SONY MUSIC STREAMS
TO A $9.8B YEAR

Sony Music closed out its fiscal 2021 on a high note as the company saw a 29% spike over the previous year, generating 1.17t yen ($9.8b) in revenue over the 12 months that ended 3/31.

Operating income grew to $1.62b.

Sony’s music division includes recorded music, music publishing and visual media/platform. Removing the video-game unit, music pulled in $7.75b—just under $6b from recorded music and nearly $1.8b from publishing.

Recorded music’s total of 688.78b yen was up significantly over fiscal 2020’s 516.27b yen.

Streaming saw a significant boost of 37%, to 462.4b yen, while physical products were responsible for 206.4b yen. Music publishing brought in $200.3b yen, a 28% spike.

Big sellers for the year included Adele, Harry Styles, Doja Cat, Luke Combs and The Kid LAROI.

Sony is forecasting continued increases in sales for fiscal 2022, predicting the music unit will bring in 1.24t yen, an 11% increase, over the next 12 months.

Math is not one of our strong suits, but we’re well aware that the yen has fluctuated significantly during the fiscal year, moving from 108.8 yen to the dollar in May 2021 to 130 yen to the dollar today. When Sony’s fiscal year closed on 3/31, the yen was trading at 122 yen to the dollar.