Sony‘s combined revenues from recorded music and music publishing topped $3 billion for a fourth consecutive quarter in calendar Q3 2026, hitting a new quarterly high in the process.
Across both recorded music and music publishing, the company’s operations generated USD $3.15 billion in the three months to end of September 2026.
That’s according to MBW’s calculations based on Sony Group Corp’s calendar Q3 2026 (fiscal Q2 2026) results, as announced by the Japanese conglomerate today (Thursday, November 5).
The $3.15 billion figure was up 8.9% YoY at US dollar-converted consistent currency, versus $2.89 billion in calendar Q3 2025.
In monetary terms, Sony’s overall music rights operation (recorded music plus music publishing) generated approximately $256 million more in calendar Q3 2026 than in the prior-year quarter.
Note: Corporately speaking, Sony Group’s global music operation includes recorded music, plus music publishing, plus ‘Visual Media & Platform’. The final category primarily covers mobile games and animation projects, and has been omitted from MBW’s revenue calculations in the above chart.
MBW calculates Sony’s music revenues in USD, based on average quarterly exchange rates provided by Sony. This gives a more accurate picture of Sony’s worldwide performance than the Japanese firm’s reported Yen figures. US-headquartered Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Publishing both aggregate the results of their worldwide subsidiaries on a USD basis. However, this global USD conversion risks a degree of FX distortion by converting revenues from Tokyo-based Sony Music Entertainment Japan, which reports revenues in its ‘root’ currency of Yen.
Recorded music revenue breakdown
Sony’s global recorded music operation generated USD $2.41 billion in calendar Q3 2026, up 10.5% YoY from $2.18 billion in the prior-year quarter.
Within that result, streaming generated USD $1.52 billion (on a USD-converted basis), up 7.4% YoY from $1.42 billion.
(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 Q3 2026 hit USD $199.4 million, up 7.8% YoY.
Sony’s ‘Other’ category within recorded music generated $641.2 million in calendar Q3 2026, up 21.2% YoY, making it the fastest-growing part of Sony’s recorded music business in the quarter.
This latter category (‘Other’) includes license revenue (public performance, broadcast and sync), merchandising, and live performance income. Sony cited “higher revenues from live events and merchandising in Recorded Music” as one of the drivers of its Music segment’s growth in the quarter.
In dollar terms, Sony’s ‘Other’ recorded music revenues grew by approximately $112 million YoY in calendar Q3 2026 – slightly more than the approximately $105 million YoY increase in its recorded music streaming revenues.
According to Sony Corp‘s results, Sony Music Entertainment’s ten biggest recorded music projects in the calendar Q3 2026 quarter (ex-artists signed in Japan), in order of global revenue generation, were:
- ATEEZ – GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5
- Michael Jackson – Thriller
- Ella Langley – Dandelion
- Bad Bunny (Rimas Entertainment) – DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
- SZA – SOS
- Shakira – Dai Dai
- Beyoncé – B’DAY (20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
- Bad Bunny (Rimas Entertainment) – Un Verano Sin Ti
- Future – The Real Me
- Peter Peter – Heated Rivalry (Original Series Soundtrack)
Music publishing performance
Sony’s global music publishing operation – led by Sony Music Publishing – generated USD $744.8 million in the three months to end of September 2026.
That quarterly revenue figure, at the US dollar level, was up 3.8% YoY versus $717.8 million in calendar Q3 2025.
Sony’s publishing growth rate slowed from the 6.7% YoY rise it posted in calendar Q2 2026, and came against a strong prior-year comparison: in calendar Q3 2025, Sony’s publishing revenues grew 17.2% YoY.
Sony’s global music publishing operation generated approximately $467 million of its quarterly revenues in calendar Q3 2026 from streaming, up 5.7% YoY. (In calendar Q3 2025, Sony’s publishing streaming revenues rose 24.8% YoY.)
Quarterly profits
Sony Corp also today issued profit numbers for its corporate Music division in the three months to end of September 2026. (The following figures include Sony’s operations across Recorded Music, Music Publishing, plus Visual Media & Platform.)
In calendar Q3 2026 (fiscal Q2 2026), Sony’s corporate Music division posted a quarterly operating income of 122.8 billion Yen (USD $771m).
That represented an operating margin of 20.5%, from total divisional quarterly revenues (again, ‘Music’ including ‘Visual Media & Platform’, including intersegment revenues) of 598.4 billion Yen (USD $3.76bn).
Sony said the division’s quarterly operating income rose by 7.4 billion Yen (6%) YoY in Yen terms, citing higher revenues from streaming services and a positive FX impact, partially offset by lower revenues from Visual Media & Platform.
According to Sony, Visual Media & Platform accounted for “slightly more than 10%” of the Music segment’s operating income in calendar Q3 2026, down from “slightly less than 30%” in the prior-year quarter, which benefited from contributions from the anime film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle.
Sony Corp additionally presents to investors its Adjusted OIBDA performance in each quarter (see below), a metric also used by Warner Music Group to present its earnings.
In calendar Q3 2026 (fiscal Q2 2026), Sony’s Music division posted an Adjusted OIBDA of 154.6 billion Yen (USD $971m).
That represented an Adjusted OIBDA margin from total divisional quarterly revenues of 25.8%.
Full-year guidance
Sony also today raised its forecast for its corporate Music division (again including Visual Media & Platform) for the full fiscal year to end of March 2027.
The company now expects the division to generate sales of 2.30 trillion Yen in the fiscal year, up 110 billion Yen (5%) on the forecast it issued in July.
Sony now expects the division’s full-year operating income to reach 445 billion Yen, up 25 billion Yen (6%) on its July forecast. It also raised its full-year Adjusted OIBDA forecast for the division to 570 billion Yen, up from 540 billion Yen.
Sony attributed the upgraded sales forecast to higher revenues from live events and merchandising in recorded music, plus higher revenues from streaming services in both recorded music and music publishing. It attributed the raised operating income forecast to the impact of higher revenues from streaming services.
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, and the below data from Sony’s filings.
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 Q3 2024: 149.5 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q4 2024: 152.2 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q1 2025: 152.6 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q2 2025: 144.6 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q3 2025: 147.37 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q4 2025: 153.99 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q1 2026: 156.7 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q2 2026: 159.3 Yen per USD
- Calendar Q3 2026: 159.3 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 and merchandising;
- 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 and game applications, 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
