Concert giant Live Nation might be one of the most reliable investments in the entertainment industry these days.
With the exception of some bumpy periods during the pandemic, the company’s stock has been a consistent riser, up more than tenfold in the past 12 years (to around USD $100 a share from around $9 in 2012).
Not even an antitrust lawsuit by the US Department of Justice can do much to sink the company’s stock-market fortunes. Live Nation shares took a dip in mid-April when news of the imminent DoJ lawsuit broke, but the stock has pretty much entirely recovered, and is now trading in the same range it was before the news broke.
It’s a testament to the company’s solid business model – combining concert promotion with ticketing (i.e. Ticketmaster) and venue ownership – as well as its dominant position in many markets, combined with the fact that there has never been a better time to be in the live music business.
With a growing middle class in many developing nations that’s increasingly ready to spend on entertainment, major concert tours are expanding beyond the traditional markets of North America and Western Europe. Meanwhile, the poor economics of music streaming mean artists are more reliant on revenue from touring than ever before.
It all adds up to success for Live Nation. In 2023, the company reported $22.7 billion in revenue, just about double what it reported in 2019, the last year before Covid-19 began shutting down live events.
But who, exactly, is profiting from Live Nation’s persistent success? MBW dug through the company’s SEC filings and recent annual proxy statements to put together a picture of the company’s major shareholders. Here’s how it breaks down.
Liberty Media Corporation
Live Nation’s largest shareholder is Liberty Media, known primarily for owning stakes in three major entertainment franchises: Formula One Group (owner of many businesses responsible for promoting Formula One racing), satellite radio giant SiriusXM, and Live Nation.
The company reported $8.95 billion in revenue for 2023, and it listed Live Nation as its single largest corporate asset.
According to Live Nation’s proxy circular, which discloses ownership shares updated to April 19, 2024, Liberty Media owned 69.65 million shares of LN’s common stock, or 30.09% of the company’s 231.44 million outstanding shares as of that time.
With Live Nation shares trading at $100.32 as of mid-day Monday (September 16), that chunk of Live Nation is worth $6.986 billion.
The Vanguard Group
Pennsylvania-headquartered Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment advisors, with $9.3 trillion in assets under management worldwide.
Among those assets are 17.96 million shares of Live Nation, or 7.76% of all common stock. That’s $1.802 billion-worth of LN shares, as of mid-day on September 16.
Live Nation isn’t Vanguard’s only connection to the music business; it’s also a major minority shareholder in Warner Music Group, with 7.54% of WMG’s class A shares as of 2023.
BlackRock Inc.
Investment firm BlackRock (not to be confused with Blackstone, that other giant investment firm which recently acquired Hipgnosis Songs Fund) is Live Nation’s third largest shareholder, with 13.45 million shares, as of its most recent SEC disclosure in February of this year.
That gives BlackRock a 5.81% share of Live Nation, and its stake would be worth $1.349 billion on the open market as of September 16.
BlackRock has other music industry-related investments, including – once upon a time – a chunk of Warner Music Group.
In 2022, it teamed up with WMG to launch a $750-million music investment fund in partnership with Influence Media Partners. It was also an investor in a song-owning fund launched in 2016 by Primary Wave.
The Public Investment Fund
The Public Investment Fund is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the official investment vehicle for the kingdom’s government. Run by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, it has an estimated $925 billion in assets under management.
Among them are 12.57 million shares of Live Nation, according to an SEC filing from February. That gives the government of the oil-rich kingdom a 5.43% share of the company, worth $1.26 billion as of September 16.
Though much of the Public Investment Fund’s money is in Saudi companies, including a 4% share of oil giant Saudi Aramco, the company is also known for some high-profile investments outside the kingdom, including its ownership of UK football club Newcastle United.
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is responsible for investing the money collected by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), the government-mandated retirement system that all working Canadians outside Quebec pay into.
The CPP has around CAD $647 billion (USD $476 billion) in assets under management, including 10.71 million shares of Live Nation. That’s 4.63% of the company’s common stock, worth $1.075 billion as of September 16.
Among Live Nation’s executives and directors, CEO Michael Rapino is the largest shareholder, with 3.70 million shares of the company, not including stock options, as of September 2024.
That gives Rapino about 1.6% of Live Nation stock, and its value as of September 16 was $371.4 million.
Joe Berchtold
Live Nation President and Chief Financial Officer Joe Berchtold holds 566,722 shares of Live Nation, not including stock options, according to an SEC filing from September 12.
That amounts to 0.24% of Live Nation’s outstanding common stock, which was worth $56.85 million as of September 16.
Jimmy Iovine
While many of Live Nation’s execs and board directors hold a relatively small share of Live Nation, it’s worth noting that one of them is Jimmy Iovine, the co-founder of Interscope Records who became CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M at Universal Music Group.
Iovine also co-founded Beats Electronics with Dr. Dre, and today, he’s known for his philanthropic work. Iovine sits on Live Nation’s board of directors, and according to an SEC filing from June, he holds 37,351 shares of Live Nation, not including stock options.
That’s a 0.016% share of Live Nation, worth $3.75 million as of September 16.
Lately missing: Melvin Capital
Live Nation’s proxy statements from previous years show that investment management firm Melvin Capital was once one of Live Nation’s major shareholders.
As recently as February 2022, SEC filings show Melvin Capital held 13.80 million shares of Live Nation, or 6.1% of all shares. But the New York-headquartered company was damaged beyond repair during the infamous GameStop short squeeze of 2021, and in May 2022, it announced it was closing all its funds and returning its cash to investors.
In the same way, Melvin Capital has disappeared from among Warner Music Group’s major investors as well.Music Business Worldwide