Concert fans give Live Nation best quarter ever

(Above) House of Blues at Marina City. (Click on image to view larger version.)

7-Nov-13 – It was an excellent summer for the parent company of House of Blues in River North and eleven other locations.

Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest provider of live entertainment, is reporting “the best quarter in the company’s history.”

Their concerts in July, August, and September attracted more than 21 million people – 27 percent more than in the same period last year. That sent revenue for the publicly traded company up 15 percent to $2.2 billion.

“Consumer demand has come back strong for us this year,” Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino (left) said in a news release on Tuesday, “as we have had attendance growth across concerts globally, from new artists to the legends and everyone in between.”

19 artists have each performed for more than 500,000 fans at a Live Nation concert, including P!nk, Rihanna, Maroon 5, and country artists Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan.

During a conference call with investors on Tuesday, Rapino said attendance at all genres of concerts has grown for Live Nation – but mostly country music, which has seen a 47 percent increase in attendance since the start of the year.

Net income for the quarter was $44 million, which is actually 24 percent less than last year’s third quarter profit due to what the company said were “debt extinguishment costs” of $36 million.

Live Nation acquired House of Blues on July 5, 2006.