Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) FY2025 results: revenue $25.2 billion, up 8.8% on the year

Live Nation describes itself as the largest live entertainment company in the world, connecting over 805 million fans across its concerts and ticketing platforms in 55 countries in 2025. It connected 159 million fans to over 11,000 artists at 55,000 events that year, and it owns, operates, holds exclusive booking rights for or has an equity interest in 460 venues globally, including House of Blues venues and sites such as The Fillmore in San Francisco, the Hollywood Palladium, the Moody Center in Austin, the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, 3Arena in Dublin and Spark Arena in Auckland. Its artist management companies represent acts across all music genres. Ticketmaster distributed 646 million tickets through its systems in 2025 and serves 10,500 clients worldwide. There are three reportable segments: Concerts, Ticketing, and Sponsorship and Advertising.

Concerts

The segment promotes live music events in owned, operated and rented venues, operates and manages venues, produces festivals, makes associated content and provides management and other services to artists, and it was 83% of total revenue including intersegment sales in 2025. As a promoter it earns from ticket sales and pays artists a fixed guarantee, a share of ticket sales or a share of event profits, and artist fees and production costs sit in direct operating expenses and are large relative to revenue, so big swings in promotion revenue do not translate into comparable swings in operating income. As a venue operator it earns from concessions, parking, premium seating, rental income and ticket rebates or service charges, at higher margins than promotion, so venue work moves operating income more directly; at amphitheatres concessions are outsourced for a share of the concessionaire's net revenue. As a festival promoter it books artists, secures sites, arranges production, sells tickets and advertises, earning from tickets, concessions, camping fees and service charges, and because artist fees there are fixed guarantees, revenue changes do flow through to operating income. Revenue runs higher in the second and third quarters because outdoor amphitheatre and festival shows run mainly from May to October.

Ticketing

The segment is primarily an agency business selling tickets for clients and keeping part of the service charge, across arenas, stadiums, amphitheatres, music clubs, promoters, sports franchises and leagues, college teams, performing arts venues, museums and theatres, through mobile apps, websites and outlets. It was 12% of the 2025 total, counted after the face value of tickets and the fees paid to clients, on approximately 346 million tickets sold for a fee, with a further approximately 300 million sold through Ticketmaster systems without one, including season seat packages and client box offices. Primary ticketing agreements typically run three to five years, with clients deciding which tickets go on sale, when and at what price; venue agreements in North America and Australia are generally exclusive, while those in other markets generally give an allocation of tickets. Clients often sell some tickets themselves through box offices and season programmes, and some tickets are set aside for artist, promoter, agent and venue use. The company pays clients for those rights, generally through upfront payments, a portion of service fee revenue and services at low or no cost. It also runs ticket resale, where a holder posts a ticket at a price they set and the buyer pays a service fee while the seller pays a seller fee.

Sponsorship and Advertising

A sales force builds sponsor relationships through international, national and local opportunities across the concert, festival, venue and ticketing assets, including website advertising, and the segment was 5% of total revenue in 2025. The team builds marketing programmes for corporate clients and develops, books and produces custom events presented to a client's own consumers. Many venues carry naming rights programmes, and local sponsorships include venue signage, promotional programmes, onsite activation, hospitality and tickets. Revenue again skews to the second and third quarters with the outdoor season.

People

At 31 December 2025 the company had approximately 17,700 full-time employees and approximately 17,000 seasonal and part-time employees, with as many as 37,000 seasonal and part-time staff at the peak of the summer during 2025. Stagehands at some venues and other employees work under collective bargaining agreements, which typically run three years, and there have been no major related work stoppages in the past three years.

From Live Nation Entertainment's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 19 February 2026: read the full 10-K.