Strong earnings reports from Live Nation, CTS Eventim, and Cloud Music faced challenges due to a downturn in the market this week. The standout earnings report came from Live Nation, which announced record revenue of $23.1 billion for 2024, accompanied by optimistic projections for a robust stadium business in 2025. This significant revenue milestone signals the company’s strong position in the entertainment and ticketing industry, showcasing its ability to navigate market fluctuations effectively.
Despite the impressive earnings announcement, Live Nation shares experienced a decline of 1.9% on Friday, February 21, following the report, and closed the week down 2.8% at $148.48. It is noteworthy that the stock had previously surged 19.7% in the early weeks of the year, suggesting that the positive outlook for the quarterly report and 2025 forecasts were likely already factored into the stock price. More significantly, Live Nation has witnessed a remarkable 56.8% increase over the last 52 weeks, indicating that investors remain confident in the company’s strategic blend of concerts, ticketing, and advertising.
In light of the latest earnings results, numerous analysts have revised their price targets for Live Nation. Notable adjustments include Evercore ISI increasing its target to $180 from $160, JP Morgan raising it to 0 from $150, Jefferies adjusting it to $180 from $150, and Rosenblatt elevating its target to $174 from $146. Prior to the earnings report, Morgan Stanley had also raised its expectations, increasing the price target to $170 from $150, while Seaport Global Securities adjusted their target to $170 from $157. However, CFRA took a more cautious stance, maintaining a “sell” rating and slightly raising its target to $135 from 5.
The Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI), which tracks the performance of 20 major music companies, fell by 2.9% to 2,674.34, marking its first decline in seven weeks and only its second weekly loss in 2025. Out of the 20 stocks, only six managed to gain value, while 14 experienced declines. Despite this setback, music stocks have shown resilience this year, with just four of the 20 stocks reporting losses in 2025, and the BGMI achieving a notable year-to-date gain of 25.9%.
On Friday, U.S. stocks faced significant drops amid a decline in consumer sentiment, rising inflation expectations, and concerns about a potential economic slowdown. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 1.7%, the S&P 500 also fell by 1.7%, and the Nasdaq composite witnessed a larger decline of 2.2%. Reflecting on the current market conditions, Steve Cohen, CEO of hedge fund Point72, expressed his views at the FII Priority Summit, highlighting that tariffs, drastic cuts in government spending, and slowing immigration are likely to have adverse effects on the economy. He suggested that while this challenging period might be temporary, it could still lead to a significant market correction.
Among the week?s top performers in the music industry was Cloud Music, a Chinese music streaming company, which saw its stock price surge by 18.1% on Friday and finished the week with a total increase of 20% following a robust earnings report for 2024 that indicated a 22% rise in music subscription revenue. Closing at 170.70 HKD (approximately $21.97), Cloud Music has experienced an impressive year-to-date increase of 52.1%. Additionally, Tencent Music Entertainment, another Chinese streaming giant, saw its shares rise by 5.6% to $14.40.
CTS Eventim shares surged by 4.7%, reaching 104.00 euros (approximately $108.83) after the company announced record-breaking results for 2024 on Tuesday, February 18. Their consolidated revenue rose by an impressive 19.1% to 2.81 billion euros (around $2.94 billion), while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA)?a key profitability metric?spiked by 21.9% to 444.8 million euros (about $465 million). Notably, live entertainment revenue also saw a 17.6% increase, amounting to 1.97 billion euros (approximately $2.06 billion), and ticketing revenue climbed by 22.7% to 879.9 million euros (around $921 million).
Stocks of major music companies showed mixed results this week, with Spotify declining by 4.8% to $607.36, Warner Music Group falling by 2.9% to $35.26, and Universal Music Group dipping 3.0% to 28.02 euros (about $29.32). Furthermore, Sphere Entertainment Co., which is set to announce its quarterly earnings on February 28, experienced a 2.8% decrease, while its affiliated company, MSG Entertainment, saw a larger decline of 5.0%.
Many K-pop stocks saw gains this week, paralleling a 2.5% increase in South Korea?s KOSPI composite index. Notably, YG Entertainment surged by 12.0% to 57,900 (approximately $40.30) following the exciting announcement on Wednesday, February 19, of BLACKPINK’s highly anticipated 10-city world tour for 2025, set to kick off in July with stops in major cities such as Seoul, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Toronto, Paris, London, Milan, Barcelona, and Tokyo. Additionally, SM Entertainment shares increased by 7.8% to 99,500 KRW (around $69.25), marking a year-to-date gain of 37.1%. Meanwhile, JYP Entertainment rose by 1.6%, while HYBE experienced a slight decline of 1.0%.
