Sony Corp has reported financial results for its fiscal Q3 (calendar Q4), the three months to December 31, 2019.
Recorded music streaming revenue for the quarter was 72.81 billion yen (£513 million), up 16.2% year-on-year. That’s in line with the growth recorded in the previous quarter by the major, headed up by Rob Stringer.
Total recorded music revenues for the three months were up 7.3% year-on-year to 125.94bn yen (£888m). Streaming represented 57.8% of recorded music sales in the quarter.
Following some solid physical music results in recent quarters, physical sales slipped in Q3. They were down 5.5% year-on-year to 25.68bn yen (£181m).
The biggest-selling Sony recorded music project for Q3 globally was Harry Styles’ sophomore album Fine Line, followed by released from Tool, Celine Dion, Luke Combs, Camila Cabello, Lil Nas X, Chris Brown, Khalid, Leonard Cohen and Travis Scott’s 2018 album Astroworld.
Sony highlighted new or upcoming releases in 2020 from Alicia Keys, HER, J-AX, Kesha, Khalid, Megan Trainor, Russ and the Trolls: World Tour OST.
Music publishing revenues were up 30.8% year-on-year in Q3 at 39.72bn yen (£280m). Sony publishing numbers have, of course, benefited from the acquisition of EMI Music Publishing in 2018.
Sony Corp’s overall music segment reported Q3 sales up 4% year-on-year to 216.9bn yen (£1.53bn). Operating income was down from 147.1bn yen (£1.04bn) in 2018 Q3 to 36.3 billion yen (£256m) in 2019 Q3. Sony said the result was impacted by the EMI Music Publishing acquisition.
The company is sticking with its 850 billon yen (£6bn) forecast for music segment sales in fiscal 2019.
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