Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino has a lot to be excited about following the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday. One of those exciting company themes is the significant rise in mobile customer engagement.
“Over the past year, we have reinforced our position as the top global ticketing partner for venues and content, adding over 150 new clients to our strong venue base of 12,000,” Rapino said, according to Seeking Alpha. “On the product side, one of our main areas of focus continues to be delivering a great mobile experience for fans buying at Ticketmaster. At this point, our websites are largely mobile response ready and we have continued to upgrade our iOS and Android apps. As a result, we have increased our mobile ticketing sales by 30% year-on-year, now accounting for over 25% of all ticket sales.”
First-quarter global sales rose 10% at Live Nation Entertainment.
“Four months into the year, we have enough information from leading indicators to be confident that we are on track to deliver record top line and bottom line results in 2016 as we continue building global market share in all our businesses,” Rapino said. “We have built the industry’s most scalable and unparalleled live platform, connecting over 500 million fans to that magical two-hour event each year. Concerts continue to be the flywheel for our high-margin On-Site Retail, Advertising, and Ticketing segments, and this year will be another step forward in the company delivering strong long-term growth.”
Starting with Live Nation’s concert business, ticket sales are pacing 10% ahead of last year through April 29, with over 35 million tickets already sold.
“We continue to be the world’s leading promoter with 21 of the top 25 global tours in 2016, including Beyoncé, Coldplay, Guns N’ Roses, Rihanna, and Drake, driving a 13% increase in stadium, arena, and amphitheater shows for the year as of the end of April,” Rapino explained. “Festivals continue to have a strong appeal for fans, artists and advertisers, and we continue to build on our leadership position with 78 festivals with seven million fans attending. We see continued growth in festivals across the globe in both large and niche size, with many markets still under-serviced.”