Shares in CTS Eventim ended the week up 5.3% after the company sounded upbeat about the second half of 2024 in its earnings call on Thursday (22 August).
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 “increase significantly” in the second half of the year. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter improved 23.3% to €110.0 million ($118.4 million) helped by Vivendi's June acquisition of See Tickets.
CTS Eventim is among the best performing music stocks of 2024, having gained 34.5% year-to-date. That gain beats peers Live Nation (up 25.0%) and trails only Believe (up 43.3%), Sphere Entertainment Co. (up 47.3%) and Spotify (up 82.3%).
Apart from CTS Eventim which fared this week, three other music companies had bigger gains. iHeartMedia jumped 19.0% to $1.42, continuing its trend of rising and falling in the absence of market-moving news or financial announcements. SiriusXM rose 6.7% to $3.00, perhaps helped by news that the company signed Gen Z podcaster Alex Cooper (She called her dad) 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 HKD 91.60 ($11.75) after the company posted revenue of RMB 4.07 billion ($571 million), up 4.1%, in the first half of 2024 , announced Thursday (August 22). Like the leading Chinese music stream, Tencent Music Entertainment, Cloud Music has two divisions headed in opposite directions. Music subscription revenue rose 26.6% to RMB 2.56 billion, while social entertainment and other revenue fell 19.9% to RMB 1.51 billion ($212 million).
An unusually large majority of music stocks posted gains this week. The Billboard Global Music Index rose 2.7 percent to 1,829.18, bringing its year-over-year gain to 19.2 percent. Of the 20 stocks in the index, 17 were gainers and only 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 profit of 3.0%.
Streaming companies fell 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 biggest component, gained 1.5% to $337.38.
US stocks moved higher on positive economic news. After chairing the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell suggested on Friday (August 23) that it would cut interest rates soon, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the week up 1.4%. In South Korea, where trading closed as the Federal Reserve announcement made news, the KOSPI composite rose 0.2 percent to 2,701.69. Similarly, China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.9 percent to 2,854.37. In the UK, the FTSE 100 rose 0.2% to 8,327.78.
