grew 13.7% YoY to $841.1 million.
“2024 was live music’s biggest year yet, as artists toured the world and fans turned out in record numbers,” CEO Michael Rapino said in a statement.
“2025 is shaping up to be even bigger thanks to a deep global concert pipeline, with more stadium shows on the books than ever before.”
Looking ahead to 2025, Live Nation says its stadium show pipeline is up 60%, in line with execs’ previous predictions of a very strong stadium year.
Live Nation has already sold 65 million tickets for its own concerts this year, and 75% of expected sponsorships for the year have already been committed. Ticketmaster has transacted 106 million tickets for 2025 so far, up 3% compared to the same point last year.
“Artists who are touring in 2025 and recently toured in 2022-2024 are averaging double-digit growth in tickets sold per show and gross revenue per show,” Live Nation said.
The company is scaling up its rollout of new venues and expects to add 20 large venues (stadiums, arenas, amphitheaters, and large theaters) through 2026, which it expects will add 6 million to 7 million incremental fans.
Major projects include stadiums in Bogotá and Toronto, along with seven amphitheaters and nine large theaters, Live Nation said.
On the company’s earnings call Thursday, CFO Joe Berchtold forecast around $900 million in CapEx for 2025, up almost by half from the $632.6 million in CapEx in 2024.
“We’re continuing to see a lot of opportunities that have very attractive returns globally… at the arena level, globally focused on these large theaters, both types of venues, that can not just deliver attractive returns, but also move some reasonable volume of fans, expand our shows, grow the market,” Berchtold said.
Rapino said he expects live music globally to be “a high-single, double-digit kind of industry for the next decade.”
“2024 was live music’s biggest year yet, as artists toured the world and fans turned out in record numbers.”
Michael Rapino, Live Nation
On the earnings call, Berchtold addressed the ongoing antitrust lawsuit the US Justice Department brought against Live Nation last year. Company execs had previously expressed hope for a change of approach to antitrust action in the federal administration, but Berchtold said it’s too early to tell if that change will materialize.
“We haven’t had any discussions yet. The person that you would discuss it with has not been approved yet, not been appointed. So until that happens, there’s nothing we can do,” he said.
Noting that the antitrust trial is expected to begin in early 2026, Berchtold said the “question is, over the course of this year… is there a path towards a resolution with the DOJ that doesn’t lead to the trial? We’ve said in the last administration, there was really no interest in any discussion on settlement. So we’re hoping that this DOJ returns to a more traditional approach.”
Chartmetric is the all-in-one platform for artists and music industry professionals, providing comprehensive streaming, social, and audience data for everyone to create successful careers in music.Music Business Worldwide
Article by:Source:
