Even with acute cases of “Blue Dot Fever” plaguing its artists and allegedly forcing high-profile cancellations of Live Nation concert dates by Post Malone, Zayn Malik, Meghan Trainor and the Pussycat Dolls — the music giant said its concert business was up in Q1.
Revenue jumped 12% year over year to $3.8 billion for the first quarter, it said in a report on Tuesday, at the same time fans online are lamenting soaring ticket prices and the company lost a bombshell monopoly lawsuit in federal court.
Business for upcoming live events in 2026 was also up 22% to $6.6 billion, it said. Live Nation has sold 107 million tickets so far this year, an 11% jump from a year ago.
But legal bills took a toll on the bottom line: Live Nation recorded $450 million in expenses stemming from federal investigations and litigation, contributing to an operating loss of $371 million.
“Clearly they seem to have found a vaccine for Blue Dot Fever,” huffed a source of the report. We previously reported that “Blue Dot Fever” refers to those seating maps on Ticketmaster have a sea of blue dots representing available seats.
But Post Malone, Malik and Trainor all said they’d canceled shows for different reasons — and not poor ticket sales — while the Pussycat Dolls came clean and were left licking their wounds over their canceled tour.
