Photo Credit: Sophie Backes
Universal Music Group (UMG) has posted modest Q4 2025 revenue growth due largely to a continued paid-streaming slowdown. Meanwhile, execs have seemingly shelved plans for a secondary listing in the U.S.
All told, the major this afternoon pointed to across-the-board revenue of €3.61 billion, currently $4.19 billion, for Q4 2025 (up 4.8% year over year) and $14.52 billion/€12.51 billion for the whole year (up 5.7% YoY). Behind the 12-month sum, UMG identified $1.78 billion/€1.53 billion in net profit, down from closer to $2.43 billion/€2.09 billion during 2024.
Universal Music attributed the YoY profit slip to, among different things, share-price fluctuations for the publicly traded companies (including Spotify and Tencent Music) in which it has stakes.
In general, the quarterly and full-year report’s other figures won’t come as a surprise. Many are aware of established markets’ streaming plateau, which has factored into prior earnings breakdowns, RIAA data, and more.
Against this backdrop, UMG posted recorded streaming revenue of $1.90 billion/€1.64 billion (up 2.6% YoY) and $7.34 billion/€6.32 billion (up 4.7% YoY) for the quarter and the year, respectively. Therein, paid listening contributed $1.46 billion/€1.26 billion (up 2.4% YoY) for the quarter and $5.66 billion/€4.88 billion (up 5.6% YoY) for the year.
Furthermore, following a lawsuit-ending agreement with Udio, a $52 million/€45 million legal resolution propelled UMG’s Q4 2025 download and “other digital” revenue up 93.2% YoY to $99 million/€85 million.
Rounding out the recorded category, “strong vinyl sales in the U.S. and Europe” elevated physical revenue to $608 million/€524 million (up 14.4% YoY), compared to $599 million/€516 million in license and other revenue.
The latter spiked 11.7% YoY partially because of an improvement in “live event and other related income, primarily in Japan,” and “a compensatory payment as part of a strategic licensing agreement with an AI music platform.”
Shifting to publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) pulled in $688 million/€593 million (down 3.3% YoY) on the quarter and $2.62 billion/€2.26 billion on the year (up 6.6% YoY).
Within the quarterly sum, revenue from both performance (down 8.7% YoY to $135 million/€116 million) and digital (down 6.3% YoY to $411 million/€354 million) dipped, while sync rose 19.7% YoY to $92 million/€79 million and mechanical jumped 8.3% YoY to $30 million/€26 million.
Explaining the decrease, UMG cited “the timing of collections from certain societies” and underscored a $9 million/€8 million settlement in the Q4 2024 total.
Beyond these hard numbers, perhaps the most interesting takeaway from Universal Music’s latest earnings report is the initially mentioned U.S. listing pause.
Some will recall that Pershing Square trimmed a portion of its Universal Music position last year, which is when founder Bill Ackman left UMG’s board. But the company is still entitled to spearhead a Universal Music sub-listing in the States, and for a time, evidence suggested that the move was forthcoming.
At least according to UMG, however, that’s no longer the case. “With the uncertainty in the market creating a meaningful dislocation in UMG’s valuation,” the major wrote, “the Company’s Board of Directors has decided that it is not the right time to move ahead with a U.S. listing. Should that change, the Company will provide an update.”
DMN reached out to Pershing for comment but didn’t receive a response in time for publishing. Even so, it was only in its annual report last month that the entity emphasized “the delay in UMG’s U.S. listing” as one contributor to its (UMG’s) sagging share price.
“The second overhang is the delay in UMG’s U.S. listing due to the government shutdown,” Pershing wrote. “Both of these are transitory issues that we believe will be resolved over time. We exercised our registration right to catalyze the U.S. listing because we believe it will increase demand from U.S. investors, improve analyst coverage, and enable UMG to be included in major U.S. indices.”
During today’s trading, Universal Music shares (UMG on the Euronext) rose about 3% to finish at $22.46/€19.36 each. Worth highlighting in conclusion is that another activist investor now owns a piece of the major. Additionally, as reiterated by Pershing when describing the first “overhang,” there’s a chance that a significant shareholder could be compelled to divest.
