Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino has a rosy outlook when it comes to the company hosting outdoor concerts in the U.S. later this year. Rapino revealed during Live Nation’s Q4 2020 earnings call on Thursday that he spoke with a number of U.S. governors and feels there’s “a clear outline to a 75% to 100%” capacity for outdoor concerts as soon as this summer.
“We might have certain states that might not be ready, but we have enough states and enough artists willing to play the open slots if we get to that level in the right markets. So as long as these states open up to the right capacities, we can start in midsummer and in the southern US we can go all the way into November,” Rapino told investors as per NME via Music Business Worldwide.
The Live Nation earnings call came on the same day Colorado officials shared projections with music industry leaders in the state predicting live events could be held at 75% to 80% capacity by July 1 if COVID-19 numbers continue to decline. Rapino thinks the 75% capacity number is “within sight” and noted Live Nation is better off, “waiting for a high bar capacity moment in most of the states to ramp up and talk to the artists about getting paid properly.”
“With more artists than ever wanting to tour and fans eager to make up for lost time, all signs point to even more concerts ahead,” Rapino tweeted on Thursday from his personal account. Rapino’s tweet included a graphic detailing the pent up demand on all sides of the industry:
With more artists than ever wanting to tour and fans eager to make up for lost time, all signs point to even more concerts ahead. Thank you to all of our @LiveNation employees for their endless resilience and creativity – none of this would be possible without you pic.twitter.com/gdiapVYSyk
— Michael Rapino (@Michael_Rapino) February 25, 2021
“Every day we seem to have a new state or country talking about when they’ll open up, so we’re feeling more optimistic than we were a month ago,” Rapino concluded on his call as per Spin. “Lots of artists are calling, looking at how we start up in July, August, September. So for right now, we still believe we’ll have enough open in the U.K., Australia, Canada and the U.S. to keep what we have on the books in amphitheaters booked for now.” All optimistic predictions are based on the number of vaccines distributed continuing to grow and COVID-19 cases continuing to decline.
!function ($) {
window.jb_populate_livestreams_promo = function( $element ) {
let args = $element.attr( ‘data-args’ );
// set up the AJAX post data
var data = {
‘action’: ‘jb_get_livestreams_promo’,
‘args’: args,
‘wpnonce’: $( ‘#jb_livestreams_promo_nonce’ ).val(),
};
console.log( ‘—— jb_populate_livestreams_promo data —–‘ );
console.log( data );
// make the AJAX $_POSTcall
$.ajax({
type: “POST”,
url: ajaxurl,
data: data,
success: function( response ){
if ( true == response.success ){
$element.html(response.data).slideDown(420, function(){
jbSetStreamLocalTimes();
});
// trigger Cloudinary
var evt = window.document.createEvent(‘UIEvents’);
evt.initUIEvent(‘resize’, true, false, window, 0);
window.dispatchEvent(evt);
return;
}else{
console.log(“jb_populate_livestreams_promo – UNSUCCESSFUL”);
console.log(response);
return;
}
},
error: function( response ){
console.log(“jb_populate_livestreams_promo – ERROR”);
console.log(response);
return;
}
});
};
$(function(){
$(‘#livestreams-promo-container’).each( function(){
if( ! jb_livestreams_promo_killswitch ){
jb_populate_livestreams_promo( $(this) );
}else{
$(this).remove();
}
});
});
}(window.jQuery);
.polartec-medium-promo {
margin-bottom: 30px;
}
.house-unit-wide { display: none; }
.house-unit-narrow{ display: block; }
@media (min-width: 768px) {
.house-unit-wide { display: block; }
.house-unit-narrow{ display: none; }
}
