The results signal continued resilience and growth in the live entertainment industry amid economic uncertainty.

Fans are still willing to spend on live experiences such as concerts and events, helping Live Nation Entertainment — a bellwether for discretionary consumer spending and the health of the global entertainment market.

However, shares of the company fell nearly 4% in extended trading, as it also said its quarterly profit came in at 41 cents per share, down from $1.03 per share a year earlier.

The stock has risen about 15% so far this year.

“Global expansion continues to drive touring growth, with fan attendance hitting new highs and ticket buying strong at every price point from VIP to the back row,” CEO Michael Rapino said in a statement.

“To meet this momentum, we’re expanding our global venue portfolio and investing in the artists who make it all possible.”

The company reported a 16% surge in revenue to $7.01 billion, beating analysts’ average estimate of $6.84 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The majority of its revenue, or about $5.95 billion, came from the concerts business, which consists of merchandise sales and the production of live music events, followed by $742.7 million from ticketing.

Live Nation’s total estimated events in the April-to-June period fell about 2.6% to 14,292 from last year, but 44.2 million fans attended its shows — compared with 22.3 million in the previous quarter.

Total estimated tickets sold in the quarter ended June 30 stood at 155.8 million, compared with 155.1 million in the first quarter.

Live Nation said tariffs are expected to have minimal impact on its venue investment costs, festival supply chain and other expenses.

Its adjusted operating income stood at $798 million, compared with estimates of $756.1 million.

Ticketmaster, long a subject of complaints about hidden fees and other issues, was among those targeted by the new rule, which was announced in December by the Federal Trade Commission. The rule requires ticket sellers, hotels, vacation rental platforms and others to disclose processing fees, cleaning fees and other charges up front.

Ticketmaster said it agreed with the FTC’s action.

“Ticketmaster has long advocated for all-in pricing to become the nationwide standard so fans can easily compare prices across all ticketing sites,” Ticketmaster Chief Operating Officer Michael Wichser said in a statement.

Ticketmaster said it will also tell customers where they are in line when they log in to buy tickets to an event. It will also give real-time updates to customers whose wait times exceed 30 minutes, letting them know ticket price ranges, availability and whether new event dates have been added.

Ticketmaster, which is owned by Beverly Hills, California-based concert promoter Live Nation, is the world’s largest ticket seller, processing 500 million tickets each year in more than 30 countries. Around 70% of tickets for major concert venues in the U.S. are sold through Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster said Monday’s changes would bring North America in line with the rest of the world, where full ticket prices typically are displayed as soon as customers start shopping.

SeatGeek, a platform for buying and selling original and resale tickets, said it also updated its features Monday to make “all-in pricing the default” setting.

“Fans deserve pricing that’s clear from the start,” said SeatGeek CEO Jack Groetzinger said. “We’re proud to roll this out across our platform and encouraged to see the industry move in this direction.”

Ticketmaster has been

in the hot seat

since 2022, when its site crashed during a presale event for

Taylor Swift’s

upcoming stadium tour. The company said its site was overwhelmed by both fans and attacks from bots, which were posing as consumers in order to scoop up tickets and sell them on secondary sites.

Thousands of people lost tickets

after waiting for hours in an online queue.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice

sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly that drives up U.S. ticket prices and asking a court to break them up. That case is ongoing.

President

Donald Trump

is also eyeing the industry. In March, he signed an executive order that he said would help

curb ticket scalping

and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live events are priced.

Under the order, the FTC must ensure “price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process” and take enforcement to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct.

“Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years — no matter what your politics are — knows that it’s a conundrum,” said Kid Rock, who joined Trump in the Oval Office as Trump signed the order.

GRAMMY-nominated harpist Brandee Younger makes her return this summer with her third album

Gadabout Season, set for release on June 13 via Impulse! Records.

Described as Younger’s most personal and exploratory project yet, the album features original compositions by Younger and was recorded entirely in her Harlem apartment where she turned her second bedroom into a recording studio. Inspiration for the album started on the road while on tour with a word-of-the-day prompt email that included the word

gadabout, referring to “a carefree pleasure-seeker who is always in motion, seeking out fun no matter the circumstances.”

Produced by bassist and frequent collaborator Rashaan Carter, the album features guest appearances from British jazz musician Shabaka, composer Courtney Bryan, singer-pianist Niia and saxophonist Josh Johnson. The album is the follow-up to 2023’s

Brand New Life, which won Outstanding Jazz Album at the 2024 NAACP Image Awards.

“When it came time to write a piece to represent happiness, ‘Gadabout Season’ felt like the perfect title,” says Younger in a statement. “The album reflects the journey — the search for meaning and beauty amid life’s most complex moments, ultimately emerging with a deeper sense of self.” What makes

Gadabout Season

even more special is the fact that Younger recorded the album playing Alice Coltrane’s restored harp, which she became the custodian for last year. “It had to become my own,” she says. “This was not my first time playing the harp, but as this new music was unique to me, I had to become one with it at home.”

Mike Ryan is a Wirral-based singer-songwriter who has gained recognition for his music in Liverpool. He is known for blending Indie-folk and alt-pop styles and has been featured in events at the Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room and Start Yard, where he launched this latest album. He is also a two-time winner of the Liverpool Acoustic Songwriting Challenge – two of his winning entries also feature on this album. Known for writing music that speaks to all who listen, Mike Ryan has cemented himself as a key feature of the local music scene.

Opening with Can Never Be, Ryan sets the tone with a song that drifts between acceptance and longing. His vocals carry a gentle ache that never begs for pity, but instead extends a hand to anyone who’s ever sat in the hollow of what might have been. Heartbeats pulses with a sense of excitement — simple yet insistent, its production by Jon Lawton balances subtle guitar lines with just enough space for Ryan’s voice to breathe. There’s a heartbeat in the production itself — steady, human, imperfect. The song drives the album on with a sense of certainty.

The centrepiece, Lily’s Last Waltz, is perhaps the album’s most cinematic moment. Featuring Nicola Hardman on piano and vocals, with Liz Owen’s ethereal backing harmonies, the song feels like a delicate dance through grief and memory. A tribute to the late, great Liverpool icon Paul O’Grady, the track is a poignant reminder of the impact of a legend on the city and the world.

Tracks like Breathe Again and This Feeling lift the album from quiet introspection to moments of cautious hope. They hint at the possibility of renewal, small glimpses of light flickering through the album’s dusky atmosphere. Leaving and The Distance close in on the album’s emotional core — the push and pull of absence and presence, how leaving can be an act of love as much as staying. There’s a gentle finality here that feels earned rather than forced.

By the time we reach the closing track

Palace Of The Peacock, Ryan has taken us through a journey where the empty spaces speak as loudly as the words. It’s a record that lingers — in the room, in your head and most importantly, in your heart.

The Space Where You Should Be

sits beside you, honest and unhurried. It’s an album for anyone who’s ever found comfort in the echoes of silence, the weight of a memory, or the promise of an unfinished conversation. With this album, Mike Ryan continues to show why he is a key voice within the local music scene. His musician is unapologetically his own and he speaks from his soul, taking us all along for the ride.

Lifted high above her figure-eight stage, ensconced in a rig of illuminated hoops and wired up like an android, the pop star kicked off what promised to be a two-hour fun ride for an adoring Detroit audience.

Still, there was one scary moment 80 minutes into the show, instantly bringing the arena to a hush: A young fan invited onstage for a sing-along segment abruptly collapsed as Perry prepared to launch into song.

The girl, who looked to be in her early teens, appeared overwhelmed from the moment she walked to the stage, when she broke into tears and wrapped her arms around the star in a long embrace. As security and medical staffers rushed up after her collapse, Perry kicked into mom mode, crouching down and offering words of encouragement.

The fan was ultimately joined by her mother and treated at the backstage first aid area, a show official told the Free Press, though no further updates were available late Sunday.

Onstage, Perry rounded up three other young fans in a group hug and offered a prayer for the ailing girl.

Perry, now 40 and mother of a 4-year-old daughter, was making her first Detroit visit in eight years as part of her global Lifetimes Tour. Which means — by a rough eyeball estimate — about 20% of Sunday’s crowd wasn’t yet born the last time she played LCA.

It was clear the millennials who made up the pop star’s early KatyCats fandom were now back with their own kids in tow, many of them attired in sparkly outfits and song-inspired costumes.

Maximus Solomon, 4, of Sterling Heights, dressed as an alien, stands for a photo at Katy Perry’s The Lifetimes Tour at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Sunday, August 3, 2025.
Perry arrived at LCA at a seeming career crossroads, with a much-maligned new album and naysayers arguing she’s in need a musical refresh. Early videos from the tour had zeroed in on her clunky moves and jumping-jack dances. Her stature at the forefront of the pop zeitgeist increasingly appeared locked in a 2015 time capsule.

But Dylan’s new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, which features the already-released 17-minute ballad about the JFK assassination, is his first collection of original work in eight years, and it saw the Minnesota-born 79-year-old speaking with The New York Times. His ability to remain mercurial remains a constant.

The Times’ Douglas Brinkley sat with Dylan two years ago in upstate New York, and again more recently. In fact, the follow-up was the day after George Floyd’s killing. The singer-songwriter who recorded anti-racist anthems “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” in 1964 and “Hurricane” in 1975 sounded “depressed” according to the article and said “it sickened me no end to see George tortured to death like that,” and “it was beyond ugly. Let’s hope that justice comes swift for the Floyd family and for the nation.”

Dylan, while a visionary, has always seemed a little out of time, but seems resigned to the past being swiftly forgotten. “When you see somebody that is 10 years old, he’s going to be in control in 20 or 30 years, and he won’t have a clue about the world we knew,” he said, adding “telecommunications and advanced technology is the world they were born into. Our world is already obsolete.”

When asked about the recent deaths of Little Richard and John Prine, he had kinds words for both, saying Little Richard “lit a match under me. Tuned me into things I never would have known on my own.” He also suggested the late singer’s gospel albums were overlooked because gospel is the music of “good news” and “good news in today’s world is like a fugitive, treated like a hoodlum and put on the run. Castigated. All we see is good-for-nothing news.”

Lest you think Dylan was a sourpuss the whole time, he also sang the praises of some contemporaries, like his frequent collaborator Charlie Sexton, composer John Williams (“[his] music makes Indy come alive”), the Rolling Stones (he wishes he wrote “Angie,” “Ventilator Blues” and “what else, let me see. Oh yeah, ‘Wild Horses’”), and, perhaps surprisingly, The Eagles.

Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the widely divisive 1970s band are just two of the many names who get a shout-out in Dylan’s new track “Murder Most Foul,” and Dylan is a fan. His favorite Eagles tunes are “New Kid in Town,” “Life in the Fast Lane” and “Pretty Maids in a Row,” which he surprisingly says “could be one of the best songs ever.”

Rough and Rowdy Ways comes out June 19th, but advance reviews are coming in and they are rapturous. Alexis Petridis The Guardian gave it five out of five stars, praising “the sheer consistency of the songwriting; there’s nothing here that sounds like dashed-off filler, nothing that doesn’t hit home.” Ludovic Hunter-Tilney’s review in the Financial Times also awarded it five stars, suggesting the album could be interpreted as a reflection, and perhaps capper, to the Dylan’s 32-year-old “Never Ending Tour.” Mikael Wood in the Los Angeles Times put the elder statesman in contemporary terms, quoting new lyrics and saying “rappers call lines like these ‘bars,’ and on Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan is tossing them off as though it’s light work for a hard case like him.”

The number was calculated based on the capacities of the festivals on the days when Lindemann performed. The tour included stops at Hellfest in France, Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium, and Rockfest in Finland. The “crowning glory,” according to Handwerker Promotion, “was the band’s performance at the Masters of Rock Festival in the Czech Republic.”
For this successful partnership, Handwerker presented Lindemann and his band with a special plaque.

Fred Handwerker, European agent and managing director of Handwerker Promotion, commented: “The first festival tour marked a milestone for all of us, full of energy, passion and incredible resonance throughout Europe. It was impressive to see how artists and fans created unforgettable moments together. We are now looking forward to the upcoming arena tour with 26 unique shows in Europe. We are convinced that these concerts will set new standards – with spectacular productions and an atmosphere that is second to none. Europe can look forward to another chapter full of emotion, music and community. We would like to thank everyone involved and can’t wait to rock the arenas together!”

Handwerker was referring to the Lindemann’s “Meine Welt” tour, which will visit European arenas this coming fall, and is already partly sold out.

Aside from some of the main venues in Germany, including Leipzig, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Dresden, Hamburg, and Munich, the European tour will also visit Lisbon, Paris, Barcelona, Istanbul and London, among other cities. Full itinerary below.

Handwerker Promotion is a full-service event agency based in Unna, Germany founded by Fred Handwerker in 1983. With over 10,000 successful concerts and multiple awards, the company has established itself as a leading provider in the international music and event industry. Handwerker Promotion is a subsidiary of DEAG.

The evening will be opened by a very special guest – ADONXS, winner of Czech & Slovak SuperStar and this year’s Czech representative at Eurovision.

A Long-Awaited Return to Prague

Emeli Sandé first performed for Czech audiences in 2018, instantly winning their hearts with her emotional delivery and powerful stage presence. Critics praised her performance, comparing her to some of the most respected names in global music. That night featured some of her biggest hits, such as Next To Me, Heaven, and Read All About It, which had the entire audience singing and dancing along.

What’s particularly remarkable about this artist is that her debut album Our Version of Events became the best-selling album in the UK in 2012, breaking numerous global records. Unforgettable moments in her career include her performances at both the opening and closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games, where she took the stage as the lead artist representing the host country.

New album, new emotions, same powerful energy

This time, Emeli Sandé returns not only with her timeless hits but also with new material from her album How Were We To Know, released in 2024. The album showcases her extraordinary talent for blending powerful lyrics with a flawless vocal performance. Deeply personal and emotionally charged, her new songs carry her unmistakable artistic signature.

Her concerts are known for their intimate atmosphere, captivating the entire audience and transporting them into a world of pure musical magic.

A truly special opening act – ADONXS
Here’s an exclusive piece of news: ADONXS will open the show!

Known as the winner of the most recent season of Czech & Slovak SuperStar and this year’s Eurovision representative for the Czech Republic, ADONXS (real name Adam Pavlovčin) is a rising star in the new wave of music. With his unique style, powerful voice, and charismatic stage presence, he’s already making waves far beyond the borders of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. His performance, blending alternative pop and electronic aesthetics, will be a show in its own right.

The O2 universum will resonate with unforgettable voices

The concert will take place at the modern O2 universum venue, known for its top-tier acoustics and spacious capacity, making it the ideal setting for the intense and emotionally charged performances that Emeli Sandé is celebrated for.

Be among the first to secure the best seats!

Tickets for this exclusive concert are available through official ticketing platforms Ticketportal and Ticketmaster. Early demand is high, so don’t wait too long to reserve your spot!

Don’t miss this unforgettable evening full of world-class music, passion, and emotion. Emeli Sandé is back – and together with ADONXS, she brings you the musical event of the year that will resonate in every soul present.

Asiah is a Cree First Nations singer-songwriter and music producer from Edmonton, Alberta. She blends her Indigenous roots with indie, folk, pop, and electronic influences to create a unique sound. Asiah writes, records, produces, and mixes all of her own music from her home studio. She has released two EPs, multiple singles, and a full-length album.

Pioneering British singer, songwriter, and guitarist John Smith will celebrate a remarkable 20 years in music with his new album, Gatherings, set for release on October 17th via Commoner Records. The album revisits and reimagines songs from Smith’s first three records, celebrating compositions that have evolved over two decades and more than 2,000 live performances.

With over 125 million Spotify streams, Smith has been a stalwart of the folk and roots scene since cutting his teeth opening for the legendary John Martyn. Gatherings honours this journey, featuring an impressive list of collaborators including Lisa Hannigan, The Staves, Siobhan Miller, and Dan Mangan. “These songs carried me everywhere through the years,” Smith reflects. “I took the chance to gather these songs and record them as I hear them now.” The album was produced by Smith and mixed by Grammy-winner Ryan Freeland (Bonnie Raitt, Ray LaMontagne).

The first single, a stunning new version of “Salty and Sweet” featuring Lisa Hannigan, is available now. “One morning in 2010, I woke up with this song in my head, sung in Lisa’s voice. The thing is, I didn’t yet know Lisa,” Smith shared. The new recording captures the intimacy of their musical friendship, presenting the fan favourite “as if we were sharing a mic in a room full of people.”

Following the album’s release, Smith will embark on an extensive 20-date UK tour, commencing on October 21st in Wolverhampton and concluding at London’s Union Chapel on December 18th. Gatherings serves as both a tribute to the fans who have followed his career and a perfect entry point for new listeners.

Gatherings track listing:
1. Great Lakes (featuring The Staves)
2. A Long Way For A Woman
3. Freezing Winds Of Change (featuring Siobhan Miller, John McCusker and Mike McGoldrick)
4. Something Terrible (featuring Adam Levy)
5. Salty And Sweet (featuring Lisa Hannigan)
6. To Have So Many (featuring Lisa Hannigan and The Staves)
7. Town To Town
8. Another Country
9. Winter
10. Forever To The End (featuring Dan Mangan)
UK tour dates:
21 October        Newhampton Arts Centre, Wolverhampton

22 October        Y Theatre, Leicester

23 October        Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton

24 October        St Michaels Church Hall, Liverpool

25 October        St Michaels Church Hall, Liverpool

26 October        Hallé St Peter’s, Manchester

30 October        The Adrian Flux Waterfront Studio, Norwich

31 October        St Stephens Church, Ipswich
0
1 November   The Pound Arts Centre, Corsham

02 November   Bristol Beacon, Bristol

05 November   The Plough Arts Centre, Great Torrington

06 November   Exeter Phoenix, Exeter

07 November   The David Hall, South Petherton

08 November   The Brook, Southampton

12 November   City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds

13 November   Wylam Brewery Tap, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

14 November   The Mackintosh Church, Glasgow

15 November   Brewery Arts, Kendal

16 November   Acapela Studio, Cardiff

18 December   Union Chapel, London