The revenue decline was largely a deliberate consequence of BMG’s own strategic choices<\/strong> \u2013 most notably the divestment of non-core businesses in its Live segment, combined with unfavorable foreign exchange movements driven by the weaker US dollar. (BMG’s organic growth\/decline is calculated by stripping out foreign exchange variations, as well as the impact of acquisitions and disposals.)<\/p>\n Worth noting: BMG<\/strong> says that its underlying recorded music streaming subscription revenue grew by double digits<\/strong> in 2025.<\/p>\n BMG’s annual adjusted operating EBITDA reached an all-time high of EUR \u20ac284 million ($321m)<\/strong>, up\u00a07.2% YoY<\/strong>\u00a0compared to the prior year’s record equivalent of\u00a0\u20ac265 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The company’s EBITDA margin hit a new record 31.5%<\/strong> in 2025, up from the 27.5%<\/strong>\u00a0posted in 2024.<\/p>\n Bertelsmann attributed the continued profit growth at BMG<\/strong> to “the deliberate prioritization of digital revenue sources and long-term profitability,” alongside the positive mix effects of a business now almost entirely concentrated on publishing and recorded music rights.<\/p>\n BMG’s global headcount stood at 917 employees<\/strong>\u00a0at the end of 2025, down from\u00a01,020<\/strong> at the close of 2024, as it continued to streamline its operations across its core publishing and recorded music segments.<\/p>\n “Delivering a record EBITDA margin of 32%, while significantly increasing EBITDA in absolute terms demonstrates the strength and scalability of our operating model.”<\/p>\n Thomas Coesfeld, BMG<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thomas Coesfeld<\/strong>, CEO of BMG, said in a press release: \u201c2025 was a transformational year for\u00a0BMG<\/span>, defined by disciplined execution under our\u00a0BMG<\/span>\u00a0Next<\/i>\u00a0strategy. We sharpened our focus on music publishing and recorded music, strengthened our digital capabilities, and supported that focus through our Boost investments and cutting-edge technology, including the integration of AI across our workflows.<\/p>\n “Delivering a record EBITDA margin of 32%<\/strong>, while significantly increasing EBITDA in absolute terms demonstrates the strength and scalability of our operating model and reflects the dedication of our global teams in driving sustainable long-term growth for our artists and songwriters.\u201d<\/p>\n BMG’s geographic revenue breakdown shows the United States remains the company’s dominant market, though its share dipped slightly to\u00a048.6%<\/strong>\u00a0of all revenues in 2025, down from\u00a049.6%<\/strong>\u00a0in 2024.<\/p>\n The\u00a0United Kingdom<\/strong>\u00a0generated\u00a014.7%<\/strong>\u00a0of BMG’s revenues in 2025 \u2013 a notable increase from\u00a012.9%<\/strong>\u00a0the year prior.<\/p>\n Other European countries<\/strong>\u00a0contributed\u00a018.2%<\/strong>, while\u00a0Germany<\/strong>, BMG\/Bertelsmann’s home market, accounted for\u00a06.9%<\/strong>.\u00a0France<\/strong>\u00a0contributed\u00a04.5%<\/strong>, while other countries worldwide accounted for the remaining\u00a07.1%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n According to Bertelsmann’s annual report, BMG spent\u00a0EUR \u20ac358 million ($405M)<\/strong>\u00a0acquiring music catalogs in 2025 \u2013 a sharp increase from\u00a0\u20ac243 million ($263M)<\/strong> in 2024, and the firm’s largest annual catalog investment on record.<\/p>\n Of that \u20ac358 million,\u00a0\u20ac303 million ($342M)<\/strong>\u00a0was directed specifically at music catalogs in the United States.<\/p>\n Since the launch of Bertelsmann’s Boost investment program, BMG has invested more than\u00a0USD $1.5 billion<\/strong>\u00a0in music rights.<\/p>\n The headline acquisition of the year was the USD $250 million<\/strong> deal<\/a> that saw BMG swoop for the rights of country superstar Jason Aldean<\/strong> \u2013 the single largest catalog acquisition in BMG’s history.<\/p>\n BMG completed 30 catalog acquisitions<\/strong> in total during 2025.<\/p>\n BMG continued to expand its use of artificial intelligence across core business workflows in 2025. Notable developments included an agentic, AI-supported recommendation engine for sync licensing, new tools for marketing automation, content creation, and playlist management, and the continued development of\u00a0SafeSounds<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 its generative AI tool for identifying and flagging potentially sensitive content within its catalog.<\/p>\n Strategic AI partnerships were deepened with\u00a0Google Cloud<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0OpenAI<\/strong>, while BMG extended its research collaboration with the\u00a0TUM School of Management’s GenAI Lab<\/strong>\u00a0in Munich.<\/p>\n Bertelsmann’s annual report notes that BMG remains “exposed to growing risks arising from the use of artificial intelligence, driven primarily by the lack of adequate legal frameworks regulating content creation, monetization, and the use of BMG’s repertoire” \u2013 including risks that AI-generated content could lead to a “detrimental redistribution of royalties within existing revenue models.”<\/p>\n In the recorded music business, BMG signed new deals or extensions with artists including\u00a0OneRepublic, Brantley Gilbert, Olly Murs, FREDRIK, Atlus, i-dle, Jessi<\/strong>, and\u00a0Joyce Wright<\/strong>. On the publishing side, the company signed or extended agreements with\u00a0James Arthur, Tom Walker, ALOK, Dardan<\/strong>, and\u00a0Juicy Bae<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Standout releases in recorded music included projects by\u00a0Lily Allen, Jason Aldean, MARINA, Wiz Khalifa, Blake Shelton<\/strong>, and\u00a0Caparezza<\/strong>. Country star\u00a0Lainey Wilson<\/strong>\u00a0won a total of four Country Music Association Awards, including “Entertainer of the Year” for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n BMG clients dominated at the 2026 Grammys, receiving 20 direct nominations and winning awards in 12 categories. Country star\u00a0Jelly Roll<\/strong>\u00a0secured three awards, including Best Contemporary Country Album, Best Country Duo\/Group Performance, and Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance\/Song \u2013 his first ever Grammy wins.<\/p>\n On the publishing side, highlights included works by\u00a0Ghost, Jessie Reyez, Kontra K, Pashanim, CMAT, Lewis Capaldi, FKA twigs<\/strong>, and\u00a0Pulp<\/strong>. BMG songwriters also contributed to the globally successful singles\u00a0“Die With a Smile”<\/strong>\u00a0(Bruno Mars and D’Mile),\u00a0“APT.”<\/strong>\u00a0(Bruno Mars), and\u00a0“luther”<\/strong>\u00a0(roselilah and Kamasi Washington) \u2013 with roselilah and Washington taking home a Grammy for the latter.<\/p>\n As part of its BMG Next strategy, BMG renewed and expanded direct licensing agreements with several leading Digital Service Providers during 2025, including a landmark US publishing deal with\u00a0Spotify<\/strong>\u00a0and an expanded partnership with\u00a0TikTok<\/strong>. BMG said these agreements enhance its ability to promote music, leverage deeper audience insights, improve content placement, and ensure faster, more direct royalty collection.<\/p>\n The company also completed the rollout of its new global copyright technology platform and launched\u00a0Sync+<\/strong>, a new unified brand bringing together its Commercial Sync, Production Music, and Media Services divisions under a single integrated offering.<\/p>\n All EUR-USD currency conversions in this article have been made at the 2025 annual average rate of 1.1300, as per Bertelsmann’s own reported exchange rate. Bertelsmann defines adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA omitting special items, which “primarily include impairment losses and reversals of impairment losses, fair value measurements, reorganization expenses and results from disposals of investments.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BMG says that its underlying recorded music streaming subscription revenue grew by double digits in 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":253932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253928"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253948,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253928\/revisions\/253948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2024\/07\/Thomas_Coesfeld_\u00a9_Bertelsmann-e1720088606545.jpg\")
<\/i><\/a><\/figure>
\n<\/i><\/a><\/figure>\n
\nRevenue breakdown: US share dips, UK gains<\/h6>\n
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\nCatalog investment surges to record levels<\/h6>\n
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\nAI integration deepens<\/h6>\n
\nNew signings and release highlights<\/h6>\n
\nDigital infrastructure and direct licensing<\/h6>\n
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