Warner Music Group release official revenue projections for FY20

Warner Music Group has issued its projected revenues for the 2020 fiscal year.

Total income is forecast at between US$4.435 billion and $4.485 billion, compared to the $4.475 billion posted last financial year.

The period covers the 12 months to the end of September 2020.

Recorded music is expected to drop slightly to $3.795 billion to $3.825 billion, compared to the $3.84 billion generated last fiscal year. Best case scenario is that it grows 13.2%.

Annual publishing revenue is expected to topple last year’s $643 million, somewhere between $645 million and $665 million, or up 21.8% to 25.5%.

Streaming, of course, remains the key revenue source, following on from the 23% growth enjoyed during the 2019 annual figures.

The expectation is it will generate $2.39 billion to $2.41 billion and be a greater result than last financial year’s $2.129 billion.

But WMG investors were given the bad news that streaming revenue’s rise is “expected to be offset largely due to decreases in physical and artist services”.

Warner is currently taking on more debt, with $250 million of bonds sold to put towards the buying of two “music and music-related assets” for a total of $338 million.

Last year it announced plans to acquire music catalogues while in 2020, it bought hip hop news and reviews site HipHopDX in April for an undisclosed amount, and in August shelled out an initial %85 million for media meme-maker IMGN Media.