Sony operation on global music rights
Sony’s operations in global music rights—encompassing recorded music and musical publications—yielded 2.70 billion dollars three months prior to the end of December 2024.
This figure aligns with calculations by MBW based on the Sony Group Corp Q4 2024 (Fiscal Q3) results. The Japanese company announced this today (February 13).
The 2.70 billion dollars figure marks an increase of 7.1% compared to the annual year (this was reported in the Sony Q4 2023 calendar) when converted to US dollars at constant currency.
However, the Q4 calendar figure was elevated due to a reporting adjustment by Sony, which indicated an increase in quarterly recorded streaming sales from one digital platform, switching from a net to gross basis. (The exact impact of this modification remains uncertain from Sony’s perspective.)
(Note: In corporate terms, Sony Group’s global music operations include recorded music, music publishing, and Visual Media & Platform. The latter category primarily covers mobile games and animation projects and was excluded from MBW’s income calculations in this report.)
Sony’s signed musical operation
Sony’s Global Recorded musical operation reported an income of 2.07 billion US dollars in Q4 2024, reflecting an increase of 6.9% compared to the same quarterly period last year.
In this Q4 2024 global music calendar, streaming generated 1.38 billion dollars, a rise of 9.2% against the equivalent measure from the previous quarter.
(This “stream” figure aggregates both subscription and ad-supported income generated by Sony’s Global Music Operations. Once again, the last quarter’s figures were adjusted due to Sony’s reporting that quarterly recorded streaming sales switched from a net to gross basis for an unnamed platform partner.)
Quarterly income from physical music sales in the Q4 2024 calendar reached 198.6 million US dollars, down 6.8% from the previous year.
The “other” category under Sony’s recorded music generated 453.8 million dollars in Q4 2024, significantly up from 403.9 million dollars generated in the prior quarter.
This last category (“other”) encompasses revenue from licensing (public performance, broadcast, and synchronization), merchandising, and live performance income.
According to the results released by Sony Corp, Sony Music Entertainment identified its top recorded music projects for Q4 calendar 2024 (featuring artists signed in Japan) in terms of global income, as follows:
- ATEEZ – Golden Hour: Part 2
- Tyler, Creator – Chromacopy
- SZA – SOS
- The Wave of Rods – The Last Circle
- Mylène Farmer – Never
- Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas
- Travis Scott – Utopia
- Future – Metsteip Pluto
- Tyler, Creator – Igor
- Michael Jackson – Thriller
Sony’s music publishing operation
Sony’s Global Music Publishing operation—led by Sony Music Publishing—generated 626.3 million US dollars three months prior to the end of December 2024.
This quarterly income in US dollars has seen a growth of 7.6% year-on-year.
Globally, Sony’s music publishing operation reported 369.8 million dollars in quarterly income for Q4 2024 from streaming.
This streaming revenue has increased by 7.5% compared to the annual level.
Sony Corp also released profit indicators for its corporate Music department for the three months leading up to December 2024.
(The following figures encompass Sony’s operations across Music, music publishing plus Visual Media – Platform.)
In the Q4 2024 calendar (Fiscal Q3 2024), Sony’s corporate music unit reported a quarterly operating income of 97.4 billion yen ($640 million).
This represented an operating margin of 20.2% of the total quarterly income from the division, which amounted to 481.7 billion yen ($3.16 billion).
Sony Corp further presented its investors with Adjusted OIBDA figures for the quarter (see below), a metric also utilized by Warner Music Group in its financial disclosures.
In Q4 2024 (Fiscal Q3 2024), the adjusted OIBDA for Sony’s music unit was reported at 121.4 billion yen ($797 million).
This indicated an adjusted OIBDA margin of 25.2% from the overall division’s quarterly income.
Note: All year-to-year percentage changes mentioned in this report are calculated in constant currency based on US dollars. MBW employs quarterly average currency rates from Sony for these calculations.
For a detailed breakdown of the latest (financial) quarterly numbers of Sony in music denominated in Japanese yen, please refer to the information published today by Sony Group Corp.
For this analysis, MBW derived Sony’s financial indicators from Japanese yen to US dollars according to the following applicable exchange rates for each quarter, provided by Sony Corp:
- Calendar Q1 2020: 109.0 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q2 2020: 107.6 yen per US dollar
- Q3 calendar 2020: 106.2 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q4 2020: 104.5 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q1 2021: 105.9 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q2 2021: 109.5 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q3 2021: 110.1 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q4 2021: 113.7 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q1 2022: 116.1 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q2 2022: 129.4 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q3 2022: 138.2 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q4 2022: 132.3 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q1 2023: 135.4 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q2 2023: 137.0 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q3 2023: 144.4 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q4 2023: 147.9 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q1 2024: 148.2 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q2 2024: 155.6 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q3 2024: 149.5 yen per US dollar
- Calendar Q4 2024: 152.2 yen per US dollar
By applying these exchange rates to each relevant period, we obtain a more consistent view of the currency in the United States.
This approach is not without its limitations; it risks somewhat overestimating the performance of Sony Music Entertainment globally, as it translates certain income from Sony Music Entertainment Japan (which generally reports in yen) into US dollars.
Nevertheless, it provides a clearer reflection of the performance of New York-based Sony Music Entertainment without the distortions caused by foreign exchange rates, given that the company converts its currency to the US dollar for reporting results. The same consideration applies to the US operations of Sony Music Publishing.
MBW believes this currency exchange methodology is the standard used within Sony Music Group’s New York headquarters.
Here is a brief description of its three corporate music departments:
- Recorded music – streaming encompasses the distribution of digital music through streaming; Recorded music – others comprises the distribution of recorded music on physical media and digital downloads, as well as revenue from artists’ live performances;
- Music publishing involves the management and licensing of song lyrics and compositions;
- Visual media and platform includes the production and distribution of animated titles, including gaming applications based on animated properties, as well as various service offerings for music and visual products.
Within the first two units mentioned above, the leadership is structured as follows:
- Sony Music Publishing is managed by CEO and Chairman John Platt, overseeing Sony’s publishing operations in the US.
- Sony Music Entertainment is headed by CEO Rob Stringer, overseeing the recorded music operations in the United States.
- Sony Music Group is also led by Rob Stringer as Chairman, and serves as the umbrella organization for the Sony North American operations comprising Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Publishing.
