BMG head Thomas Coesfeld. Photo Credit: BMG
As its Bertelsmann parent reportedly closes in on a deal to acquire Concord, BMG is touting a “strong” 2025 showing – including double-digit recorded revenue growth from paid streaming.
BMG provided an overview of its full-year financials today, two months after rumblings suggested that a Concord acquisition could be in the cards for Bertelsmann. And as BMG in 2025 and early 2026 finalized a particularly large catalog play, moved to upgrade its Berlin headquarters, “refreshed” its brand, and confirmed CEO Thomas Coesfeld as the next head of Bertelsmann proper, the time appears right for a buyout-powered expansion.
Now, the music company is taking a victory lap – even if its 2025 revenue slipped by 7% from 2024 to about $1.04 billion/€900 million.
The decrease, BMG relayed, “reflects deliberate portfolio decisions, including the divestment of non-core businesses, such as Live, unfavorable foreign exchange movements,” and a “prioritization of digitally driven revenue streams.”
Additionally, given H1 2025’s 8% year-over-year revenue dip, the business’s performance evidently picked up during the year’s second half.
Things were more positive on the streaming side, where BMG, boasting a fresh Spotify direct deal, posted “robust double-digit growth in underlying recorded music streaming subscription revenue” for 2025.
Rounding out the hard financials disclosed by BMG, 2025’s “record EBITDA margin” came in at 32%, up 4% from 2024, with adjusted operating EBITDA totaling $327.52 million/€284 million.
In the catalog arena, BMG pointed to 30 investments for 2025 and, since 2021, a cumulative total of $1.5 billion deployed on IP. As the latter figure was $1.4 billion as of H1 2025 and BMG’s biggest-ever catalog deal arrived in September 2025, we now have a rough idea of the price tag associated with the 1,000-song transaction.
(This is assuming, of course, that BMG put pen to paper sometime during the two months preceding the formal announcement. Moreover, the $100 million or so in question covered agreements for different bodies of work as well; BMG bought the IP of Jose Feliciano during H2 2025, for instance.)
“2025 was a transformational year for BMG,” Coesfeld added, “defined by disciplined execution under our BMG Next strategy. We sharpened our focus on music publishing and recorded music, strengthened our digital capabilities, and supported that focus through our Boost investments and cutting-edge technology, including the integration of AI across our workflows.”
Speaking of AI, BMG concluded by touching on its “strategic partnerships” with Google Cloud and OpenAI. But the company, which last week fired off a massive copyright lawsuit against Anthropic, also underscored the belief that “AI must enhance creativity” by prioritizing “copyright protection and fair remuneration.”
