Sony Music Posts Solid Q1 ’26 Growth Amid Physical Gains

A live performance from Ateez, one of Sony Music’s top-selling acts of Q1 2026. Photo Credit: pinkllamanade

Following Warner Music Group’s seemingly solid calendar Q1 2026 earnings, Sony Music Group has posted respectable first-quarter financials of its own – including the highest quarterly revenue from vinyl and other physical formats since 2017.

The overarching Sony Group Corp. shed light on Sony Music’s performance across January, February, and March 2026, or the fiscal fourth quarter. As usual, the Tokyo-headquartered conglomerate reported the results in yen; the below figures reflect the yen-dollar exchange rate at the time of writing.

Also as usual, “visual media and platform” revenue made its way into the music-division breakdown. Consisting of mobile apps and more – the latter including blockbuster anime films such as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle – visual media and platform is best omitted to paint a clearer picture of actual recorded, publishing, live, and merch revenue.

All told, Sony Music generated ¥475.49 billion (currently $3.03 billion) during calendar Q1 2026, up roughly 22.7% from $2.47 billion/¥387.46 billion in the identical 2025 stretch.

Across-the-board recorded music streaming revenue, from on-demand and non-interactive platforms alike, hit $1.44 billion/¥225.28 billion (up 16.7% YoY) en route to accounting for about 47.4% of the newer sum.

Meanwhile, permanent downloads’ long-running descent continued; also including ringtones, the category kicked in a relatively modest $38.94 million/¥6.10 billion (down approximately 18% YoY) to Q1 2026’s overall recorded revenue.

Rounding out the recorded side, Sony Music identified near-record revenue (regardless of quarter) of $241.73 million/¥37.87 billion (up 41% YoY) for vinyl, CDs, and cassettes during Q1. (Technically, Pink’s Beautiful Trauma ticket-CD combo powered physical revenue of $278.71 million/¥43.66 billion way back in Q4 2017.)

And the decidedly all-encompassing “other” category – housing public performance, sync, live, merch, and more – hiked 55.1% YoY to $631.92 million/¥99.02 billion.

For the full fiscal year, core music revenue (excluding visual media and platform and accounting for recorded as well as publishing) reached $11.26 billion/¥1.77 trillion (up 12% YoY). In recorded, full-year streaming revenue grew 8% YoY to $5.44 billion/¥852.67 billion, while “other” climbed 23.1% YoY to $2.15 billion/¥336.42 billion.

Shifting to publishing, Sony Music Publishing brought in $684.30 million/¥107.22 billion on the quarter, up 11.4% YoY.

Therein, streaming revenue improved by 13.7% YoY to $402.54 million/¥63.07 billion, with non-streaming publishing having achieved a comparatively modest 8.1% YoY uptick to $281.74 million/¥44.15 billion. And for the entire fiscal year, publishing revenue increased by 10.6% YoY to $2.68 billion/¥419.86 billion.

Interestingly, Sony Music Publishing’s owned and administered catalog, the size of which is updated once per year in earnings reports, contained 5.45 million works as of March 31st. Though large, the figure slipped substantially from 2025’s 6.63 million works.

Did a bad count or a JV-prompted calculation change drive the drop? Or, more interestingly, is the decrease connected to a forthcoming announcement of some kind? We don’t have a concrete answer at present, but the falloff is worth keeping in mind – especially amid other Sony Music-related catalog rumblings.

By overall recorded revenue, the quarter’s top projects were Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS; Harry Styles’ Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.; Ateez’s Golden Hour: Part.4; Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti; and Blackpink’s Deadline, respectively.

For the entire 12-month window, Bad Bunny once again secured the uppermost spot, followed by SZA’s SOS; Tate McRae’s So Close to What; Styles and his above-noted effort; and then Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, respectively.

Regarding profitability and Sony Music’s outlook for the current fiscal year, Q1 music-division operating income rose 58.4% YoY to $844.92 million/¥132.39 billion.

However, Sony Group only provides a one-and-done number here, reflecting music operations as well as visual media and platform, which accounted for “slightly less than 30%” of the quarterly profit.

(For a bit more context, it’d be best to let Sony Group take the wheel for a moment. Per the report: “The operating income of Visual Media & Platform should include certain profit from Sony Music Entertainment in the U.S., however, as the amount of such profit is de-minimis, the profit contributions from Visual Media & Platform in Music segment above are calculated based only on the profit from Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), Inc.”)

As for what the coming year or so may bring, execs forecasted “essentially flat” music sales totaling $13.66 billion/¥2.14 trillion, including decreased live/merch revenue and, amid continued price bumps, ongoing streaming growth.

But this is a music-unit-wide sum and therefore extends to visual media and platform, which is expected to dip due to the timing of film releases.

Lastly, in AI, Sony Music is apparently focused on the development and implementation of its previously revealed detection tools.

“To drive such efforts, Sony Music is actively pursuing an industry-wide standard to label AI content for further transparency with consumers,” higher-ups reiterated during the earnings presentation.