Sony Music posts nearly $3.2B quarter and lifts forecast

Sony Music took in nearly $3.2 billion in the three months ended Sept. 30, up 17.7% on a year earlier. Sony Group also lifted its music revenue forecast for the rest of the fiscal year by about 5%.

The outlook first

For the remainder of the fiscal year, which covers the rest of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027, Sony Group now expects music-segment revenue of $14.45 billion (¥2.30 trillion). It credits continuing boosts from live, merch and streaming.

Two headline numbers

Sony Group's across-the-board music revenue was ¥592.30 billion, or $3.75 billion at the present exchange rate. That is 11.3% higher than a year earlier and 2.9% higher in constant currency. The total includes the "visual media and platform" category, which covers mobile gaming and more. For that reason it is a blurry measure of core music.

Take that category out and Sony Music revenue was $3.17 billion (¥501.80 billion). That is the nearly-$3.2-billion figure. The growth was 17.7%, or 8.9% in constant currency.

Music operating income reached $776.24 million (¥122.76 billion), up 6.4%. It carries the same caveat: visual media and platform contributed slightly more than 10% of that profit.

Where the money came from

Physical formats such as vinyl and CDs brought in $201.05 million (¥31.80 billion), up 16.5% and 7.8% in constant currency. A multipart "other" line covers merch, live and licensing revenue. It added $645.45 million (¥102.10 billion), a rise of 31%, or 21.1% in constant currency.

Permanent downloads earned $44.88 million (¥7.10 billion), down about 5% in constant currency.

Publishing revenue was $749.70 million (¥118.60 billion), up 12.1% and 3.7% in constant currency. Streaming within it came to $470.38 million (¥74.4 billion), up 14.3% and 5.7% in constant currency.

Best sellers and a corrected catalog count

Ranked by revenue, the quarter's best performers were Ateez's Golden Hour: Part 5, Michael Jackson's Thriller, Ella Langley's Dandelion, Bad Bunny's DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, SZA's SOS and Shakira's Dai Dai.

Sony Group also fixed a figure in its report. The song count of its music publishing catalog, owned and administered, at March 31, 2026 had been given as 5.45 million. The company called that an erroneous disclosure and revised it to 7.57 million.

A note on the dollar conversions

Most dollar amounts above use the yen-dollar rate at the time of writing. Sony also gives an average quarterly rate of ¥159.30 per dollar, a little above the present one. On that basis overall revenue less visual media and platform is $3.15 billion, recorded music is $2.41 billion and publishing is $744.5 million.

Source: Digital Music News