2025 Q1 Earnings: Here’s What Every Music Company Made

Here is a round-up of Universal Music Group, Spotify, HYBE and other music companies’ earnings results for the quarter ending March 31, 2025.

While many public companies are struggling amid the backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty and the looming threat of global tariffs, music company executives are beating the drum for music as a stable place to invest.

Despite a plateauing of the growth curve, revenue from streaming subscriptions continues to drive relative stability at Spotify, Unversal Music Group and Deezer, companies that each reported earnings on Tuesday (April 29) for the quarter that ended March 31.

Here are the top line results for each of the music companies that have reported as of May 28, 2025, listed in alphabetical order. Click on the link in the summary to get the full story for each company.

Alliance Entertainment: In the Florida-based physical distributor’s fiscal third quarter, net revenue increased 1% to $213 million and adjusted EBITDA rose 66% to $4.9 million. Vinyl sales improved 11% to $88 million on strong Record Store Day demand and continued consumer interest in tangible media. Higher margin consumer direct fulfillment sales accounted for 35% of gross sales, up from 33% in the prior-year period.
CTS Eventim: The German concert promoter and ticketing company’s revenue grew 22% to 498.6 million euros ($525 million) due to organic growth, the acquisition of See Tickets and the majority investment in France Billet. Adjusted EBITDA rose just 8.9% to 100.3 million euros ($106 million). Adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.1% was more than two percentage points lower than the 22.6% the company saw in the first quarter of 2024. Details about the live events and ticketing segments in the full article.
Cumulus Media: Recently demoted from the Nasdaq stock exchange, Cumulus Media reported first quarter revenue of $187 million, down 6.4% from the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA fell 58% to $3.5 million. Broadcast radio revenue, which represents a majority of the business, fell 10.6% to $125 million. Digital revenue grew 6% to $37 million but would have increased 20.4% if not for the loss of The Daily Wire. Cumulus mitigated economic headwinds and challenging trends in radio advertising by driving additional annualized cost reductions of $7.5 million.
Deezer: French streaming company Deezer eked out a quarterly revenue gain to remain on track to achieve profitability in 2025, with a 1.1% increase in revenue of 134 million euros ($145.08 million) in the first quarter. The gains were driven primarily by 6.3% growth in Deezer’s direct subscriber base in France, which brings the total number of subscribers overall to 9.4 million. Read on.
HYBE: South Korea’s HYBE used artists’ heavy touring schedules and strong merchandise and licensing revenues to offset a dip in recorded music sales to post revenue gains of 38.7%, or 500.6 billion KRW ($350 million). For more on HYBE’s J-Hope and all the rest, click here.
iHeartMedia: The radio and podcasting giant beat expectations as revenue rose 1% to $807 million. While U.S. tariff policy has created some uncertainty about the economy, CEO Bob Pittman said the company is seeing “generally stable” advertising spending and “the bigger advertisers are hanging in there.” The best performance came from the digital business, which rose 16% to $277 million. The multi-platform sector that includes broadcast radio fell 4% to $473 million. Go here for more details.
JYP Entertainment: An album release schedule filled with undeveloped artists — NMIXX, KickFlip — and a lack of large scale tours were behind a drop in the K-pop company’s operating profit. Big gains in merchandise, advertisements and appearances made up for those deficiencies, however, and JYP’s total revenue rose 3% to $97 million despite operating profit falling 42%. There will be bigger releases and tours from established artists in the coming quarters, however, including a tour by Stray Kids and a Lollapalooza headlining slot for Twice. More details at the full article.
Live Nation: First quarter revenue declined 11% (8% in constant currency) to $3.38 billion while adjusted operating income fell 6% (or 0.5% in constant currency) to $341.1 million. The first quarter tends to be slow, however, and numerous metrics — ticket sales for Live Nation concerts, event-related deferred revenue and fee-bearing ticket sales — point to the coming quarters being much stronger. Go here for more.
MSG Entertainment (MSGE): The New York City-based live events company’s revenue rose 6% to $243 million in the fiscal third quarter ended March 31. CEO James Dolan said MSGE is “on track to deliver solid adjusted operating income growth” in the full fiscal year. Revenue from entertainment offerings rose 10% to $160 million. Event-related revenue fell $3.6 million due primarily to lower revenue from concerts, which the company attributed to more rentals (versus fewer promoted events) and a drop in the number of concerts compared to the prior-year period.
Netease Cloud Music: The Chinese music streaming company’s bare-bones quarterly release didn’t provide specifics but revealed that a decline in social entertainment revenue was a key factor in total revenue falling 8.4% to $256 million. Lower cost of revenues led gross margin profit to rise 14% to $94 million.
Reservoir Media: Consolidated revenue rose 10% to $41.4 million in the fiscal fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $18.2 million, up 14%. Music publishing revenue grew 6% to $27.9 million while recorded music improved 7% to $12.0 million. For the full fiscal year, both revenue and adjusted EBITDA beat the high end of guidance range. “The music industry has a longstanding ability to weather broader macroeconomic headwinds as consumers believe in the value that music brings to their daily lives,” CEO Golnar Khosrowshahi said during the earnings call. All the details at the full article.
SiriusXM: The satellite radio company reported a 303,000 decline in subscribers, a 4% drop in revenue (to $2.07 billion) and a 15% decline in net income (to $204 million). Lower operating expenses from staff cuts and the reversal of Sirius’s streaming strategy partly offset the declines. Its podcast business, which launched two Alex Morgan channels in the quarter, reported a 33% revenue increase and 70 million monthly listeners. More details in the full article.
SM Entertainment: The K-pop company behind NCT Dream and aespa had a decent first quarter: revenues grew 5% to $159 million and operating income jumped 110% to $22 million. Live performances by NCT 127, aespa and TVXQ helped concert revenue jump 58% to $27 million. Recorded music revenue increased 23% despite having fewer major releases. For details on upcoming releases and tours, go to the full article.
Sony Music: Sony Music reported record high operating profit thanks to double-digit increases in streaming and publishing revenue. Sony’s music segment, which includes Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment Japan and Sony Music Publishing, generated $12 billion in revenue and total operating profit of $2.4 billion, a 14% and 18% increases respectively, driven by streaming revenue gains and sales for music from artists like SZA, Travis Scott and Tate McRae. More details at the Billboard Pro article.
Sphere Entertainment Co.: The Sphere venue had fewer events in the fiscal quarter ended March 31, leading revenue to fall 12.8% to $158 million. But because selling, general and administrative costs fell by 12%, adjusted operating income was flat at $13 million. Consolidated revenue, which includes MSG Networks, fell 13% to $281 million. CEO James Dolan isn’t concerned about a possible downturn in tourism, saying concert demand is so strong “we have room to absorb any issues.” Click here for more.
Spotify: Spotify’s first quarter revenue rose 15% to 4.2 billion euros ($4.54 billion), as it added a greater-than-projected 5 million net new paying subscribers in the quarter to bring its total to 268 million. That 12% increase in paying streamers marked the streaming and podcast company’s highest first quarter subscriber gains since early in the COVID-19 pandemic, showing the “resilient” appeal of music amid the backdrop of global uncertainty, execs said.
Tencent Music Entertainment: The Chinese music streamer’s music subscription revenue jumped 17% to $581 million, helping total revenue increase 8.7% to $1.01 billion. Subscribers were 122.9 million, up 8.3% from the prior-year period, and average revenue per user improved to $1.57 from $1.47 a year earlier. “We remain on track … to achieve sustainable growth in 2025,” said executive chairman Cussion Pang. Read the full article for the details, including TME’s purchase of 2% of Universal Music Group shares during the quarter.
Universal Music Group (UMG): The world’s largest music company reported that strong subscription revenue drove an 11.8% (or 9.5% in constant currency) year over year increase in first quarter revenue, for a result of 2.9 billion euros ($3.05 billion at the average exchange rate in the first quarter). Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) also rose 11.8%, to 661 million euros ($695 million). Adjusted EBITDA margin was flat at 22.8%. For more, click here.
Vivid Seats: The secondary ticket marketplace ran into “softening industry trends amidst consumer uncertainty,” said CEO Stan Chia. Marketplace gross order value fell 20% to $820 million and net revenue dropped 14% to $164 million. The company suspended full-year guidance due to what CFO Lawrence Fey called “elevated uncertainty across the global economy, the health of the consumer, and the performance marketing landscape.” In addition, Vivid Seats lowered its expectation for industry volumes to flat-to-down from mid-to-high single-digit growth.
Warner Music Group: Warner Music Group reported quarterly revenue of $1.48 billion edged 1% lower and net income was down almost 63%, as the label home of stars like Bruno Mars and Ed Sheeran struggled with tough comparisons to last year’s quarter. WMG reported recorded music revenue of $1.175 billion, a 1% decline, and publishing revenue rose 1% to $310 million. Net income of $36 million compared to $96 million a year ago was hit by a $34-million loss from exchange rates driving up the carrying costs of WMG’s euro-denominated debt and an $11 million increase in a certain kind of taxes. All the details can be found in the full article.
YG Entertainment: The agency behind BLACKPINK and BABYMONSTER posted revenue of 100.2 billion KRW ($71.9 million), up 14.7% from the prior-year period. Net income soared over 2,000% to 10.2 billion KRW ($7.3 million).

Note: This story will be updated as additional companies report earnings.

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Link to the source article – https://www.billboard.com/pro/2025-q1-earnings-every-music-company-report/

2025 Q1 Earnings: Here’s What Every Music Company Made

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