Streaming continues to grow revenue for Sony Music, Warner Music in last quarter

Streaming continues to push up revenues in the latest quarters for Sony Music and Warner Music.

Sony Music’s achievements were released as part of Sony Corp’s financial post for the third quarter, ending on December 31, 2017.

Its music division includes Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Japan and Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

Total revenue was 128.2 billion yen (A$1.467 billion), an 11.7% year-on-year increase.

Revenue from streaming rose 55.5 billion yen ($632.11 million), up 36.6%.

Downloads were down 13.5% to $68.3 billion yen ($731.9 million).

Physical sales were stable, dipping slightly to 43.7 billion yen ($500.23 million).

Big sellers for the quarter included P!nk, Chris Brown, Camila Cabello, Khalid and David Gilmour.

Sony/ATV revenue increased 17.9% to 18.3 billion yen ($209.5 million).

In his presentation, CFO Kenichiro Yoshida said, “We have upwardly revised our forecast for sales by 50 billion yen to 780 billion yen from our October forecast to reflect the strong performance through the third quarter.  

“We also upwardly revised our forecast for operating income by 16 billion yen to 110 billion yen due to the increase in sales.”

Sony Corp also announced that Yoshida will take over as CEO and President, as Kazuo Hirai is stepping down.

Streaming saw Warner Music Group also put in a buoyant result in the same quarter ending December 31, 2017.

Calculated year-to-year, streaming grew 30% to US$404 million (A$505.40 million). Overall digital revenue for recorded music was $481 million ($601. 35 million).

Streaming now represents over half of total revenue, and allowed the company to generate revenues of over a billion dollars in a single quarter for the first time in ten years.

Warner Music Group’s total revenue grew 14% to $1.045 billion ($1.316 billion). The figure was $917 million ($1.55 billion) in the same quarter in 2016.

"2018 is off to a great start," said CEO Steve Cooper.

"For three years running, we have grown revenue by double digits in the first quarter, a great testament to the sustainability of our success.

“Streaming is driving the industry and we continue to outperform thanks to fantastic new music and the strength of our worldwide operating team."

Warner’s top sellers in the quarter were Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, Dua Lipa, Lil Uzi Vert and Liam Gallagher.

Digital rose 20% to $481 million ($606.14 million), with downloads dropping to $77 million ($97.03 million) from $91 million ($114.67 million).

Streaming revenue more than offset the physical format’s drop, at $223 million ($281.01 million) compared to $227 million ($286.05 million) in the last quarter of 2016.

Artist services and expanded rights was up to $105 million  ($132.31 million) from 90 million ($113.41 million), while licensing and other revenues grew to $95 million ($119.71 million) from $78 million ($98.29 million).

On the publishing side, revenue was up 15.3% to $143 million ($180.20 million).

Digital share of publishing revenue up 23% to $53 million ($66.78 mllion). All its segments – digital, performance, synchronization and mechanical – showed an uptick.