Live Nation Says Ticket Sales Down 12 Percent
By Associated Press
Concert promotion giant Live Nation Entertainment Inc. said Thursday that ticket sales for the Top 100 bands are down 12 percent in the first half of the year, and sales will likely fall further in the second half. Shares of the company plunged.
Shares dropped $1.84, or 16 percent, to $9.59 in afternoon trading Thursday. That's the lowest point since before Jan. 25, the day it announced it had consummated its merger with Ticketmaster Entertainment following approval by the U.S. Justice Department.
Chief Executive Michael Rapino told investors in New York that the weak economy has taken its toll on the concert industry.
But even he appeared surprised at the massive sell-off his presentation had caused.
"We had a real buzz kill at about Slide 9 when I saw the e-mails go out," he said.
Executive Chairman Irving Azoff, who presented via video conference, chided investors for the sell-off.
"I'm hoping that what I'm seeing as all you guys e-mail back to your offices to dump the stock isn't indicative of the fact that we have a group of investors that are so shortsighted," Irving said.
The company said a further 15 percent drop in concert ticket sales for the Top 100 tours could occur in the second half.
Adjusted operating income for 2010 is expected at $405 million, down from $445 million last year, despite the benefits of its merger this year with Ticketmaster.
A rash of cancellations from bands has also hurt sales. U2's postponement of its tour until next year will cost the company $6 million this year.
Concert promotion giant Live Nation Entertainment Inc. said Thursday that ticket sales for the Top 100 bands are down 12 percent in the first half of the year, and sales will likely fall further in the second half. Shares of the company plunged.
Shares dropped $1.84, or 16 percent, to $9.59 in afternoon trading Thursday. That's the lowest point since before Jan. 25, the day it announced it had consummated its merger with Ticketmaster Entertainment following approval by the U.S. Justice Department.
Chief Executive Michael Rapino told investors in New York that the weak economy has taken its toll on the concert industry.
But even he appeared surprised at the massive sell-off his presentation had caused.
"We had a real buzz kill at about Slide 9 when I saw the e-mails go out," he said.
Executive Chairman Irving Azoff, who presented via video conference, chided investors for the sell-off.
"I'm hoping that what I'm seeing as all you guys e-mail back to your offices to dump the stock isn't indicative of the fact that we have a group of investors that are so shortsighted," Irving said.
The company said a further 15 percent drop in concert ticket sales for the Top 100 tours could occur in the second half.
Adjusted operating income for 2010 is expected at $405 million, down from $445 million last year, despite the benefits of its merger this year with Ticketmaster.
A rash of cancellations from bands has also hurt sales. U2's postponement of its tour until next year will cost the company $6 million this year.
To think!
INSTANTES por Jorge Luis Borges
Si pudiera vivir nuevamente mi vida: En la próxima trataría de cometer más errores. No intentaría ser tan perfecto, me relajaría más. Sería más tonto de lo que he sido, de hecho tomaría muy pocas cosas con seriedad. Sería menos higiénico. Correría más riesgos, haría más viajes, contemplaría más atardeceres, subiría más montañas, nadaría más ríos. Iría a más lugares donde nunca he ido, comería más helados y menos habas, tendría más problemas reales y menos imaginarios. Yo fuí una de esas personas que vivió sensato y prolíficamente cada minuto de su vida; claro, tuve momentos de alegría. Pero si pudiera volver atrás trataría de tener sólo momentos buenos. Por si no lo saben, de eso esta hecha la vida; Sólo de MOMENTOS. No te pierdas el AHORA. Yo era uno de esos que nunca iba a ninguna parte sin un termómetro una bolsa de agua caliente, un pareguas y un paracaidas; si pudiera volver a vivir comenzaría a andar descalzo a principios de primavera y seguiría así hasta concluir el otoño. Daría más vueltas en calesita, contemplaría más amaneceres y jugaría con más niños, si tuviera otra oportunidad de vivir.
Si pudiera vivir nuevamente mi vida: En la próxima trataría de cometer más errores. No intentaría ser tan perfecto, me relajaría más. Sería más tonto de lo que he sido, de hecho tomaría muy pocas cosas con seriedad. Sería menos higiénico. Correría más riesgos, haría más viajes, contemplaría más atardeceres, subiría más montañas, nadaría más ríos. Iría a más lugares donde nunca he ido, comería más helados y menos habas, tendría más problemas reales y menos imaginarios. Yo fuí una de esas personas que vivió sensato y prolíficamente cada minuto de su vida; claro, tuve momentos de alegría. Pero si pudiera volver atrás trataría de tener sólo momentos buenos. Por si no lo saben, de eso esta hecha la vida; Sólo de MOMENTOS. No te pierdas el AHORA. Yo era uno de esos que nunca iba a ninguna parte sin un termómetro una bolsa de agua caliente, un pareguas y un paracaidas; si pudiera volver a vivir comenzaría a andar descalzo a principios de primavera y seguiría así hasta concluir el otoño. Daría más vueltas en calesita, contemplaría más amaneceres y jugaría con más niños, si tuviera otra oportunidad de vivir.
Marina Bay Sands Hotel
You’ll have to go to Singapore to try this out but that’s an incredible infinity pool!
To think!
He aprendido que no puedes hacer que nadie te ame sino dejarte amar, que lo mas valioso en la vida no es lo que tenemos sino a quien tenemos, que una persona rica no es quien tiene mas sino quien necesita menos, que el dinero puede comprar todo menos la felicidad, que el fisico atrae pero la personalidad enamora.. Que quien no valora lo que tiene algun dia se lamentará por haberlo perdido y que quien hace mal algun dia recibira su merecido.. si quieres ser feliz haz feliz a alguien, si quieres recibir da un poco de ti, rodeate de buenas personas y se una de ellas..
Album Sales Plummet To Lowest Total In Decades
by Ed Christman, N.Y.
Bad times just got worse.
For the week ending May 30, the U.S. music industry sold a total of 4,984,000 albums, according to Nielsen Soundscan. This figure, which includes new and catalog releases, represents the fewest number of albums sold in one week since Soundscan began compiling this data in 1994.
By comparison, album sales for the week ending May 31, 2009, totaled 5.76 million. The highest one-week tally recorded during the Soundscan era is 45.4 million albums, in late December, 2000.
This week's record low comes as the major record companies continue to reckon with a decade-long decline in sales, and as other prominent sectors of the industry, such as the touring business, go through sea changes of their own.
And that's not all: While there's no exact way to compare last week's total against imprecise, pre-Soundscan tallies, Billboard estimates that weekly album sales volume could, in fact, be at its lowest point since the early 1970s.
"We think this is the lowest week ever, or at least of the Soundscan era," says Universal Music Group Distribution president Jim Urie.
According to the RIAA, album shipments in 1973 totaled 388.2 million units, an average of 7.47 million per week. Because Soundscan measures albums sold (i.e. scanned) and not albums shipped, Billboard looked at the relationship between annual album shipments, as measured by the RIAA, and annual albums sold, as compiled by Soundscan, for the years 1992-2009. During that period, shipments exceeded scans by an average of 30%.
By applying that 30% figure to the 1973 RIAA album shipment data, Billboard estimates that weekly album sales volume for that year may have totaled about 5.5 million units. That exceeds this past week's tally by 600,000 copies. (The RIAA began keeping figures on album shipments in 1973.)
Veteran sales executives caution against putting too much stock into pre-Soundscan record keeping. "Who the hell knows what weekly sales were back then," says Lou Dennis, who retired as Warner Bros. Records head of sales in 1996.
Whatever the benchmark, industry executives agree that this week's album sales total of 4.98 million units is "pretty scary," in the words of Bruce Ogilvie, CEO of leading music wholesaler Super D.
Digital track sales for the week totaled 21.7 million, and are distinct from the album sales tally.
UMGD's Urie cites this week's album total as "all the more reason why everyone in the industry should be focused on getting the U.S. Congress to introduce legislation that makes the Internet service providers our allies in fighting piracy. Piracy is getting worse and worse and the government needs to focus on that."
To think!
"You are responsible for your frequency, which is determined by your thoughts, words, feelings, and actions. As you think, speak, and act through higher thoughts of love, compassion, and goodness, your frequency goes higher and higher. Your true work in life is to keep lifting your frequency. It is the bottom line to everything, because everything in your life comes as a result of the frequency you are on. Everything!" - The Secret
To think!
"The earth is beautiful. If you start living its beauty, enjoying its joys with no guilt in your heart, you are in paradise. If you condemn everything, every small joy, if you become a condemner, a poisoner, then the same earth turns into a hell - only for you. It depends on you, where you live. It is your own inner transformation. It is not a change of place, it is a change of inner space." Osho
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