Live Nation says concert venue bookings rebounding as artists book events into next year
- Live Nation Entertainment is expecting a better year in 2022 than it had in 2019.
- The company's concert venues will look to local health officials for mask policies.
- The company is branching out into livestreaming for concerts and NFTs for digital memorabilia.
Concert venue bookings are rebounding as artists start to plan for in-person events later this year and into next year, according to Live Nation Entertainment.
The company is optimistic that demand for ticket sales will follow as more concerts are announced.
"What we are seeing so far is that the number of shows we have booked in our large buildings, our arenas, our amphitheaters, our stadiums, those are pacing double digits ahead of where we were in 2019. Not all of those tours have gone on sale yet, we have a lot that are going on sale now every week," Joe Berchtold, its president, told CNBC's "Closing Bell" Monday.
The company predicts that demand for concerts will continue to be high in the next few years as a result of the pandemic. The company's stock is up nearly 25% this year giving it a valuation of over $20 billion.
Berchtold also said it is too early for the company to predict what public health precautions will be necessary in a few months time with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updating its guidance regularly.
"So rather than trying to dictate a global one-size fits all, we are looking to local health officials to tell us what makes sense in that market at that time and how do we continue to evolve it," Berchtold said.
Live Nation is branching out into streaming and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. In January, the company acquired a majority stake in livestreaming platform Veeps.
"We are using that to scale up the streaming of live concerts for those who can't make a show," Berchtold said. "We are also very focused on NFTs, how we create digital memorabilia. One of the things you unfortunately lose with digital tickets is you lose those ticket stubs that so many people like to keep as their record of the event."