Sony Corporation’s earnings for Q2 reveal just how streaming is driving the return of growth to the major labels. The recorded music operation’s revenue reached 109.2 billion yen (£724 million) for the quarter up to September 30 – up 21.63% compared to a year earlier.

The increase was the result of streaming revenue, which increased by 68.2% year-on-year to reach 52.99 billion yen (£351m). Streaming accounted for 48.5% of recorded music revenue in fiscal Q2, followed by physical (25.3%), downloads (11.3%) and ‘other’ revenue including public performance (14.9%).

The major’s strongest-performing releases in the period included Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters and Calvin Harris (all big records for Ferdy Unger-Hamilton's Columbia UK), Khalid, Kesha and French Montana.

The parent company reported that the overall music operation (which includes publishing as well as Japanese visual media and games) posted operating income up 97% on the previous year to 32.5 billion yen (£215m). Sales and operating revenue totalled 206.6 billion yen (£1.37 billion), an increase of 37.5%.

Sony Corp announced overall revenues of 2,062.5 billion yen (£13.7 billion), an increase of 22.1%. Operating income increased by 346.4% to 204.2 billion yen (£1.35 billion).

See this week's issue of Music Week for an in-depth interview with Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer - subscribers can click here. 

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