ANOTHER RECORD YEAR FOR LIVE NATION
Live Nation delivered its fifth straight year of record revenue, rising 11% to $7.6b at constant currency in 2015. The concert promoter reported growth in concert attendance—up 8% to 63m—sponsorships and ticketing in announcing financial reports for the year.
Revenue, adjusted operating income and free cash flow all grew 11% for the year that saw the company promoting 20 of the top 25 global tours including U2, Madonna, One Direction and Ariana Grande. Ticketing was up 10% to 361.5m for the year.
More than 63m fans attended more than 25k Live Nation-promoted concerts, a rise of 12% from 2014. Key to the growth has been newcomers on the theater-arena circuit: 13 of the top 20 selling artists were new from the previous year.
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino says early ticket sales in 2016 indicate the growth will continue as ticket sales are up 5% year-to-year, driven by 18% growth in amphitheaters and 47% growth in stadiums.
“We see the global live sector continuing to be very robust from a supply and demand perspective,” he said in the company’s report.
Sponsorship & Advertising revenue grew 17% to $351.9m with nearly 900 brands involved in Live Nation programs.
Ticketmaster was up 12%—$1.71b— on 530m tickets sold; the secondary market was up 34% at constant currency. Like many of Live Nation’s initiatives, ticket sales have been driven by mobile apps: More than 21m people have downloaded an LN apps—a 37% increase over last year—which drove a 20% increase in mobile ticket sales for the year.
“As we focus on improving the fan buying experience, there continues to be a rapid shift to mobile devices as the preferred purchasing platform,” Rapino said in the report issued after the market closed today. “We have heavily invested in online and mobile products to increase visits to our sites and conversion. As a result, already in 2016 we have had three days selling over 900k tickets, placing them among the top 15 days of all time, setting us up to deliver robust growth in ticket sales for the year.”
