Live Nation
Astroworld Report Leads to Finger-Pointing Over Jurisdiction and Blame for Tragedy
Travis Scott‘s Astroworld festival, where 10 attendees died last November, suffered from permitting issues and insufficient training for security, according to a report released Tuesday by the Texas Task Force on Concert Safety (TFCS). The task force, which was created by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to investigate the tragedy and make policy recommendations, concluded that establishing standardized safety procedures could help prevent a similar mass casualty event from happening in the future. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Released five months after the tragedy, the report highlights a confusing web of permitting power over events like Astroworld. Harris County should have had permitting jurisdiction over NRG Park, the report says, but the...
Harry Styles Sets 2023 Stadium Tour of Australia and New Zealand
Harry Styles will beat a path to Australia and New Zealand next year for the domestic leg of his long-awaited Love On Tour. The English pop star will play stadiums in five cities, starting Feb. 20 at Perth’s HBF Park, then heading to Marvel Stadium in Melbourne (Feb. 24), Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium (Feb. 28), Accor Stadium in Sydney (March 3), and wrapping at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium on March 7. The dates are, of course, a makeup for Love On Tour shows which were postponed due to the pandemic and finally kicked off in the United States last September. The announcement Wednesday (April 20) of his long-overdue solo tour Down Under follows the release of his comeback single “As It Was,” which blasted to No. 1 on the ARIA Singles Chart. And it comes ahead of the May 20 release of his thi...
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino’s 2021 Bonus Worth $10.5M
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino is set to collect $10.5 million in stock as part of his annual performance bonus after hitting certain financial goals, defined by the company’s Compensation Committee, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday (March 4). Rapino also receives a $3 million annual salary, but is expected report a salary below $3 million for 2021 because of a voluntary pandemic pay reduction. The value of the shares will certainly change by the time they fully vest based on the company stock price at that time. Friday’s shares are valued at $114 per share based on the company’s most recent closing price, with about $5.3 million worth of shares (46,272 shares) vesting by May 10 and equal amount vesting by Aug. 16. Live Nation president and CFO Jo...
EBIDTA, AOI, OIBDA, WTF? Why Companies Report Different Financial Metrics
With music companies’ fourth quarter earnings starting to roll out this week, news reports have been filled with the usual alphabet soup of accounting jargon, abbreviations and acronyms. It can get confusing, especially since some of the most visible financial metrics don’t have strict definitions. Spotify, Warner Music Group, Live Nation, SiriusXM and other companies publicly traded in the U.S. adhere to what are called Generally Accepted Accounting Principles set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. GAAP standards allow investors to reasonably trust companies will fairly represent their business results using the same rules and language. Left to creatively interpret their own finances, companies would have different approaches to measuring their revenue, expenses and liabilities....
I Set My Friends on Fire Hold Festival URL Hostage for Spot on Lineup
When We Were Young 2022 is a modern slice of Warped Tour heaven, including everyone from back in the day — or almost everyone. When I Set My Friends on Fire saw they had been left off the lineup, they declared a guerrilla meme war, even going so far as to purchase WhenWeWereYoungFest.com to hold it hostage. It all began with a series of incredulous comments. “LIVENATION ARE YOU SERIOUS?” they wrote following the festival announcement. To everyone planning on attending, they added, “SEE YOU IN THE PARKING LOT I GUESS.” They also made a generous offer: “WHATEVER YOU GUYS ARE PAYING MCR, WE’LL DO IT FOR HALF,” and vowed, “WE ARE GOING TO MEME OURSELVES ONTO THIS ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.” Finally, on Tuesday, the titans of 2008 dropped the big bomb: “HEY LIVENATION,” they wrote, “GUESS WHO OWNS WHE...
Rod Stewart’s Tour of Australia Canceled Due to COVID-19 Surge
Rod Stewart’s planned tour of Australia has been canceled due to the wave of COVID-19 cases currently spreading the country. The veteran British singer was booked to perform nine concerts throughout March and April 2022. However, due to the “ongoing surge of COVID in Australia and the reimposition of entertainment venue capacity limits in several states,” Stewart’s tour has “regrettably, been cancelled,” reads a statement issued by Live Nation, which is producing the trek. Stewart was scheduled to play a mix of arenas, and outdoor wineries, for Roundhouse Entertainment’s A Day on the Green series. “My dear friends, once again I feel we’ve all been cheated by this evil disease, so it is with great regret that I announce my shows for 2022 have had to be canceled,” Stewart says in the stateme...
Astroworld: House Committee to Investigate Live Nation
In the latest twist in the Astroworld saga, the House Oversight and Reform Committee is launching an investigation into the embattled festival. Astroworld promoter Live Nation is also the subject of the investigation. As reported by the AP, the committee sent Live Nation a formal letter. The committee is seeking information about the company’s role in providing security, security planning, crowd control and when the promoter first was made aware of the tragic circumstances that were unfolding at Astroworld. The concert promoter has until January 7, 2022 to respond. “We are writing to request information regarding the tragic events on November 5, 2021, when a stampede crushed concertgoers, killing ten people and injuring hundreds more during Astroworld Music Festival,” the letter addr...
One in Five Concert Ticket Holders No-Showed in 2021
About one out of every five people who held tickets for concerts in 2021 stayed home. In most years, the very biggest touring acts and venues expect less than 4% of ticket buyers to no-show, while an average Live Nation concert saw about 12% of people stay home in 2019. But according to a Wall Street Journal report, that rate rose across the board in COVID-struck 2021, with between 17% and 20% of ticket purchasers never scanning their tickets. Some of the hardest-hits acts this year have been legacy artists with aging fanbases, including The Eagles, George Strait, Billy Joel, The Flaming Lips, and Dead & Company, who have all reported no-show rates of 20%. While a no-show is much better than a never-purchased, venues are especially anxious about the loss of older, wealthier p...
Duke Concept Launches Live Nation Joint Venture
While Burna Boy will make history this spring when he becomes the first Nigerian artist to headline New York’s Madison Square Garden, the April 28 concert also marks a major milestone for promoter Osita “Duke” Ugeh, CEO of concert promoter Duke Concept, who has spent the past 10 years bringing African artists to the U.S. With Burna Boy’s Madison Square Garden show, Ugeh — who’s Nigerian-born and based in New York — launches a new joint venture with Live Nation to co-promote African artists touring in the U.S. Through Duke Concept, Ugeh and Live Nation have been co-producing concerts together for years, and under the new arrangement, Ugeh will retain the autonomy to continue to independently promote his own events. “Over the past few years working with Duke, our relationship has grown immen...
Live Nation Finalizes $416 Million Acquisition of Mexican Promotion Giant OCESA
More than two years after it was first announced, Live Nation has finalized the acquisition of a 51% interest in Mexican concert promoter OCESA Entretenimiento, the company announced Monday. Live Nation bought its stake from CIE, a Latin American entertainment company, and media company Grupo Televisa, for MXN $8.84 billion – $416 million at Monday’s exchange rate but $444 million when the deal was announced in July 2019. OCESA significantly improves Live Nation’s presence in Latin America and further expands its international business. In 2019, OCESA’s holding company, Grupo Corporación Interamericana de Entretenimiento, reported $233.2 million in ticket sales to 936 events for 4.3 million fans from 3,400 shows spanning from the U.S. to Colombia, according to Billboard’s 2019 y...
Live Nation Among Stocks Down Amid Fears Over New COVID-19 Variant
Stock prices around the globe fell on Friday (Nov. 26) after the World Health Organization warned of a new, fast-spreading COVID-19 variant discovered in South Africa. One of the stocks affected most was Live Nation, which dropped 8.06% on Friday in a shortened day of trading. After rising from $67 a share a year ago to a 52-week high of $127.75 a share in early November, the stock closed at $112.66 Monday, then fell to $103.52 today. The Dow Industrial Average fell 905 points, or 2.5%, marking its largest one-day percentage drop since October 2020. The World Health Organization said on Friday that the new variant — called Omicron — “has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning.” The organization added, “Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection w...
Chuck D Pens Open Letter Following Astroworld Tragedy: “Stop Letting One Young Black Man Take the Blame”
In the wake of the recent tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival, Chuck D has issued an open letter to Live Nation, demanding they take accountability for the incident and accusing them of redirecting the blame onto Scott. “I’m tired of these corporations shucking their most crucial responsibility,” Chuck D wrote. “I’m not buying the Young Black Man did it. He’s being blamed for a crime while the old white men running the corps that Travis and his fans trusted with their lives stay quiet in the shadows.” The excuse of Scott’s irresponsible actions don’t wash,” the Public Enemy founding member continued. “If his act had a history of that behavior why promote him to bigger venues, why partner with him in the first place and let him headline a bigger audience? Live Nation controll...
