LIVE NATION LOGS $17B IN 2022

Live Nation pulled in $17.3b in constant currency in 2022, a 44% spike over 2019, the last year the live-entertainment business was fully operational.

The company made $14.02b in constant currency with 43,644 concerts in 45 countries attended by a record 121m fans. LN sold 551m tickets in 2022.

Concert attendance was up 24% over 2019. 18.4m people attended stadium shows and 13.2m attended festivals, a 30% jump over 2019.

Without the constant-currency calculation, the impact of which was primarily due to the dollar's strength against the euro and the pound, Live Nation’s revenue was $16.7b.

Operating income for the year was up 125% to $732m.

Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino reported that the company spent $9.6b to produce shows in 2022, a 45% increase over 2019.

“As part of this," Rapino said, "we helped shift $700 million to artists with more market-value ticket pricing, even as the entry price of a show stayed below $35 in the U.S. Typically 90% of ticket sales for Live Nation shows go to artists. This is particularly important as artists are increasingly reliant on touring as they get much smaller revenue shares from other music-revenue streams.”

What a difference a year makes: Live Nation staged 29,169 concerts in North America in 2022 compared to 12,000 in 2021. Internationally, it was 14,475 in 2022 and 5,408 in 2021.

Fee-bearing-ticket volume rose 28% over 2019 to 280m, pushing ticketing revenue up 45% to $2.2b. This was the first time fee-bearing tickets (281k) outnumbered non-fee-bearing tickets (270k).

LN had 120 strategic sponsors globally, 32% more than in 2019, which helped push overall sponsorship up 64% to $1b.

International markets led growth in 2022 and, as of mid-February, international ticket sales were up 25% for 2023 concerts.