SONY MUSIC CRUSHES
THE QUARTER

A strong release schedule and favorable currency exchange rate drove Sony Music’s boffo April-June quarter as revenues rose nearly 21% year-over-year to $2.38b.

Streaming brought in $1.8b of that revenue, representing a 28% spike. Income from physical releases was up 23%. Operating income increased 10.1% to $471m.

The average yen-to-dollar exchange rate soared to 129.4 from 109.5 during the second quarter, proving advantageous to the bottom line.

Sony Music’s results paid the price of being lumped in with its visual media and platform segment, however, which was off nearly 20%. Looking at just recorded music and publishing data, revenues are up more than 30%.

Top albums included Harry Styles’ explosive Harry’s House, Bad Bunny's Latin mega-smash Un Verano Sin Ti, Future’s I Never Liked You, Doja Cat’s Planet Her, Lil Durk’s 7220 and Lil Nas X’s MONTERO.

Sony Corp. CFO Hiroki Totoki told stock analysts that the company had acquired labels such as Alamo Records to strengthen its ability to discover and nurture artists.

“As a result of these efforts, our ability to continuously create hits has steadily increased, with having an average of 36 songs in Spotify's weekly global Top 100 in fiscal 2021,” he said, according to the Motley Fool’s translation and transcription of the call. “Moreover, new business opportunities with digital partners, such as TikTok, Meta and Roblox, are steadily increasing and expanding our base load of profitability.”

The strong quarter has led Sony Corp. to forecast Sony Music's fiscal year ending 3/31/23 at just under $10b in revenue.