CTS Eventim shares finished the week up 5.3% after the company sounded upbeat about the second half of 2024 in its Thursday (Aug. 22) earnings release.
Based on its performance in the first half of the year, the German promoter and ticket seller expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) “to grow significantly” in the latter half of the year. Second-quarter adjusted EBITDA improved 23.3% to 110.0 million euros ($118.4 million) with the help of the June acquisition of See Tickets from Vivendi.
CTS Eventim is among the best-performing music stocks of 2024, having gained 34.5% year to date. That gain outstrips fellow promoter Live Nation (up 25.0%) and lags behind only Believe (up 43.3%), Sphere Entertainment Co. (up 47.3%) and Spotify (up 82.3%).
As well as CTS Eventim fared this week, three other music companies had larger gains. iHeartMedia jumped 19.0% to $1.42, continuing its tendency to rise and fall in the absence of any market-moving news or financial releases. SiriusXM rose 6.7% to $3.00, perhaps assisted by news the company signed Gen Z podcaster Alex Cooper (Call Her Daddy) in a move that could help bring a younger audience to its new streaming app. HYBE improved 6.1% to 166,400 won ($125.60).
Chinese music streamer Cloud Music gained 1.4% to 91.60 HKD ($11.75) after the company posted revenue of 4.07 billion RMB ($571 million), up 4.1%, in the first half of 2024, it announced Thursday (Aug. 22). Like the leading Chinese music streamer, Tencent Music Entertainment, Cloud Music has two segments that are headed in opposite directions. Music subscription revenue grew 26.6% to 2.56 billion RMB while social entertainment and other revenue fell 19.9% to 1.51 billion RMB ($212 million).
An unusually large majority of music stocks posted gains this week. The Billboard Global Music Index gained 2.7% to 1,829.18, bringing its year-to-date increase to 19.2%. Of the 20 stocks on the index, 17 were gainers and just three lost ground. Three radio companies (iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media and SiriusXM) led the way with an average gain of 8.8%. Multi-sector companies (including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and HYBE) rose an average of 3.4%. Live music companies had an average gain of 3.0%.
Streaming companies fell by an average of 0.2%. In fact, all three companies in the red this week were music streamers: Deezer (down 0.5%), Tencent Music Entertainment (down 2.8%) and Anghami (down 3.3%). Spotify, the index’s largest component, gained 1.5% to $337.38.
Stocks were up in the U.S. on positive economic news. After U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell suggested on Friday (Aug. 23) it would soon cut interest rates, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished the week up 1.4%. In South Korea, where trading was closed by the time the Federal Reserve statement made news, the KOSPI composite index rose 0.2% to 2,701.69. Likewise, China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.9% to 2,854.37. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 0.2% to 8,327.78.
