Live Nation loses 98 percent of its revenue in the second quarter

In the presentation of the results of the second quarter of 2020, Live Nation accounted for a monumental crash of 98 percent of earnings losses, compared to the previous year, mainly due to the wave of cancellations and postponements of concerts and festivals due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

Specifically, Live Nation has gone from billing $ 3.2 billion to just $ 74 million in the same period. Net losses are estimated at $ 568 million compared to earnings of $ 172 million in 2019 for the same time interval. It is the case that the second semester is the most important for the major players in the music industry. In April, May and June is when the weather allows the tours that fill stadiums to take place and many of the festivals that gather tens of thousands of people are held.

It is difficult to get something positive from such a disaster but Live Nation executives highlight that 86 percent of attendees don’t have returned tickets for events postponed to next year and that 19 million tickets have already been sold by 2021.

Live Nation chief executive Michael Rapino says, “We remain confident that fans will return to live events when it is safe to do so. Our biggest demand indicator is that fans retain their tickets, even when given the option of a refund. ”

However, the multinational is preparing for a long period without concerts: "In the last three months, our main priority has been to strengthen our financial position to ensure that we have the liquidity and flexibility to go through a long period without live events." The company's expectations are in the summer of 2021, when it hopes to break ticket sales records.

It also points to ‘live streaming’, concerts broadcast live over the internet, as an additional source of business with very good prospects in the near future. Rapino has not commented on the figures for the concerts in drive-ins but has indicated that there will be no more events with DJs in the Hamptons of New York after the controversial images in which a 'pit' appears without social distance or masks that is being investigated by the authorities.

As reported by 'Billboard' in May, Live Nation suspended about 2,100 of its 10,500 employees as part of an effort to cut costs during the COVID-19 crisis.