Live Nation Entertainment, the music and ticketing giant created in 2010 by the merger of Ticket Master and Live Nation, reported a loss of $228.4 million for 2010, due to a low touring season. According to Ben Sisario, "ticket sales for concerts were down by 10 percent. Live Nation has gone on to report a revenue of $5.06 billion for the year, a 9 percent drop for the year before and $63.7 million in terms of operating losses". The merger between the two giants (Live Nation and Ticketmaster) took place in January 2010. Live Nation stated that "it lost $1.39 a share last year, compared to a loss of 73 cents a share a year earlier".
For the annual year, analysts at Live Nation Entertainment expected revenue of $4.95 billion. Chief executive Michael Rapino, said their losses were caused due to high ticket prices and therefore customers were un-willing to spend money for concerts last year. At concerts in the summer of last year, hawkers stood outside Live Nation's amphitheaters selling tickets for "fire-sale" prices. Most of the money from ticket sales is given to the artist, while Live Nation profits from parking, concessions, merchandise and other related sales.
Live Nation's fourth quater results that ended December 31st, were also down. It showed that the company an operating loss of $86.1 million, compared to the year before, where operating losses were $29.7 million for the same period. Live Nation's revenue was down by 2 percent, to $1.24 billion. Chief Executive, Michael Rapino has assured that the concert business will start to pick up in 2011. Front Line Management, which is a part of Live Nation, is the largest artist management, representing over 200 artist, such as the Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Neil Diamond and Jimmy Buffet. Rapino stated that, "half his clients waited out the dry season in 2010, but that 75 percent of its artist would be on the road this year".
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