With continued social distancing measures enforced around the country, Live Nation faces increasingly severe economic challenges in the COVID-19 era. The concert giant has now furloughed roughly 2,100 of its 10,500 employees. This comes as part of Live Nation’s plans to stay afloat during the pandemic, which was published in a statement on April 13.
“Given the uncertainty associated with the duration of current conditions globally, the company has launched a number of initiatives to reduce fixed costs and conserve cash. As part of these cost reduction efforts, the company will implement salary reductions, with salaries for senior executives reduced by up to 50%, and the company’s CEO voluntarily forgoing 100% of his salary for the duration of the salary reduction program,” the announcement reads.
“Additional cost reduction efforts include hiring freezes, reduction in the use of contractors, rent re-negotiations, furloughs, and reduction or elimination of other discretionary spending, including, among other things, travel and entertainment, repairs and maintenance, and marketing.”
Though live music has been primarily moved to online livestreams, it may be coming back sooner than originally thought in the form of drive-in raves, the first of which was just recently held in Germany. With legendary promoter Disco Donnie set to host a run of drive-in shows soon, perhaps Live Nation will soon get involved in this new form of live music to help mitigate the economic damages of this spring’s global lockdowns.
