Sony’s global music rights operation – across recorded music and music publishing – generated USD $2.284 billion in the three months to end of June 2023.

That’s according to MBW’s calculations based on Sony Group Corp’s calendar Q2 2023 (fiscal Q1 2023) results, as announced by the Japanese firm today (August 9).

The $2.284 billion figure was up 12.5% year-on-year (vs. calendar Q2 2022) at US dollar-converted constant currency.

In monetary terms, Sony’s overall music rights operation (recorded music plus music publishing) generated approximately $254.6 million more in calendar Q2 2023 than in the prior-year quarter.

[Note: Corporately speaking, Sony Group’s global music operation includes recorded music, plus music publishing, plus ‘Visual Media & Platform’. The final category primarily covers mobile games and animation projects, and has been omitted from MBW’s revenue calculations in this analysis.]

SONY’S RECORDED MUSIC OPERATION

Sony’s global recorded music operation generated USD $1.736 billion in calendar Q2 2023, also up 12.5% YoY versus the equivalent quarterly period of the prior year.

Within that calendar Q2 2023 global recorded music result, streaming generated $1.204 billion, up 12.0% YoY.

(This ‘streaming’ number combines both subscription and ad-funded streaming revenues generated by Sony’s global recorded music operation.)

Sony saw a single-digit decline in quarterly revenues from physical music sales in calendar Q2 2023 (down 7.8% YoY to $182.4m).

Sony’s ‘Other’ fiscal category within recorded music, generated $293.1 million, up 39.1% YoY on the $210.7 million generated in the prior-year quarter.

This latter category (‘Other’) includes license revenue (public performance, broadcast and sync), merchandising and live performance income.