Streaming growth and EMI acquisition boost Sony’s music profits

Escalating streaming revenue and the final acquisition of EMI boosted Sony Music’s profits in its fiscal third quarter.

Japan-based Sony Corp’s music operations include Sony Music Entertainment, Sony/ATV, Sony Japan and the mobile-game dominated Visual Media/Platform.

Their revenues were down 8.4% to ¥209.35 billion (A$2.65 billion)

They reported ¥147.1 billion A$1.79 billion) in revenue with operating income of ¥147.1 billion ($1.79 billion).

Operating profits soared by 275% to ¥147 billion  ($1.85 billion), partly from re-measurement from its ¥244 billion ($3 billion) acquisition of the remaining 60% stake in EMI I Music Publishing on November 14.

The deal means Sony expanded its catalogue by 4.46 million music titles.

According to Sony Corp, after the acquisition, EMI Music Publishing posted quarterly revenue of ¥10.45 billion ($132.4 million) and operating profit of ¥1.91 billion ($23.4 million).

Sony also reported that its proceeds from the sale of Spotify shares totalled ¥82 billion ($1.004 billion).

Recorded music revenues shrunk 8.4% to ¥117.4 billion ($1.48 million), with CD and vinyl down 37.8% or $201.3 million, year-on-year.

Quarterly download revenues fell to ¥9.816 billion ($119.9 million), down 22.9% on Q4 2017.

Streaming’s growth slowed a little but still displayed a 12.8% growth in the quarter to ¥62.67 billion ($1.05 billion).

Music publishing totalled ¥30.374 billion ($371 million), a 65.8% growth after factoring in EMI revenue.

Sony Corp’s music publishing operation now includes Sony/ATV, Sony Music Publishing Japan and EMI Music Publishing.

Visual Media Platform declined by 15% to ¥57.56 billion ($703.23 million).

Sony is forecasting full-year music division profits of ¥230 billion ($2.88 billion) and revenues of ¥820 billion ($10.4 billion).

Big sellers of the year for the company were Travis Scott's ASTROWORLD, Bob Dylan's More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg, Little Mix's LM5, Pentatonix's Christmas Is Here!, Khalid's Khalid Releases,  Bruce Springsteen's Springsteen on Broadway, Luke Combs' This One's for You and  Lil Peep's Come Over When You're Sober, Pt. 2.