Live Nation Releases Earnings

The results missed Wall Street expectations, which called for a loss of 27 cents per share and revenue of $1.17 billion.

Despite those numbers, Live Nation says it is on track to meet its 2015 goals and its share price is up 20 percent on that of a year ago. Concert ticket sales are up more than 4 percent.

CEO Michael Rapino also noted that the company has already sold half of its projected tickets for the year, with sales up 4 percent over 2014 after four months.

Much of the discussion during the earnings call focused on festivals, particularly with the announcement just two days earlier that Live Nation has acquired a majority stake of the Bonnaroo festival.

Rapino said the company will continue to be “opportunistic” in terms of festival acquisition, while admitting the company may have been slow out of the starting gate three years ago as it focused on amphitheatres.

“We’ve been clear that festivals are a high margin channel to be in,” Rapino said, adding that the company will continue to look at large-scale, well-established festivals for acquisition rather than creating new ones.

Other bright spots included secondary ticketing resales and mobile ticketing as well as advertising, with more than 70 percent of planned revenue sold for the year.