Live Nation Entertainment gears up for return of concerts despite drop in revenue of 92% in Q4 2020
Image Credit: Live Nation
The CEO of Live Nation struck an optimistic tone for the return of concerts in the company earnings report for 2020.
The closing quarter of 2020 was a difficult one for Live Nation Entertainment, with the company seeing a 92% drop in revenue compared to the same period in 2019. This is hardly surprising given the almost complete lack of live events during the pandemic, but the company is buoyant about the future despite a year of struggles.
Addressing Live Nation Entertainment’s 2020 earnings report, published last week, CEO Michael Rapino spun the positives to come out of a year of lockdowns. Across all of 2020 Live Nation earned around $1.86 billion, which is an 84 percent drop from 2019’s $11.55 billion in income.
In 2020 Live Nation Entertainment moved quickly to shift to digital tickets and concert streaming whilst physical shows weren’t possible. The vaccine rollout is encouraging for the prospect of live shows sooner rather than later, with the picture less bleak.
Rapino said: ‘On the artist side there is a broad desire to get back on stage – to connect with their fans and to provide economic support to their bands, crew, and the hundreds of others employed each night putting on the show.’ Normally only two-thirds of nights available to venues are filled, so there’s ample space to accommodate artists eager to get back out there.
Live Nation are banking on concerts triumphantly resuming and staying so without a hitch. As is to be expected, 2022 looks to be stuffed full of shows, with Rapino noting that nearly twice as many major artists will be touring than a normal year.
Surveys indicate that punters are happy to wait for normal service to resume, with 83% of fans are holding onto cancelled concert tickets, and 63% keeping their festival tickets. 95% of fans say they’re likely to attend a gig once restrictions lift.