As 2023 heads into summer season, a number of indicators level to a wholesome and rising dwell music enterprise for the remainder of the yr. In current weeks, executives from the publicly traded live performance promotion and ticketing corporations have signaled that surging shopper demand received’t decelerate, and there might be sufficient excursions to satiate music followers’ urge for food for dwell occasions.
Demand has been sturdy “and is displaying no indicators of letting up,” mentioned Reside Nation CEO Michael Rapino through the firm’s Could 4 earnings name. Reside Nation expects to promote greater than 600 million tickets in 2023, up from 550 million in 2022. Up to now, the live performance promoter has bought greater than 100 million tickets to Reside Nation occasions, a 20% enhance from the prior-year interval, and expects to host a document variety of followers in 2023.
Vivid Seats, the publicly traded secondary ticketing market, shares Reside Nation’s sentiment. “Shoppers continued to crave dwell experiences within the first quarter,” mentioned CEO Stan Chia throughout a Could 9 earnings name, “and we consider this development will proceed for a few years.” Vivid Seats does enterprise primarily within the U.S. whereas German promoter and ticketing supplier CTS Eventim focuses on Europe. “Each in Germany and internationally, we’re pursuing natural progress and anticipate that our enterprise efficiency will proceed on its profitable course,” mentioned CTS Eventim CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg within the quarterly outcomes launched Could 24 that reiterated the optimistic outlook in its 2022 annual report of “reasonably larger earnings” for the dwell leisure section 2023.
The live performance enterprise is assembly — and maybe surpassing — some lofty expectations. In 2022, because the live performance enterprise exited the pandemic, the widespread perception was that pent-up demand for in-person experiences would drive the live performance enterprise past pre-pandemic ranges. That turned out to be true. Live performance promoter Reside Nation posted document income of $6.2 billion within the third quarter that was 67% above the identical interval in 2019. What’s extra, the amount of followers returning to live performance venues was augmented by an unmatched willingness to soak up larger costs. Frenzied demand — and sky-high costs on the secondary market — for excursions by Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen have confirmed A-list artists have but to search out their ceiling on costs.
Live performance promoters have posted sturdy quarterly earnings that match their narratives. Reside Nation’s first-quarter income was up 71% to $3.1 billion. CTS Eventim’s on-line ticket gross sales elevated 58% to 18 million as consolidated income improved 163% to 366.2 million euros ($393 million). At Vivid Seats, which additionally does enterprise in main sports activities equivalent to baseball and basketball, first quarter income grew 23.2% to $161 million and adjusted earnings earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization doubled to $42.4 million.
Buyers take in previous earnings historical past whereas determining what to anticipate sooner or later, and in line with JP Morgan analyst David Karnovky they typically ask two questions on Reside Nation: First, is there sufficient provide to satisfy rising, wholesome demand? Sure, Reside Nation president and CFO Joe Berchtold mentioned at JP Morgan’s World Expertise, Media and Communications convention on Tuesday. That’s as a result of world streaming platforms equivalent to Spotify and social media apps like Instagram and TikTok permit artists to construct world followings in ways in which weren’t beforehand attainable, he defined. Ok-pop and different up-and-coming genres of music “that possibly as soon as have been regional are actually going world,” he mentioned, and artists that used to promote out mid-sized venues are actually promoting out stadiums. “So, you’re seeing that provide proceed to construct.”
The second factor traders need to know is how demand will reply throughout a softer economic system. Reside Nation intently follows the indications — equivalent to on-sales present closings — Berchtold mentioned, “however we’re not seeing something that offers us pause.” Individually, Berchtold famous that Reside Nation’s analysis signifies getting again to concert events are considered one of followers’ prime priorities after the pandemic and might be “one of many final issues they’re going to chop again on.”
Vivid Seats CFO Lawrence Fey additionally addressed the opportunity of an financial downturn — a state of affairs turning into more and more possible within the U.S. ought to Congress fail to discover a compromise to boost the debt ceiling by early June. “[T]right here’s quite a lot of chatter and concern on the market” that demand will weaken “within the not-too-distant future,” mentioned Fey, “but it surely continues to be the case that we’re seeing very sturdy demand throughout our occasion classes [and] throughout value factors.” Past the persistently sturdy demand, Vivid Seats has “been pleasantly stunned by the provision calendar,” notably a live performance schedule that features not too long ago introduced excursions by Drake and Aerosmith, he added, “and [that] provides us optimism.”
