How Adele and streaming helped Sony Music in last quarter

Adele, Doja Cat and The Kid LAROI were cited as major factors behind Sony Music’s 12% YoY revenue hike in Q4 2021.

A record leap in streaming also explained how the major generated AU$3.62 billion (¥295.87 billion) across its recorded music and publishing in the quarter ending December 31.

Streaming accounted for $1.47 billion (¥119.51 billion), an increase of about $385.1 million (¥31.44 billion) from the same time frame in 2020.

The format was up 29% YoY for recorded music and 27% for publishing.

“The recorded music business continued to generate major hits, with an average of 36 songs ranking in Spotify’s global top 100 songs during the quarter,” Sony Music noted in its report, about the division’s 29.3% YoY rise to ($2.26 billion (¥183.79 billion).

Adele

Adele’s 30, out late November, was its most successful global release in the quarter.

In the US, where it was #1 for eight weeks, it became the only album to crack the million mark, reaching that milestone a month after release.

In Australia 30 scored the highest first-week sales for any album since Ed Sheeran’s Divide four years before.

The second best seller for Sony in the quarter was Doja Cat’s Planet Her, followed by Lil Nas X’s Montero, The Kid LAROI’s F*ck Love, Harry Styles’ Fine Line, Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas, Polo G’s Hall of Fame, Luke Combs’ What You See Is What You Get, Rod Wave’s SoulFly and Little Mix’s Between Us.

Although 30 had strong vinyl and CD sales, Sony’s physical sales were down 5.9% YoY.

But the decline was much slower than previous quarters, due to the Christmas gift-giving. It was in fact 63% up from Q3.

In nine months ending December 31, Sony Music generated $10 billion (¥822.36 billion).

It has also upgraded its fiscal-year music division turnover to hit $13.7 billion (¥1.09 trillion) with full-year operating income of about $2.52 billion (¥205 billion).

Releases in the next six months include 21 Savage, Black Eyed Peas, Camila Cabello, Future, Giveon, Jazmine Sullivan, Ozzy Osbourne, SZA, and Three Days Grace.

Sony Music Publishing’s fiscal Q3 revenues increased by 15.3% year-on-year to $639.9 million (¥51.9 billion).

It currently has 5.03 million songs in the owned and administered catalogues.

In terms of music publishing revenues (Sony Music Publishing and its sister company in Japan) in calendar 2021, Sony turned over $2.4 billion up 19.7%, or by $397.7 million, on the equivalent figure from 2020.