LIVE Nation's event revenue tops SONY & Universal's music sales by $200,000,000.00!
What this tells me is social media can't replace human experience. In this age of connected everything-everywhere, people still want great experiences! People want to connect with their favourite artists, music and fellow fans in "real life"!
Streaming might be helping the major record companies bounce back – but the biggest money in the music business still appears to be on stage.
Live Nation has just posted a record third quarter revenue-wise, while forecasting a year of record results for 2016.
Revenue was up 21% in the three months to end of September at $3.17bn, with operating income up 25% to $191.3m.
Net profit stood at $132.8m in the three months, evening out at $113.3m for the first nine months of the year.
Revenues from Jan-Sept inclusive stood at $6.56bn, up 19% year-on-year (21% at constant currency).
If Live Nation’s revenues continue this growth pattern in Q4, it will post around $2bn for the three months – up on the $1.74bn reported sales in the last quarter of 2015.
In total, therefore, Live Nation is expected to record annual revenues in 2016 at somewhere around $8.5bn.
In total, then, Sony and Universal’s combined record label activities should generate somewhere around $8.3bn this year.
