Sony Music Entertainment (SME) turned in a roughly 10.16 percent year-over-year revenue increase during Q1 2022 due in large part to an 18.90 percent YoY jump for recorded music’s streaming income, which achieved a 37.16 percent YoY hike during the entirety of the 2021 fiscal year.
These and other noteworthy performance details came to light in a newly released earnings report from the overarching Sony Group Corporation. It bears clarifying at the outset that the below-disclosed figures reflect the JPY-USD conversion rate at the time of writing.
Covering the business’s showing for Q1 2022 (the final quarter of Sony’s fiscal year), the just-published document shows that Sony Music generated about $2.26 billion (¥294.59 billion) during January, February, and March of 2022 – up 10.16 percent YoY, as mentioned.
(The vast majority of this revenue total derived from deals with external customers, and about $55.22 million/¥7.20 billion resulted from intersegment sales to other Sony Group divisions.)
Notwithstanding the relatively modest improvement in quarterly revenue, Sony Music’s operating income for Q1 2022 finished at $382.42 million (¥49.85 billion), up about 39.17 percent from Q1 2021.
Digging into Sony Music’s Q1 2022 showing by division, recorded music put up a total of $1.36 billion (¥176.80 billion), consisting of $923.91 million (¥120.46 billion) for streaming and $432.34 million (¥56.35 billion) for “others.”
On the quarter, streaming revenue grew by 32 percent YoY in recorded music, and as part of “others,” physical sales accounted for $158.85 million (¥20.71 billion). The latter signifies a 37.27 percent quarter-over-quarter falloff and a 12.51 percent YoY dip.
Sony Music Publishing, for its part, delivered $414.25 million (¥53.99 billion) in revenue during the quarter, including a 36 percent boost in streaming income. SMP’s catalog of owned and administered works cracked 5.46 million at the fiscal year’s end, compared to 5.03 million songs for March 31st, 2021, and 4.86 million for March 31st, 2020.
Finally, more towards the gaming segment, revenue from visual media and platform (encompassing “mobile gaming” but still classified in the music category) totaled $434.27 million (¥56.60 billion) across Q1 2022, down 16.04 percent from Q1 2021.
For the entirety of the 2021 fiscal year, Sony Music pulled down $8.59 billion (¥1.12 trillion), up roughly 18.69 percent from the 2020 fiscal year. And for the coming 2022 fiscal year, Sony Group has forecasted $9.51 billion (¥1.24 trillion) in revenue for its music operations, besides $1.76 billion (¥230 billion) worth of operating income.
Sony relayed that the three projects with the highest sales for the fiscal year were Adele’s 30, Doja Cat’s Planet Her, and The Kid Laroi’s Fck Love 3: Over You, respectively. During Q1 2022, the same spots were secured by first-ranked Doja Cat’s Planet Her, second-ranked Lil Nas X’s Montero, and third-ranked The Kid Laroi’s Fck Love 3: Over You.
Warner Music Group also posted its Q1 2022 earnings today, whereas Universal Music Group unveiled the appropriate financials one week ago.