Largest Concert Promoter Live Nation Posts Loss
Posted May 14, 2007 — in Music News
Live Nation reported significant losses during its first quarter. The decline is the result of lackluster tours and increased operational expenses.
Live Nation CFO Alan Ridgeway noted during a conference call that first-quarter (ended March 31, 2007) treks from the Who, Josh Groban, Bob Seger and Dolly Parton “did not perform as strongly” as 2006’s first-quarter lineup of U2, Coldplay, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Depeche Mode and others.
The concert business is a seasonal and cyclical business with a cycle of generally 1 to 3 years,” Live Nation president/CEO Michael Rapino said in a statement.
The concert business is cyclical to an extent. But, generally speaking the concert business won’t be as healthy as it was since record sales continue to decline and the ageing stars continue to die off. This problem isnt going away. Hence, another solution needed.
How is it possible that tours were “lackluster” when every one of Josh’s concerts have sold out?
R Graziose
Comment by Rachel Graziose — May 14, 2007 @ 10:54 am
This problem isn’t about stars who are dying off. It’s about bad shows. People want to go to a show and have an experience. They don’t want to see a re-creation of the music video. If you convince people that that’s what the shows are made of- an experience you can’t find on YouTube- and you’ll sell tickets. If you put people who are better dancers than singers and bands who don’t even try to sound emotional when they sing on tour, you won’t get positive feedback. That’s why signing a good live band is so important.
Comment by annie — May 14, 2007 @ 1:57 pm
Gee, I guess stratospheric tickets prices, made even worse by a myriad of tacked on charges and fees don’t have any impact at all. (BTW, just what the hell is a convenience charge, anyway?)
Bottom line, the music industry is far too bloated these days and is in need of a serious re-sizing. If Mr. Rapino is serious about explaining away the shortfall with some sort of cyclical scenario, I would suggest he take a quick look and check if the “cycle” still has all the spokes.
It is NOT business as usual.
Comment by DD — May 15, 2007 @ 9:16 am
I think you both are missing the point. Annie, shows are not failing because of a performance that looks like the music video, they are failing because there are no rockstars left. Further, record labels cant afford music videos. And if they could, MTV would not play them because they do not play music videos anymore.
You can make tickets prices almost retarted, but if the perfomer/band is a STAR, people will pay it. They will drink the cool-aide for all they care; they just wanted to see a star. Want to see Prince in Vegas? Tickets START at $400. People pay it. They wait in long lines. And he sells out his shows over and over and over again.
Produce Stars= lots of people buying everything that star puts out, including all the tickets to his/her shows. People need to stop speculating; this is not rocket science. You tube will never take the place drinking lots of alchohol and rocking right here with your hero. Get people who have a clue about the problem, you might get a solution.
Comment by jake — May 16, 2007 @ 8:23 am
In the article above, the CFO is quoted as saying the lackluster performance of the concerts, including Josh Groban, were part of the reason for the corporate losses. I just wanted to respectfully mention that I am offended to ssee Josh Groban on that list. I can’t speak to the other artists mentioned as being “lackluster”, but Mr. Groban’s tour began on February 18th, well into the first quarter. Most all shows were sold out (at fairly high ticket prices, I might add). According to TicketNews, by the end of April, Josh Groban’s concert sales put him in the Top 5 of ALL events to which tickets are sold. He was eclipsed by only Wicked, The Boston Red Sox, Oscar DeLa Hoya and the New York Yankees. As far as concerts were concerned, his sales were in the #1 spot.
Therefore, I simply wanted to point out that if you want to compile a laundry list of reasons for the company’s losses, perhaps Mr. Groban should not have been included.
Comment by J Kokrda — May 16, 2007 @ 9:10 am
In the article above, the LiveNation CFO is quoted as saying the lackluster performance of the concerts, including Josh Groban, were part of the reason for the corporate losses. I just wanted to respectfully mention that I am offended that Josh Groban is on that list. I can’t speak to the other artists mentioned as being “lackluster”, but Mr. Groban’s tour began on February 18th, well into the first quarter. Most all shows were sold out (at fairly high ticket prices, I might add). According to TicketNews, by the end of April, Josh Groban’s concert sales put him in the Top 5 of ALL events to which tickets are sold. He was eclipsed by only Wicked, The Boston Red Sox, Oscar DeLa Hoya and the New York Yankees. As far as concerts were concerned, his sales were in the #1 spot.
Therefore, I simply wanted to point out that if you want to compile a laundry list of reasons for the company’s losses, perhaps Mr. Groban should not have been included.
Comment by J Kokrda — May 16, 2007 @ 9:12 am