Chris Robinson and Wealthy Robinson of The Black Crowes carry out onstage to kick off the “Shake Your Cash Maker” tour to a bought out crowd at Ascend Amphitheater on July 20, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Picture by Jason Kempin/Getty Photographs for Stay Nation)
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After a yr with nearly no dwell reveals, Stay Nation’s Ticketmaster simply had considered one of its greatest months ever in North America, an indication that audiences are able to enterprise outdoors the house for occasions even with the brand new Covid delta variant surging.
On Tuesday, the world’s largest live-entertainment firm reported second-quarter earnings that noticed income climb to $575.9 million, up 677% from the identical interval final yr when giant gatherings had been restricted as a result of rampant unfold of coronavirus.
Stay Nation’s web loss narrowed to $195.7 million from $587.5 million within the year-ago interval.
“The momentum for the return to dwell occasions has been constructing each month, with ticket gross sales and live performance attendance pacing sooner than anticipated, underscoring the energy and resiliency of the live performance enterprise and dwell occasions generally,” CEO Michael Rapino mentioned in the course of the firm’s earnings name Tuesday.
The corporate mentioned that almost all of its festivals have bought out rapidly and common ticket costs are up 10% from 2019 ranges.
For Ticketmaster, which is wholly owned by Stay Nation, June represented its fourth-best month in historical past by way of ticket quantity. The corporate mentioned this was pushed, partly, to a report variety of U.S. concert events being out there for buy.
“We anticipate to have over 3 million followers attend our festivals in the course of the second half of the yr, with about two-thirds of our festivals rising their attendance in comparison with 2019,” Rapino mentioned. “Whereas nonetheless early, we’ve delivered a robust double digit improve in common per fan income and in on-site spending versus 2019 at our amphitheater reveals over the previous few weeks.”
Rapino mentioned 2022 and 2023 can be a “roaring period” for concert events and different dwell occasions.
Ticket gross sales have pushed the corporate’s deferred income as much as $2.1 billion, greater than the $1.6 billion Stay Nation had on the finish of the second quarter in 2019. This income is separated from the corporate’s different earnings as a result of it’s superior funds for occasions that haven’t occurred but.
Stay Nation’s deferred income is tied to greater than 25 million tickets bought for concert events within the second half of 2021 and 14 million tickets bought for occasions in 2022.