Live Nation (LYV) earnings Q3 2023

Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation Entertainment delivered its strongest quarter ever, on pace for a record 2023 on the backs of concert darlings Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.

Higher ticket prices and pent-up demand for live shows helped boost revenue up 32% to $8.2 billion in the third quarter, significantly higher than the $6.99 billion expected, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.

Shares of the company jumped more than 3% after the closing bell Thursday.

The majority of its revenue, about $6.97 billion, came from the company’s concerts business, which consists of merchandise sales and production of live music events, followed by $833 million from ticketing.

Here are the results:

• Earnings per share: $1.78 vs. $1.27 per share expected, according to LSEG
• Revenue: $8.15 billion vs. $6.99 billion expected, according to LSEG 

For the period ending Sept. 30, Live Nation posted earnings of $483.5 million, or $1.78 a share, up from $361.4 million, or $1.39 a share, a year earlier.

Live Nation sold a record 140 million tickets so far in 2023, up 17% from the same period last year and more than the 121 million tickets the company sold in all of 2022.

Many of those tickets were for overlapping tours from Swift and Beyoncé. The powerhouse singers have generated billions in revenue for the concert industry as well as billions for the domestic economy in the past year.

Not to mention, both are taking turns at the movie box office. Swift’s The Eras Tour concert film broke records in the space during its theatrical release in October, generating more than $200 million globally. Beyoncé is up next with the release of her Renaissance Tour documentary in December.

This year also saw tours from the likes of Harry…