Thanks to streaming, Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer had a great first year.
Sony Corporation has published its earnings report for the 2017-2018 fiscal year ending March 31st, 2018. The company’s music division brought in ¥447 billion ($4.03 billion), a 14.9 % increase over 2016’s ¥388.9 billion ($3.6 billion). Streaming revenue skyrocketed ¥197.4 billion ($1.78 billion), up nearly 40.4% over 2016’s ¥140.6 billion (just under $1.3 billion). It now makes up over 44% of the music division’s total revenue. This marks Rob Stringer’s first year as CEO of Sony Music Entertainment.
Revenue for Sony Music’s 2017-2018 Fiscal Year.
Sales of physical formats saw a surprising jump. For the 2017-2018 fiscal year, Sony Music brought in just under ¥5 million ($45,828) more year-on-year to hit around ¥135.1 million (nearly $1.22 billion). A source speaking to Variety explained that sales were driven by “a strong showing in Japan,” where the formats remain strong. Vinyl sales also helped boost overall physical revenue. Yet, Sony Music expects these sales to go down for its next fiscal year.
Digital downloads continued their slow decline into obscurity. Sony Music reported an 18% decline year-on-year to around ¥49.8 billion ($449.4 million). Other sources of revenue – merchandising, live performances, and license revenue – jumped nearly 9% to nearly ¥64.6 billion ($582.1 million).
This fiscal year, Pink’s Beautiful Trauma took the top spot as Sony Music’s best-selling recorded music project. DJ Khaled’s Grateful, Camila Cabello’s Camila, Khalid’s American Teen, and Harry Styles’ self-titled album rounded out the top five. In the previous fiscal year, Beyoncé’s Lemonade took the top spot.
Revenue for Sony Music’s Calendar Q1 2018 / FY Q4 2017.
Sony Corporation also published the results for its first fiscal quarter of 2018, dubbed FY Q4 2017 in the report.
Underscoring the music division’s declining format sales, Sony Music reported ¥30.3 billion ($279.7 million) in physical revenue. This represents a sharp 30.6% decline over the previous fiscal quarter. The music division had posted nearly ¥43.7 billion ($386.4 million) in sales.
Digital downloads also dropped, though not as dramatically. Download revenue fell 7.1% to ¥11.8 billion ($109.3 million). Streaming also experienced a slight drop. Down 9.1% in the last fiscal quarter, streaming revenue totaled nearly ¥50.5 billion ($465.6 million). Sony Music didn’t explain why revenue fell. Streaming also experienced a similar 7% drop during Q4 2017 over the previous fiscal quarter last year. For Q4 2017, other sources of revenue jumped 4.9% to around ¥17.1 billion ($157.6 million.)
Justin Timberlake’s Man of the Woods ranked as the best-selling fiscal project for the fiscal quarter ended March 31st, 2018. Keyakizaka46’s Glass Wo Ware!, Camila Cabello’s Camila, G-Eazy’s The Beautiful & Damned, and Pink’s Beautiful Trauma followed close behind. For the fiscal quarter ended March 31st, 2017, Nogizaka46’s Influencer ranked as the best-selling recorded music project.
You can check out Sony Corporation’s complete financial report here.
Featured image by ODE (YouTube screengrab)