Stockholm, Sweden. Photo Credit: Yoko Correia Nishimiya
Swedish indie record label and distribution company Amuse posted a $10.8 million loss on $9.34 million in revenues during 2019, according to a new earnings report.
Digital Music News obtained a copy of this (Swedish-language) financial document, which Amuse CEO Diego Farias signed from Stockholm. On the year, direct operating costs (direkta rörelsekostnader) came in at over $10.99 million (100,103,517 Swedish krona) – up significantly from 2018’s $3.13 million (28,524,201 Swedish krona) worth of operational expenses. Within the figure, other external expenses (Övriga externa kostnader) nearly doubled, having hit approximately $2.30 million in 2018 and risen to $4.48 million in 2019.
Additionally, personnel costs (personalkostnader) spiked from about $2.92 million to some $4.45 million as part of the aforementioned $10.81 million (98,393,865 Swedish krona) total loss. This number is almost twice the $5.46 million or so (49,698,971 Swedish krona) loss that Amuse suffered in 2018 – though the average number of employees (medelantalet anställda) increased by 16, with the business’s team having totaled 33 persons in 2018 and 49 individuals in 2019.
Nevertheless, total assets (summa tillgangar) neared $15.28 million (139,124,897 Swedish krona), up from roughly $10.43 million (95,046,288 Swedish krona) in 2018. One of the largest net-asset boosts arrived in the prepayments and accrued income (förutbetalda kostnader och upplupna intäkter) category, swelling by $567,000 (5,163,368 Swedish krona) year over year.
Furthermore, net sales (nettoomsättning) surpassed $9.34 million (85,096,678 Swedish krona) – a much larger sum than in 2018, when the five-year-old company’s net sales just crossed $3 million (27,546,886 Swedish krona).
On the other side of the coin, given this amplified income, Amuse’s current tax liabilities (aktuella skatteskulder) jumped by almost 15 times, to close to $60,000 (545,173 Swedish krona). Liabilities to group companies (skulder till koncernföretag) also increased by roughly 15 times, to $77,000 or so (704,950 Swedish krona), in 2019.
Amuse – which reportedly offered Lil Nas X a $1 million deal before he signed with Columbia/Sony Music and rose to prominence – concluded the earnings report by assessing its outlook with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indicating that it is impossible to “fully quantify” the crisis’s impact presently, Amuse nevertheless specified that “in relation to the business community as a whole, the business is developing well.”
Evidence (aside from huge earnings growth in 2019) suggests that the latter statement is truly indicative of Amuse’s future. Though the novel coronavirus has had a particularly devastating effect on many members of the music community – especially those who rely on concerts to earn a living – the RIAA recently delivered a positive H1 2020 report. Specifically, the entity signaled that music industry revenues experienced a 5.6 percent year-over-year increase through 2020’s initial six months.