Live Nation was the standout music stock for the week ended Dec. 5, though it rose only a modest 6.0% to $139.33. Its share price was up even as the company faces a barrage of legal issues, including an antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice, another lawsuit filed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and yet another brought by Taylor Swift fans. At the same time, though, Ticketmaster isn’t suffering as much as its peers in the secondary market. Amid efforts to cap profits on ticket resales, StubHub shares are down 47.1% from the company’s Sept. 16 IPO price, and Vivid Seats shares have fallen 91.8% this year. Ticketmaster operates a secondary market, but the company encourages artists to raise the price of primary tickets to capture revenue that would otherwise go to scalpers.
This week, the 19-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) added to its woes by falling 2.1% to 2,542.64, marking its ninth decline in the last 11 weeks. The BGMI now stands 18.4% below its all-time high of 3,117.20 set the week ended June 30 and sits at the same level it reached in April.
Elsewhere, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 0.6% to 9,667.01, lowering its year-to-date gain to 17.5%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index, which has gained 67.9% in 2025, rose 4.4% to 4,100.05. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4% to 3,902.81, raising its year-to-date improvement to 21.5%.
Music is underperforming other indexes as stocks have remained resilient in the face of tariff uncertainty and job losses. Since the week ended Sept. 12, the Nasdaq composite index is up 4.2% and the S&P 500 has risen 3.1%. The BGMI, on the other hand, has fallen 18.0% over those 11 weeks through the week ended Dec. 5. Many of the index’s largest components have sank over those 11 weeks, including Universal Music Group (down 7.3%), Warner Music Group (down 14.7%), Live Nation (down 14.9%) and Spotify (down 23.1%).
The previously high-flying Spotify fell another 5.7% to $564.93 this week, making the Stockholm-based company the second-worst performer behind French music streamer Deezer, which dropped 6.0% to 1.03 euros ($1.20 ). Spotify shares have fallen 22.4% since the company’s Sept. 30 announcement that CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek would step down as CEO and assume the role of executive chairman at the end of the year. And although Spotify is still up 21.1% in 2025 — besting the Nasdaq’s 20.2% gain and the S&P 500’s 15.6% improvement — its share price has dropped 28.0% from its 52-week high of $785.00.
MSG Entertainment was the week’s second-greatest gainer after rising 4.7% to $51.79, while sister company Sphere Entertainment Co., which has capitalized on the success of The Wizard of Oz, fell 0.3% to $84.31. The company announced on Tuesday (Dec. 2) another milestone for its Oz motion picture: Through Monday (Dec. 1), Oz grossed more than $200 million in sales from over 1.5 million tickets sold since debuting on Aug. 28. Unlike previous milestones, however, this latest threshold didn’t goose the stock price.
Other notable movements included SiriusXM (up 3.6%), Warner Music Group (up 1.3%), Universal Music Group (down 1.3%), CTS Eventim (down 3.6%) and iHeartMedia (down 5.6%).
