Live Nation's revenue grew 12% over the same quarter last year to $3.79 billion despite taking a $450 million hit from legal costs associated with its Department of Justice settlement and ongoing litigation with the states.
That pushed the Live Nation's operating income loss from $114.8 million in Q1 2025 to $370.5 million for Q1 2026.
Despite their ongoing legal battles, the concert giant is still forecasting double-digit growth this year.
Comments from Live Nation execs during a call with analysts offered insights into what the company has planned, even as its legal battles continue.
1) Ticket Fees Aren't Going Anywhere
Everyone loves to hate ticket fees, unless you're a venue. Legislators and regulators are making noise about capping them, but Live Nation and Ticketmaster don't see fees going anywhere.
"We know that the venue clients that we have that are really keeping the bulk of the service fee will continue to keep the bulk of the service fee," said Michael Rapino, President and CEO of Live Nation, "and we need to continue to find ways that we can build value off the platform and keep our fair share of that."
2) Ticket Resale Is In Decline
"Over time, primary will win," said Joe Berchtold, President and CFO of Live Nation. "... We’ve long said we consider (ticket resale) to be a feature, not a standalone product... We don’t have that as a strategy to grow it. If we’re successful, it will decline into the single digits over the next several years."
3) New Tools For Artists
Live Nation says it is "building out our face value (ticket) exchange program to be much more robust for artists to use (and) giving them more tools in general for the on sale."
4) 30% of Tickets Should Be Sold As Premium
"Historically, the concert’s been about 99% GA and 1% premium," said Rapino during the call. "We now see that people will pay for a better experience."
"We’re looking at 2 new arenas we’re building, our goal there is to have up to 30% of that house in a premium capacity," he continued. Existing venues in Indianapolis and Dallas also added upscale premium offerings like a Vinyl Room. "We’re taking those amphitheaters from 1 to 5% premium up to 25% premium."
Vinyl Room is a branded $750 - $6000 VIP membership lounge rolling out across the Live Nation venue portfolio.
"It’s just consumers will pay for a shorter line, better parking, better hospitality," Rapino concluded. "We’re looking at that, much like sports arenas have done over the last 10, 15 years."
5) Ticketmaster is still expanding
Despite - or perhaps because of - ongoing scrutiny in the U.S., Ticketmaster is moving rapidly to expand its ticketing operations in Latin America and Asia, particularly in Japan.
+Read more: "Live Nation, Music Industry react to guilty verdict"
