SONY MUSIC'S FISCAL YEAR STARTS ON A HAPPY NOTE

Sony Music's fiscal Q1 report delivered an upbeat note as revenue rose 16% to 358.2b yen ($2.64b+) in the quarter that ending 6/30, with the company bumping up the forecast for the full year to 1.49 trillion yen ($10.37b+), an 80b yen ($557.8m+) boost.

The spike was driven by paid subscriptions at streaming services and, to a lesser extent, the impact of foreign exchange rates.

Recorded Music earned 237.8b yen ($1.65b+) in the quarter, streaming revenue was up 19% to 165b yen ($1.15b) and music publishing, which rose 19%, posted revenue of 75.1b yen ($523m). Operating income came in at 73.4b yen ($511m+), a 20% increase over Q1 2022. Guidance for the full year is now 335b yen ($2.33b+).

In a presentation to investors, executives noted that Sony Music Entertainment has doubled the number of creative personnel in the last five years, and the number of artists producing songs for streaming worldwide has increased 35%.

Top sellers in the quarter were albums and songs by SZA, Miley Cyrus, Luke Combs, Harry Styles, Depeche Mode and Lil Durk. On average, Sony had 38 tracks in Spotify's weekly U.S. Top 100.

In Japan, Sony has had significant success with YOASOBIʼs TV anime theme song, “Idol,” which hit 300m faster than any other song in Japan. SME notes that with “the expansion of the global anime market as a tailwind, we expect the overseas expansion of artists, which SMEJ has been focusing on, to accelerate further.”

Sony is predicting a better fiscal year than expected due in part to the positive impact of foreign exchange rates. A remeasurement gain resulting from the consolidation of a company previously accounted for using the equity method, recorded during the three months ending 6/30, also contributed to operating income, which is expected to be higher than the April forecast.