Live Nation reported $3.3 billion in revenue for the first financial quarter of 2025, an 11 percent drop from the particularly strong first quarter the live music giant had posted a year ago.
Adjusted operating income fell 6 percent to $341 million from 362.5 million year over year. In the concerts division, revenue fell 14 percent to $2.84 billion, and ticketing revenue fell 4 percent to $694.7 million. Sponsorship and advertising, however, grew slightly, up 2 percent to $216.1 million.
While the year has started out slower, in its report, Live Nation points to $5.4 billion in deferred revenue for concerts and another $270 million in deferred revenue on tickets — a 24 percent and 13 percent bump for each category — which the company said suggests stronger figures in the months ahead as the concert season gets more into full swing.
Live Nation’s earnings report comes as there’s been significant discourse over the past year regarding the demand for arena and stadium level artists given increasingly expensive concert tickets and a murky economic outlook in the months ahead. Beyoncé, for example, has garnered headlines as there are still tickets available for dates on her just-started Cowboy Carter Tour, leading to the question on if sales are weakening as consumers tighten their belts. (Live Nation itself has disputed the notion of a surplus of tickets and said in March that she’d sold 94 percent of her tickets, according to Billboard.)
In a statement, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino maintained that the company’s seen no indication to expect lower demand from fans ahead despite a less-than-rosy broader economic picture. He said Live Nation is “on track to deliver double-digit growth in operating income and AOI this year.”
“As more artists tour the world, fan demand is reaching new heights across ticket sales, show attendance, and on-site spending,” Rapino said. “Ticket sales are pacing well ahead of last year, with deferred revenue for both concerts and ticketing at record levels. To support even more fans seeing their favorite artists, we’re continuing to expand our global venue network, adding 20 major venues through 2026. As the global experience economy grows, the live music industry is leading the way, and we’re positioned to compound growth by double-digits over many years.”
During the company’s earnings call Thursday afternoon, Rapino pointed toward on-sales from April 1st to April 21st, calling it the “most relevant on-sale” period and specifically mentioning strong on-sales for Chris Brown and Lady Gaga tours.
“We haven’t seen a consumer pullback in any genre, club, theater, stadium, amphitheater, we haven’t seen that happen yet,” Rapino said.
Outside of its quarterly earnings, Live Nation of course still faces a DOJ antitrust lawsuit over monopoly allegations as the Justice department called for a breakup of the eponymous concert promoter and ticketing giant Ticketmaster last year. Live Nation has consistently denied the allegations, and CFO Joe Berchtold said at a conference last year that “I expect we’re going to prevail.” Still, both advocates and lawmakers have been vocal in recent months calling for the DOJ to continue to pursue the lawsuit and break up the company.
