Sony’s combined revenue from recorded music and publishing blasts past $3B milestone in calendar Q4 2025
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ROSALÍA's LUX was Sony's biggest revenue-generating project around the globe in the last three months of 2025
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Sony’s global music rights operation surpassed a significant financial milestone in calendar Q4 2025 (the firm’s fiscal Q3 2025).

Across both recorded music and music publishing, the company’s operations generated USD $3.01 billion in the three months to end of December – the first time that this number has surpassed $3B.

The $3.01 billion figure was up double-digits (+11.4% YoY) at US dollar-converted consistent currency, according to MBW’s calculations based on Sony Group Corp’s latest fiscal results announcement today (February 5).

Its growth, according to Sony, was partly driven by increases in streaming revenues, but also from Sony’s global participation in the live concert and merch businesses.

In monetary terms, Sony’s overall music rights operation (recorded music plus music publishing) generated approximately $309 million more in calendar Q4 2025 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 coverage of Sony’s music revenues. 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 $2.30 billion in calendar Q4 2025, up 11.2% YoY versus the equivalent quarterly period of the prior year on a USD basis.

Within Sony’s calendar Q4 2025 global recorded music result, streaming generated USD $1.45 billion (on a USD-converted basis), up 5.1% YoY.

(This ‘streaming’ number combines both subscription and ad-funded streaming revenues generated by Sony’s global recorded music operation.)

One star category within Sony’s recorded music division in the quarter is corporately defined as ‘Other’. It includes income from live concerts, plus merch and license revenue (public performance, broadcast, and sync).

This ‘Other’ category generated USD $583.5 million in calendar Q4, up 28.6% YoY.

According to Sony Corp‘s results, Sony Music Entertainment’s ten biggest recorded music projects in the calendar Q4 2025 quarter (ex-artists signed in Japan), in order of global revenue generation, were:

  1. ROSALÍA, LUX 
  2. Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
  3. Tyler, The Creator, CHROMAKOPIA
  4. Tate McRae, So Close To What
  5. SZA, SOS
  6. Tame Impala, Deadbeat
  7. Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos
  8. Michael Jackson, Thriller
  9. Mariah Carey, Merry Christmas
  10. Depeche Mode, Memento Mori: Mexico City / Depeche Mode: M
Music publishing performance

Sony’s global music publishing operation – led by Sony Music Publishing – generated USD $703 million in the three months to end of September 2025.

That quarterly revenue figure, at the US dollar level, was up 12.2% year-on-year.

Based on Sony’s reported streaming growth rates, Sony’s global music publishing operation derived approximately $418 million of its quarterly revenues in the calendar Q3 2025 period from streaming.

That publishing streaming figure was up 13.0% year-on-year.

Quarterly profits

Sony Corp also today issued profit numbers for its corporate Music division in the three months to end of December 2025. (The following figures include Sony’s operations across Recorded Music, Music Publishing, plus Visual Media & Platform.)

In calendar Q4 2025 (fiscal Q3 2025), Sony’s corporate Music division posted a quarterly operating income of 106.4 billion Yen (USD $691m).

That represented an operating margin of 19.6%, from total divisional quarterly revenues (again, ‘Music’ including ‘Visual Media & Platform’, including intersectional revenues) of 542.4 billion Yen (USD $3.52bn).

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 Q4 2025 (fiscal Q3 2025), Sony’s Music division posted an Adjusted OIBDA of 133.2 billion Yen (USD $865m).

That represented an Adjusted OIBDA margin from total divisional quarterly revenues of 24.6%.

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 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
  • Calendar Q2 2025: 144.6 Yen per USD
  • Calendar Q3 2025: 147.37 Yen per USD
  • Calendar Q4 2025: 153.99 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.

Reservoir (Nasdaq: RSVR) is a publicly traded, global independent music company with operations across music publishing, recorded music, and artist management. Music Business Worldwide

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