Live Nation shares gained 4.0% to hit $103.77 this week, marking the stock’s best closing price since May 2, 2022, and the first time the concert promotion giant had five straight closes above $100 since late April and early May that same year.
Other music stocks didn’t fare as well. Most of the 20 companies in the Billboard Global Music Index dropped this week, with 13 stocks losing ground and just seven finishing the week in positive territory. The index fell 0.1% to 1,697.90, marking the first time it’s decreased in successive weeks since it fell during three consecutive weeks in October 2023. Multi-week declines are rare for the index: Since the beginning of 2023, it has had just two two-week declines, two three-week declines and one four-week decline (in July and August 2023). This week’s slight drop brought the index’s year-to-date gain to 10.8%.
In a relatively quiet week free of earnings releases or market-moving news, there was roughly an even mix of gains and losses from the most valuable companies. Universal Music Group increased 2.1% to 27.32 euros ($29.77) while Spotify dropped 1.7% to $254.89 and Warner Music Group (WMG) fell 2.9% to $32.94. Elsewhere, German promoter CTS Eventim rose 2.1% to 76.70 euros ($83.56) and reached a new 52-week high of 77.80 euros ($84.76).
K-pop companies rebounded after a string of weekly declines. HYBE improved 2.3% to 199,000 won ($149.59) and SM Entertainment climbed 2.5% to 74,900 won ($56.30). YG Entertainment jumped 6.3% to 43,050 won ($32.36) but is still down 19.6% year to date.
French indie music company Believe finished at 15.52 euros ($16.91), still well above the 15.00 euros ($16.34) tender offer by a consortium that seeks to take the company private. WMG has expressed interest in Believe at 17.00 euros ($18.52) per share.
The companies with the largest gains and losses are among the least valuable on the index. The week’s greatest gainer was Abu Dhabi-based music streamer Anghami, which rose 15.6% to $1.11 and has a market capitalization of just $30.7 million — less than 0.1% of Spotify’s. Radio broadcast giant iHeartMedia and French music streamer Deezer had the index’s biggest losses of 10.0% and 10.3%, but iHeartMedia’s market cap is only $255 million while Deezer’s is about 245 million euros ($267 million).
The index’s four live music stocks had an average gain of 0.9% this week, topping the 0.4% gain of the seven record label and publishing stocks. Five streaming stocks averaged a less than 0.1% decline. Three radio companies — iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media and SiriusXM — had an average decline of 5.1%.
Key U.S. indexes also saw small declines this week. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.7% to 15,973.17. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% to 5,117.09. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 gained 0.9% to 7,727.42. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index declined 0.5% to 2,666.84. China’s Shanghai Composite Index grew 0.3% to 3,054.64.
