Sony’s global music rights operation – across recorded music and music publishing – generated USD $2.54 billion in the three months to end of March 2025.
That’s according to MBW’s calculations based on Sony Group Corp’s calendar Q1 2025 (fiscal Q4 2024) results, as announced by the Japanese firm today (May 14).
The $2.54 billion figure was up by 1.5% year-on-year (vs. calendar Q1 2024) at US dollar-converted consistent currency.
In monetary terms, Sony’s overall music rights operation (recorded music plus music publishing) generated approximately $37 million more in calendar Q1 2025 than in the prior-year quarter.
(As regular MBW readers will know, our calculations of Sony’s music earnings – explained at the bottom of this story – are based on average quarterly exchange rates, provided by Sony, from its reported Yen to USD. We believe this gives a more accurate picture of Sony’s worldwide results than its reported Yen figures. This is because Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Publishing both aggregate the results of their worldwide subsidiaries on a USD basis. However, this global USD conversion system risks a certain amount of FX distortion by converting revenues from Tokyo-based Sony Music Entertainment Japan – which would usually report revenues in its ‘root’ currency of Yen – into USD. This should be flagged as it can impact YoY comparisons.)
Importantly, this latest quarterly set of results also represents the close of Sony Group Corp’s FY (to end of March), enabling the firm to project ahead over the next 12 months (to end of March, 2026).
In its materials for investors today, Sony said that it expects Sony Music Group‘s annual operating income in the 12 months to end of March next year to grow “in the high single digits on a US dollar basis”.
(Sony Music Group represents the combined global operations of Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Publishing, but not Sony Music Japan.)
Recorded music revenue breakdown
Sony’s global recorded music operation generated USD $1.91 billion in calendar Q1 2025, down 1.8% YoY versus the equivalent quarterly period of the prior year on a USD basis. (Sony reported recorded music in calendar Q1 on a Yen basis was up by approximately 1% YoY.)
As you’ll see, much of this YoY decline can be attributed to a decrease in Sony’s ‘Other’ sales – including merch and live tickets – rather than its revenues from streaming or physical music.
Within Sony’s calendar Q1 2025 global recorded music result, streaming generated USD $1.27 billion (on a USD-converted basis), up 1.8% YoY.
(This ‘streaming’ number combines both subscription and ad-funded streaming revenues generated by Sony’s global recorded music operation.)
Quarterly revenues from physical music sales in calendar Q1 2025 hit USD $176 million (up 8.8% YoY).
Sony’s ‘Other’ fiscal category within recorded music generated $418.4 million in calendar Q1 2025, down 12.2% YoY vs. the $476.6 million generated in the prior-year quarter.
This latter category (‘Other’) includes license revenue (public performance, broadcast and sync), merchandising, and live performance income.
Obviously, these categories – particularly live and merch – can experience seasonal variations.
Worth noting, then, that the +$22 million YoY jump in quarterly recorded music streaming revenue Sony posted in calendar Q1 2025 was more than offset by a -$58 million YoY drop in ‘Other’ sales.
Top-selling projects globally
According to Sony Corp‘s results, Sony Music Entertainment’s ten biggest recorded music projects in the calendar Q1 2025 quarter (ex-artists signed in Japan), in order of global revenue generation, were:
- SZA – SOS Deluxe: LANA
- Tate McRae – So Close to What
- LISA – Alter Ego
- Tyler, The Creator – CHROMAKOPIA
- Tyler, The Creator – IGOR
- Travis Scott – UTOPIA
- Central Cee – CAN’T RUSH GREATNESS
- Rauw Alejandro – Cosa Nuestra
- JENNIE – Ruby
- Michael Jackson – Thriller
Sony Music Entertainment’s ten biggest recorded music projects in the fiscal year to end of March 2025 (ex-artists signed in Japan), in order of global revenue generation, were:
- SZA – SOS Deluxe: LANA
- Beyoncé – COWBOY CARTER
- Future & Metro Boomin – WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU
- Travis Scott – UTOPIA
- Tyler, The Creator – CHROMAKOPIA
- Michael Jackson – Thriller
- Tyler, The Creator – IGOR
- Luke Combs – This One’s For You
- ATEEZ – GOLDEN HOUR : Part.2
- Tate McRae – THINK LATER
Music publishing performance
Sony’s global music publishing operation – led by Sony Music Publishing – generated USD $630.9 million in the three months to end of March 2025.
That quarterly revenue figure, at the US dollar level, was up 12.9% year-on-year.
Sony’s global music publishing operation derived $363.4 million of its quarterly revenues in the calendar Q1 2025 period from streaming.
That publishing streaming figure was up 22.0% year-on-year.
Quarterly profits
Sony Corp also today issued some profit numbers for its corporate Music division in the three months to end of March 2025. (The following figures include Sony’s operations across Recorded Music, Music Publishing plus Visual Media & Platform.)
In calendar Q1 2025 (fiscal Q4 2024), Sony’s corporate Music division posted a quarterly operating income of 83.6 billion Yen (USD $548m).
That represented an operating margin of 17.8%, from total divisional quarterly revenues (again, ‘Music’ including ‘Visual Media & Platform’) of 470.7 billion Yen (USD $3.08bn).
Full fiscal year results
As mentioned, today’s calendar Q1 results from Sony were also the firm’s fiscal Q4 results – meaning they also encompassed Sony’s FY results for the year to end of March 2025.
Within those FY results, Sony revealed the full-year profit figures for its Music division. (Again, in this context, this includes Sony’s operations across Recorded Music, Music Publishing, plus ‘Visual Media & Platform’. However, ‘Visual Media & Platform’ only makes up around 10% of Sony’s annual profit in its Music division.)
In FY 2024 (12 months to end of March 2025), Sony’s corporate Music division posted an annual operating income of 357.3 Yen (USD $2.34bn).
That represented an operating margin of 19.0%, from total divisional FY revenues (again, ‘Music’ including ‘Visual Media & Platform’) of 1.843 trillion Yen (USD $12.09bn).
Methodology note
Note: All YoY percentage rises/falls published in this story are calculated at constant currency at the US dollar-converted level. MBW uses Sony’s own quarterly average currency rates for these calculations.
See below for the breakdown of Sony’s latest (fiscal) quarterly figures for music in Japanese Yen, as published by Sony Group Corp today.
For this analysis, MBW has calculated Sony’s financials from Japanese Yen into US dollars at the following prevailing exchange rates in each quarter, as provided by Sony Corp:
- Calendar Q1 2020: 109.0 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q2 2020: 107.6 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q3 2020: 106.2 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q4 2020: 104.5 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q1 2021: 105.9 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q2 2021: 109.5 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q3 2021: 110.1 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q4 2021: 113.7 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q1 2022: 116.1 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q2 2022: 129.4 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q3 2022: 138.2 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q4 2022: 132.3 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q1 2023: 135.4 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q2 2023: 137.0 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q3 2023: 144.4 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q4 2023: 147.9 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q1 2024: 148.2 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q2 2024: 155.6 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q3 2024: 149.5 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q4 2024: 152.2 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q1 2025: 152.6 Yen per USD
By applying these exchange figures to each applicable period, we effectively get a US-leaning constant currency picture of Sony Music’s performance.
This isn’t a perfect system; it risks overplaying Sony Music Entertainment’s global business slightly by converting a chunk of revenues from Sony Music Entertainment Japan (which would usually be straight-reported in Yen) into US dollars.
But it provides us with a cleaner reflection of the performance of New York-based Sony Music Entertainment outside of FX distortion, because the company had to convert its US currency into Yen in the first place for Sony Corp’s results. The same is true for US-based Sony Music Publishing.
MBW believes this currency exchange system is the yardstick used internally at Sony Music Group‘s HQ in New York.
Sony’s own description of its three corporate music divisions is as follows:
- Recorded Music – Streaming includes the distribution of digital recorded music by streaming; Recorded Music – Others includes the distribution of recorded music by physical media and digital download as well as revenue derived from artists’ live performances;
- Music Publishing includes the management and licensing of the words and music of songs;
- Visual Media and Platform includes the production and distribution of animation titles, including game applications based on the animation titles, and various service offerings for music and visual products.
Within / covering the first two divisions listed above:
- Sony Music Publishing, run by CEO & Chairman Jon Platt, is Sony’s US-headquartered music publishing operation.
- Sony Music Entertainment, run by CEO Rob Stringer, is Sony’s US-headquartered recorded music operation.
- And Sony Music Group – also run by Rob Stringer, as Chairman – is Sony’s US-headquartered umbrella group for both Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Publishing.
Music Business Worldwide
