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A Taylor Swift fan who filed a class action against Ticketmaster parent Live Nation in the wake of last year’s disastrous presale of tickets to the Eras Tour has agreed to drop her case against the concert giant, months after attorneys on the case said they were engaged in settlement talks.
Swift fan Michelle Sterioff filed her case in December 2022 just weeks after the botched Eras rollout, which saw widespread service delays and website crashes as millions of fans tried – and many failed – to buy tickets. At the time, her lawyers blasted Live Nation as a “monopoly” that had “knowingly misled millions of fans.”
But a year later, Sterioff voluntarily asked a federal judge on Tuesday to dismiss her case. It’s unclear if a settlement was reached, but the two sides reported in August that they were engaged in “ongoing settlement discussions.” Neither side immediately returned requests for comment.
Sterioff’s proposed class action was just one piece of the legal fallout for Live Nation following the error-plagued pre-sale for Eras, which went on the earn hundreds of millions of dollars and dominate headlines as 2023’s biggest concert tour.
After the Nov. 22, 2022 incident, Live Nation quickly apologized to fans and pinned the blame on a “staggering number of bot attacks” and “unprecedented traffic.” But lawmakers in Washington and state attorneys general around the country quickly called for investigations. That included Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), the chair of the Senate subcommittee for antitrust issues, who suggest that regulators consider “breaking up the company” – a reference to Live Nation’s 2010 merger with Ticketmaster.
Days after the incident, the New York Times reported that DOJ had already been investigating Live Nation for months over potential antitrust violations, reaching out to venues across the country to ask about the company’s conduct. Last month, Reuters reported that the probe was ongoing, with federal investigators focusing on whether Live Nation imposed anticompetitive agreements on venues. A Senate subcommittee investigation is also underway, sending out subpoenas last month demanding info about the company’s “failure to combat artificially inflated demand fueled by bots in multiple, high-profile incidents.”
Taylor Swift performs onstage for night three of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Nissan Stadium on May 07, 2023 in Nashville.
John Shearer/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Sterioff’s case was one of two major class actions filed against Live Nation over the Eras ticket rollout. In her complaint, she accused the company of violating consumer protection and antitrust laws, calling Ticketmaster a “monopoly that is only interested in taking every dollar it can from a captive public.”
“Because Ticketmaster has exclusive agreements with virtually all venues capable of accommodating large concerts, Taylor Swift and other popular musicians have no choice but to sell their tickets through Ticketmaster, and their fans have no choice but to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster’s primary ticketing platform,” her lawyers wrote.
Sterioff’s lawsuit claimed that Live Nation has exploited that dominance to charge “ever more supracompetitive ticketing fees for both primary and secondary ticketing services,” including for “virtually all venues hosting ‘The Eras’ Tour.”
But the lawsuit has largely been paused for months. In August, both sides agreed that it would be better to wait to litigate the case after a federal appeals court rules on a separate antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, which will decide whether the company can force ticketbuyers to resolve such legal claims in private arbitration rather than open court.
The other class action over the Eras debacle, filed by an outspoken fan named Julie Barfuss and more than two dozen other spurned Swifities, remains pending in California federal court. In her complaint, Barfuss went even further than Sterioff, claiming Live Nation had tacitly allowed the kind of mass-scalping that caused so many problems during the pre-sale.
“Ticketmaster has stated that it has taken steps to address this issue, but in reality, has taken steps to make additional profit from the scalped tickets,” Barfuss’ lawyer wrote. “Instead of competition, Ticketmaster has conspired with stadiums to force fans to buy more expensive tickets that Ticketmaster gets additional fees from every time the tickets are resold.”
Live Nation has expanded its partnership with SoLa Impact’s SoLa Foundation, funding a major investment in SoLa’s second state-of-the-art youth center in L.A. and a program that will provide fully subsidized educational and workforce training opportunities in music and technology.
The touring giant has agreed to finance the completion of the new campus, which will be named SoLa Tech and Entertainment Center Powered by Live Nation. Opening in early 2025, the new 8,500-square-foot technology and entertainment center will be located on the ground floor of the “Crenshaw Lofts,” SoLa Impact’s new 195-unit workforce and affordable housing development located near Crenshaw and Leimert Blvds.
The center will host the 18-week Live Nation Next Gen Program, which offers paid apprenticeships for historically excluded youth (ages 16-21) from South L.A. The program helps students explore entertainment and production careers and learn directly from Live Nation staff and executives about various aspects of live entertainment — from booking to marketing to operations and more. The program, which will work in partnership with Live Nation’s School of Live, will culminate with the group promoting, ticketing and producing a community concert.
“We are incredibly inspired and encouraged by Live Nation’s continued partnership and their commitment to diversity and inclusion in the live music industry and beyond,” said Sherri Francois, SoLa Impact’s chief impact officer and executive director of the SoLa Foundation. “This is another amazing example of the power of mission-aligned corporate and nonprofit partners working together with focus and determination to solve seemingly intractable challenges.”
The new SoLa Tech and Entertainment Center Powered by Live Nation will service more than 1,000 students annually, with a long-term goal to close the socio-economic access gap for careers in the entertainment, science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) fields. Within the music sector, students will also be trained in the business and technology of the live entertainment industry, audio engineering and recording, coding, 3D modeling and animation, graphic design, digital content creation, entrepreneurship, and practical life and career skills. The center will also be a space for cultural, economic and civic events for the wider community.
“Live music isn’t a standard part of most schools and colleges, even though it continues to be a growing industry,” added Michael Rapino, president/CEO of Live Nation Entertainment. “By partnering together with SoLa, kids learn the business of music and we help them get first-hand experience, which unlocks a whole new world of careers, which has been incredible to be part of.”
SoLa Tech and Entertainment Center Powered by Live Nation, set to open in early 2025 in South LA.
Courtesy Live Nation
Live Nation will pay its 5,000 employees and service crew working at its club venues a minimum of $20 per hour, company officials announced earlier today.
“Shows wouldn’t happen without the unsung heroes who work in the background to help support artists and fans,” Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino explained, announcing that the wage hike was an extension of Live Nation’s On the Road Again program, first rolled out in September with the endorsement of touring legend Willie Nelson.
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“In addition to developing artists, clubs also help industry professionals learn the ropes, and many of our promoters and venue managers worked their way up from smaller venues,” Rapino continued. “The live music industry is on track for years of growth and offers a great career path, and by increasing minimum wages we’re helping staff get an even stronger start as they begin their journey in live.”
The $20 per hour base pay is significantly higher than federal minimum wage, which currently sits at $7.50 an hour and serves as the defacto minimum wage in 30 states. Washington has the highest minimum wage in the U.S., starting at $15.74 per hour, followed by California at $15.50, Connecticut and Massachusetts at $15 and New York at $14.20.
“Moving forward, base pay for hourly club staff will start at $20/hour, while supervisor roles will start at $25/hour with opportunity for advancement in the company,” a press release announcing the wage rate explains. The increases will impact more than 5,000 crew members who serve as box office attendants, production crew, artist hospitality, guest services, ushers, parking attendants, cleaning crews, sustainability coordinators, and more.”
“Live Nation prides itself on providing advancement opportunities and developing leaders from within,” according to a release announcing the new minimum wage. “And at venues participating in the On The Road Again, nearly half of all crew members were elevated from part-time into full-time roles over the past two years.”
Company officials added that two other initiatives announced by Live Nation — a commitment that all headline and support acts playing Live Nation clubs would receive $1,500 in travel bonuses on top of nightly compensation and zero fees on band merch sold at participating LN venues, would be extended through 2024.
The September announcement did draw criticism from the National Independent Venue Association, which criticized the program saying “Temporary measures may appear to help artists in the short run but actually can squeeze out independent venues which provide the lifeblood of many artists on thin margins.”
One NIVA member however, Thomas Cussins with Ineffable Music Group, which oversees 10 venues across California, said he welcomed the change, noting his company eliminated merch fees at the beginning of the year, noting it is an overall healthier ecosystem and you will actually do better in business because you are doing something that makes the process easier.”
Live Nation officials are at an impasse with a powerful Senate subcommittee over demands that the concert promoter hand over confidential emails, contracts and memos detailing sensitive information about artist compensation.
Attorneys for Live Nation say they have already turned over more than 10,000 documents to investigators working for Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, or PSI, which Blumenthal chairs. Live Nation in-house counsel Dan Wall wrote on Live Nation’s corporate blog on Tuesday (Nov. 21) that the company is willing to hand over more sensitive documents if the PSI agrees to confidentiality protections to ensure the information is kept out of the public domain.
So far, Blumenthal has refused to agree to any restrictions requested by Live Nation and issued a subpoena for the confidential documents on Nov. 16. Live Nation officials plan to challenge the subpoena in court and are preparing for a lengthy legal battle to protect the confidentiality of its artist contracts if the two sides can’t reach an agreement.
“It is only in a subpoena enforcement action [before a federal judge] that Live Nation can assert its rights to protect the confidentiality of this information,” Wall wrote in the blog post.
Live Nation’s insistence on “confidentiality protections” is fairly routine, most legal experts agree, especially when it comes to court proceedings or investigations by government agencies. It’s also common practice for congressional investigators to agree to confidentiality rules while collecting evidence for congressional inquiries, but there’s no legal recourse if a member of Congress or staff discloses confidential information to the public.
News on Monday (Nov. 20) that Live Nation was being investigated by the powerful Department of Homeland Security and PSI surprised many music industry insiders. Created by President Harry Truman in 1941 to investigate wasteful defense spending after World War II, the PSI’s focus for much of its existence has been on matters of national security, including Korean War atrocities, the American Mafia’s influence on major labor unions and the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
Under Blumenthal’s leadership, the PSI has shifted its focus to consumer-oriented investigations, like the proposed merger of the PGA and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league, equity within Medicare Advantage and sexual abuse in federal women’s prisons.
Blumenthal has also long been a critic of Live Nation and its 2010 merger with Ticketmaster, calling for the two companies to be split apart during a high-profile Senate hearing in January. According to a Nov. 16 letter from Blumenthal to Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, the PSI officially began investigating Live Nation in March, in part for what Blumenthal calls “failure to combat artificially inflated demand fueled by bots in multiple, high-profile incidents, which resulted in consumers being charged exorbitant ticket prices.”
That description is the only public hint of what PSI is focusing on in its Live Nation investigation and doesn’t seem particularly damning of the concert promotion company. While bots, often operated by scalpers, do inflate demand for tickets — especially during high-profile onsales — and can lead to exorbitant ticket prices, it’s almost always Ticketmaster’s competitors in the secondary market who stand the most to gain.
Before Live Nation hands over any documents that contain “highly sensitive client information about artists, venues and others with whom we deal,” Wall wrote in the blog post, the company wants “binding confidentiality protections to prevent its misuse.”
Live Nation’s request might prove more difficult than the company’s leadership realizes, says Andrew Olmem, attorney and partner at Mayer Brown, which specializes in defending clients targeted by major investigations and congressional inquiries.
“Any documents provided to Congress are always vulnerable to public disclosure,” Olmem explains, noting that Congressional members and their staffers enjoy broad protections against criminal and civil liability under the U.S. Constitution’s speech and debate clause.
It is common for attorneys of clients targeted by Congressional inquiries to negotiate terms of documents’ use with investigators requesting the information, Olmem says. Many investigators, he adds, care deeply about reputational trust, knowing that violating confidentiality agreements with targets could make future targets less willing to voluntarily cooperate with document requests and significantly slow down investigations.
“But even if you secure such an agreement, members of Congress and their staffs can’t be liable for releasing confidential documents as part of their official legislative duties, such as submitting (the documents) into the congressional record or reading them on the House or Senate floors for the purpose of informing a legislative debate,” Olmem continues. “There are many circumstances in which members and their staff are incentivized to leak and do leak information for political purposes without consequences.”
K-pop giant JYP Entertainment has signed a multi-year global strategic pact with Live Nation to produce tours for all artists on JYP’s roster, it was announced Monday (Nov. 13). Under the deal, Live Nation will produce tours for established JYP artists including TWICE, Stray Kids, iTZY, Xdinary Heroes (XH) and NMIXX as well as emerging […]
Music companies’ third-quarter earnings reports have so far been full of good news and positive trends. Subscription and streaming growth continue to drive revenues for record labels and publishers. Live entertainment continues its post-pandemic expansion. Margins are healthy. Overall, these have been solid report cards for the state of the music business.
Among the companies to report thus far are Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Spotify, Believe, Sphere Entertainment Co., MSG Entertainment, HYBE and SiriusXM. Next week’s earnings reports will come from Warner Music Group (Nov. 16) and Tencent Music Entertainment (Nov. 14). German concert promoter CTS Eventim will report on Nov. 21.
Here are seven items from the earnings releases to date that stood out and deserve more attention.
Universal Music Group struck out against “merchants of garbage.” During Universal Music Group’s Oct. 26 earnings call, chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge got a lot of attention when he bemoaned the “merchants of garbage” — creators of low-value functional music such as generic mood music and nature sounds — that want to be on equal royalty terms at streaming platforms as such UMG artists as Taylor Swift, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Grainge’s memorable turn of phrase came in defense of UMG’s artist-centric royalty scheme crafted in partnership with French music streaming service Deezer. “Sorry, I can’t really think of another word for content that no one really actually wants to listen to,” Grainge said.
Spotify’s price increase gave a much-needed uplift to subscription revenues. The price for an individual Spotify subscription in the U.S. was $9.99 from 2011 to July 2023. The price hike to $10.99 in roughly 50 markets may have arrived later than its competitors, but it came just when Spotify needed a boost. Spotify’s premium average revenue per user dropped 6% year over year (1% at constant currency) mainly because the company had a larger share of family plans compared to the prior-year, CFO Paul Vogel said during the July 25 earnings call. Early returns from the price increase in the U.S., U.K. and dozens of other markets helped offset those losses. Because Spotify’s number of subscribers increased 16% year over year to 226 million, subscription revenue grew 10% year over year (16% at constant currency) to 2.9 billion euros ($3.1 billion). With three full months of a price increase in the fourth quarter and considering the price increase covered about 75% of Spotify’s revenue base, the company expects the price increase to provide “a positive, mid-single digit” benefit (excluding foreign exchange) in the fourth quarter, said Vogel.
No company lowered guidance, and some have raised guidance. Sony Music raised guidance for revenue and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization by 5% and 4%, respectively. Reservoir Media raised guidance for fiscal 2024 revenue and adjusted EBITDA by 10% each. It’s one thing for a company to meet expectations it had previously laid out to investors. But raising previously released expectations is something else altogether — a sign the future will be better than expected. It’s usually a benefit to the stock price, too. The share price is the present value of future cash flows. When an estimate for future cash flows takes a sudden jump, that changes the financial model used to calculate the share price.
Consumers aren’t slowing their spending on live music. In August, concerns arose that a resumption of student loan payments, paused to help people struggling during the pandemic, would take a bite out of pocketbooks and cause music fans to pull back on the record amounts they were spending on live entertainment. Three months later, there is no indication that consumers are slowing down, according to Live Nation. “We’re seeing no sign of weaknesses,” said president and CFO Joe Berchtold, noting that Ticketmaster’s October sales in North American were up double-digits year over year. “We’re not seeing any pullback in any way from a club to a stadium tour from Milan to Argentina right now,” added president and CEO Michael Rapino.
SM Entertainment has big plans for its new publishing subsidiary, Kreation Music Rights. The K-pop stalwart has been “aggressively recruiting global writers” and plans to have 80 of them under contract this year, CEO Jang Cheol Hyuk said during the Nov. 8 earnings call. SM Entertainment is pursuing collaborations with both domestic and international publishers and plans to recruit foreign writers “who wish to advance into K-pop by establishing overseas subsidiaries,” Jiang said.
Radio advertising continues to struggle — but the clouds may be starting to part. iHeartMedia’s October revenues were down 8% and the company expects its fourth-quarter revenue excluding political revenue to be down in the mid-single digit percent year over year. The fourth quarter will be iHeartMedia’s strongest quarter of the year “but will be weaker than we originally anticipated due to some dampening of advertising demand which coincided with the uncertainty caused by the recent geopolitical events,” CEO Bob Pittman said during Thursday’s earnings call. That said, iHeartMedia’s digital business “is sort of in recovery mode,” said Pittman, and the company is “seeing the pieces falling into place” for radio’s recovery as most advertisers expect to be “back in growth mode…and spending to support that” in 2024.
The market for catalog acquisitions isn’t slowing down. Reservoir Media CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi said catalog prices aren’t contracting despite higher interest rates. “We’re still seeing a lot of demand for assets and continued infusion of new capital within the competitive set,” she said during Tuesday’s earnings call. “And that is certainly fueling the demand. The pipeline is robust. And it ranges in size from large to a lot of smaller deals.” Reservoir Media hasn’t been suffering from sticker shock, though. Acquisitions in the Middle East-North Africa market — such as some catalog of Saudi Arabian label Mashrex in June — provide the company with good value, Khosrowshahi added. “If we’re looking at a market here that is somewhat saturated with a lot of capital in the marketplace, and we’re able to execute [deals in MENA] at these lower multiples, that makes it just that much more attractive to us.”
Shares of SiriusXM gained 20.1% this week following the company’s third-quarter earnings on Tuesday (Oct. 31) that showed the satellite radio company, which also owns music streamer Pandora, was more profitable despite flat revenue and small losses of self-pay satellite and Pandora subscribers.
Shares of SiriusXM rose to $4.95, its highest closing price since Aug. 3. With the help of a 155,000 increase in promotional subscribers, the company’s total satellite radio subscribers were flat at 34 million. Revenue was unchanged from a year ago at $2.27 billion, but SiriusXM’s net profit grew nearly 50% to $363 million.
Investors will be watching intently next Wednesday (Nov. 8) when SiriusXM unveils a new streaming app as well as in-car innovations and new programming. “This leading content and upcoming product upgrade will be paired with our unmatched business model, which we expect to continue delivering significant and growing free cash flow in the years ahead,” said CEO Jennifer Witz during Tuesday’s earnings call.
The 20-stock Billboard Global Music Index gained 6.9% to 1,394.40, its best week-on-week performance since the index gained 7% in the week ended Nov. 25, 2022. Last week, the index almost fell into correction territory — a 10% decline from its recent high — but this week’s gains reduced the deficit to the high of 1,447.32 (week ended July 21) to 3.7%.
Eighteen of the index’s 20 stocks finished the week in positive territory. Of the two stocks to decline this week, Hipgnosis Songs Fund dropped only 0.8% while Abu Dhabi-based Anghami fell 15.9%.
Led by SiriusXM, the index’s three radio stocks had an average weekly gain of 13.3%. iHeartRadio, the largest radio company in the United States, gained 16.8% to $2.50. The company will report quarterly earnings on Tuesday (Nov. 9). Cumulus Media shares improved 2.9% to $4.91. Additionally, the index’s four live music companies gained an average of 8%, while record labels and publishers as well as streaming companies had average one-week gains of 3.8%.
Round Hill Music Royalty Fund was removed from the index this week after the completion of its $468 million acquisition by Concord. At the acquisition price of $1.15 per share, the London-listed Round Hill Music Royalty Fund gave investors a 47.4% year-to-date return.
Stocks everywhere enjoyed a strong week as the U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, leading investors to predict the central bank would forgo further rate hikes. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite rose 5.9% and the S&P 500 gained 5.2%. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 1.7%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 2.8%.
Live Nation shares rose 10.9% after the company’s third-quarter results on Thursday showed that the company hit all-time records in revenue and adjusted operating income (AOI). Total revenue reached $8.2 billion, up 32% year over year, and AOI rose 35% to $836 million. Ticketmaster revenue grew 57% to $833 million in the third quarter. Through mid-October, Ticketmaster sold 140 million tickets to Live Nation events — more than the 121 million sold in full-year 2022.
Even though consumers are feeling pinched by inflation, demand continues to be strong across venue sizes and geographies, according to president/CEO Michael Rapino. “I have weekly booking calls with the over 40 presidents around the world and we talk about from clubs up to stadiums and festivals,” Rapino said during Thursday’s earnings call. “We have not seen anything taper off in any sense.”
Other stocks surpassing a 10% gain were Chinese music streamer Cloud Music, which gained 12.7% to 96.35 HKD ($12.31), and New York-based Reservoir Media, which gained 12.1% to $5.95. Reservoir Media will release its latest quarterly results on Tuesday (Nov. 7).
Live Nation had another record-setting quarter as music fans swarmed to concerts and continued to spend on live entertainment amidst persistent inflation, high gas prices and a resumption in student loan repayments in the United States. The concert promotion and ticketing giant posted third-quarter revenue of $8.2 billion, up 32% from the prior-year period, the company announced Thursday (Nov. 2). Adjusted operating income (AOI) rose 35% to a record $836 million.
A year ago, revenue reached a then-record $6.2 billion as artists returned to the stage after pandemic layoffs. In 2019, the last full year before the pandemic shut down the global touring business, Live Nation posted third-quarter revenue of $3.8 billion — 54% below what the company reported Thursday. Some growth since 2019 stems from acquisitions such as OCESA, the Mexican concert promoter Live Nation bought in 2021 for $416 million. But m uch of the record-setting result comes from the high number of touring artists and greater fan spending.
“While we have benefitted from tailwinds for many years, it has accelerated due to the globalization of our business along with a fundamental shift in consumer spending habits toward experiences,” president/CEO Michael Rapino said in a statement. “With the majority of opportunity still untapped from Milan to Bogotá to Tokyo and beyond, we expect the industry will continue growing in 2024 and for years to come.”
Through the first nine months of 2023, Live Nation’s revenue increased 36% to $16.9 billion and AOI rose 33% to $1.7 billion. Both nine-month figures were greater than Live Nation’s revenue and AOI for full year 2022.
In the concerts division, third-quarter revenue rose 32% to $7 billion and AOI grew 21% to $341 million. The number of fans at Live Nation concerts also grew 21% overall — 34% in international markets and 13% in North America.
Venue Nation, Live Nation’s venue management company for venues it does not own, increased ancillary revenue at operated venues. At amphitheaters, ancillary per-fan revenue was up 10% to $40 year to date. At theaters and clubs, ancillary per-fan spending rose in the double-digits globally.
Ticketmaster revenue grew 57% to $833 million while AOI jumped 94% to $316 million. Total fee-bearing gross transaction value was up 36% to $10 billion, with North America growing 32% and international markets climbing 49%. The ticketing company had 17 million net new client tickets in the first three quarters of the year.
Sponsorship and advertising revenue rose 7% to $367 million in the third quarter, while the division’s AOI improved 11% to $250 million.
Through mid-October, Ticketmaster sold 140 million tickets to Live Nation shows, up 17% year-over-year and surpassing the 121 million tickets sold in full-year 2022. Over the same period, the company sold 257 million fee-bearing tickets, a 22% improvement, and expects to surpass 300 million fee-bearing tickets in 2023.
For full-year 2023, the company expects 55 million fans at Live Nation-operated venues, up from 49 million in 2022. Ticketmaster expects full-year margins to remain in the high 30s through the fourth quarter. Sponsorship and advertising margins are expected to remain in the low 60s.
Looking forward to 2024, event-deferred revenue — ticket sales for future events — was up 39% to $2.6 billion through mid-October. About half of 2024’s expected show count has been booked for large venues — amphitheaters, arenas and stadiums — which is up double digits from the same point in 2022.
Revenue up 32% to $8.2 billion.
Adjusted operating income is up 35% to $836 million.
Year-to-date operating cash flow of $762 million, down from $928 million in Q3 2022.
Year-to-date free cash flow (adjusted) of $1.3 billion, up from $996 million in Q3 2022.
Ticketmaster revenue up 57% to $833 million.
Sponsorship and advertising revenue up 7% to $367 million.
Earnings per share rose 28% to $1.78.
Reports that singer Rihanna has inked a multi-year contract with Live Nation are “bogus” a source tells Billboard, pouring cold water on news that a live comeback for the superstar singer is imminent.
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On Sunday, the London-based Daily Mirror reported that the singer was planning a major world tour through 2024 and 2025 as part of a 32 million pounds ($39 million) deal with Live Nation. On Monday (Oct. 23), ET also ran a report saying Rihanna was “planning a world tour for 2024/2025 after striking a deal with Live Nation.”
But a high-level source who would be involved in such the talks said the 32 million pounds figure sounds made up and noted that “no tour has been confirmed for Rihanna.”
While promoters like Live Nation, or their competitive rival AEG, would be more than happy to book and a promote a global Rihanna tour, the source says “Bitch Better Have My Money” singer hasn’t yet committed to any touring projects for 2024.
As well, Live Nation has not placed any holds on venues for a potential tour. Typically, when a promoter begins booking a tour for a major artist, they will call different venues on the tour route and ask venue bookers to reserve various dates on their calendar to accommodate different routing scenarios for an upcoming tour. If Rihanna and Live Nation were to sign a deal, it would likely take several months to hammer out a potential tour route.
The demand for a Rihanna tour, and new music, is arguably unparalleled. She is one of the most commercially successful artists of all time, with 14 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a record surpassed only by The Beatles and Mariah Carey. Her last album was 2016’s Anti and her last tour was the one that followed that year. It generated more than $110 million in sales worldwide, and since its final stop in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 27, 2016, she has not performed a commercial concert. She has since only performed three times, including at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023 and the 2023 Oscars.
While a new global tour would surely net hundreds of millions in ticket sales and merchandise, Rihanna doesn’t exactly need that money. A March 10 story from the Wall Street Journal estimated Rihanna’s business empire to be worth $1.4 billion, thanks to the success of her record sales and cosmetic company Savage X Fenty, which she owns in partnership with luxury brand LVMH.
She also has a compelling reason not to want to hit the road – in August, she gave birth to her second child Riot Rose, whom she shares with rapper A$AP Rocky. The couple’s oldest son RZA was born in 2022.
Abu Dhabi-based music streamer Anghami led all music stocks this week after gaining 17.6% to $0.82. On Thursday, the company announced through an SEC filing it had received a written notification from the Nasdaq Stock Market regarding its closing share price being below $1.00 for the previous 30 days. The Nasdaq gives companies 180 days to regain compliance or face de-listing from the exchange.
The warning appeared to spur a 16.5% gain on Thursday as investors saw signs the share price won’t remain under $1. In its SEC filing, Anghami stated if the share price remains under the $1 threshold it will “consider available options to cure the deficiency,” including a reverse share split (which would increase the share price by reducing the number of shares outstanding while the market capitalization remains unchanged).
SiriusXM gained 5.7% on Friday (Oct. 13) and finished the week up 11.8%. Its $4.85 closing price was the highest for the satellite radio company since Aug. 9. The typically steady stock has fallen 17% this year as self-pay satellite radio subscribers stagnated at or around 32 million for eight straight quarters. SiriusXM will host a Nov. 8 presentation to unveil a new streaming app and preview upcoming in-car innovations and new programming.
The 21-stock Billboard Global Music Index fell 1.3% to 1,355.65 this week as 13 stocks were in negative territory and only eight stocks gained ground. Year to date, the index has gained 16.1%. Led by SiriusXM’s gain and a 7.6% increase from Cumulus Media, the index’s three radio stocks had an average improvement of 5.5%. Eight record labels and publishers had an average weekly gain of 0.3%. HYBE improved 6.8% while Believe climbed 3.6% and Universal Music Group added 0.6%. Streaming companies were, on average, flat this week.
Live music stocks dropped an average of 4.8%. Shares of Sphere Entertainment Co. dropped 11.1%, effectively offsetting the 11% gain on Oct. 2 following U2’s debut performances at Sphere in Las Vegas. Live Nation dropped 3.9%, MSG Entertainment fell 3.5% and CTS Eventim shares fell 0.7%. If investors are curious what’s next for Sphere Entertainment, clues comes from an interview published Thursday. Executive chairman and CEO James Dolan said the company is “actively pursuing other markets” and “has six different kinds of spheres down to a 3,000-seater.” A Las Vegas-style Sphere may not work in London, where according to reports residents are concerned about the location and light pollution that could arise from a massive external display similar to the Las Vegas venue.
Music stocks underperformed numerous indexes. In the United States, the S&P 500 gained 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.3%. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 gained 1.4%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index rose 2%.
Stocks faded after the release of consumer sentiment data for October by the University of Michigan showed a decline from September based on “a substantial increase” in concerns about inflation. Expectations for inflation in one year rose from 3.2% in September to 3.8% this month. That’s the highest mark since May 2023 and substantially above the 2.3% to 3% range seen in the two years before the pandemic.
Also a factor in stock prices, the U.S. Federal Reserve expects to raise interest rates one more time, according to minutes released from its September policy meeting. Interest rates have an inverse relationship with equity prices. Higher interest rates make borrowing more expensive and cut down on corporate profits.