(CelebrityAccess) — On Thursday, Live Nation revealed that the post-pandemic recovery was in full swing (for them at least) as they posted the financial results for a record-breaking Q1 2022.
According to Live Nation, the company reported revenue of $1.802 billion for the quarter, up sharply from Q1 last year, when Live Nation reported $239.4 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2021.
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino pointed to the strong recovery in ticket sales as a leading indicator for the concert business going into the rest of 2022.
“Ticketmaster’s strong first quarter performance drove the company’s overall profitability and shows how well our concert and sponsorship businesses are positioned to deliver record results this year,” Rapino said in a statement accompanying Live Nation’s financial statements.
“Despite some markets taking longer to re-open, the quarter was our second highest ever for transacted GTV excluding refunds, trailing only Q4 2021, with March being our highest month ever for transacted GTV, excluding refunds,” he added.
As well, sponsorships rebounded sharply in Q1 2022, suggesting the corporate world anticipates a strong rebound in the live sector as well.
“Sponsorship activity fully returned in Q1, delivering financial results that well exceeded Q1 2019. We are seeing growth along a number of dimensions – expansion of existing relationships, new categories expanding our breadth of partners and new ad units being created both on-site and online,” Rapino noted.
“The number of strategic sponsors that generated over $1 million of revenue per year has risen by close to 30% since 2019, with their committed spend up 70% and accounting for 80% of our total sponsorship revenue. About 60% of this growth has come from three categories of particular priority over the past two years – technology, telecom and purchase path integration – which have collectively more than doubled their sponsorship since 2019,” he continued.
Live Nation’s revenue breakdown by segment revealed that concerts delivered $1.2 billion, up from $239.4 million during the same period in 2021. Ticketing and sponsorship activity rebounded sharply as well, generating revenue of $480.4 million and $115.7 million, respectively, in Q1.
For the quarter, Live Nation swung to a profit, earning $209 million in adjusted operating income after suffering a loss of $151.7 during the same period last year.
While there were many positive signs, concert attendance was still slightly from 2019 when 15 million fans attended shows during Q1, compared to 11 million during the same period this year.
Despite that, Rapino remained upbeat that 2022 was shaping up to be one of the company’s best in years.
“I continue to expect this to be the start of our run. The global addressable market for concerts, ticketing and sponsorship all provide a long runway for continued growth. We have over 60 tours already under discussion for 2023 – our earliest indicator of next year, and great positioning for ongoing growth,” Rapino said.
