{"id":77577,"date":"2020-01-31T17:10:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T17:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=77577"},"modified":"2020-02-02T18:59:09","modified_gmt":"2020-02-02T18:59:09","slug":"warner-streaming-revenues-soared-above-2bn-in-calendar-2019-with-overall-recorded-music-close-getting-close-to-4bn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/warner-streaming-revenues-soared-above-2bn-in-calendar-2019-with-overall-recorded-music-close-getting-close-to-4bn\/","title":{"rendered":"Warner streaming revenues soared above $2bn in calendar 2019, with overall recorded music close to $4bn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warner Music Group’s recorded music operation saw its streaming revenues easily surpass $2bn in calendar 2019, at $2.22bn, up 21% year-on-year.<\/p>\n

The major’s overall recorded music division (encompassing all formats) turned over $3.88bn in the 12 months, up 11% YoY.<\/p>\n

As a result, streaming contributed some 57% of Warner’s recorded music revenues last year.<\/p>\n

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We know all of this because Warner just filed its fiscal Q1 (calendar Q4) report, covering the three months to end of December.<\/p>\n

This period represented the largest quarterly revenues in the major’s 16-year history as a standalone company, said WMG CEO Steve Cooper today (January 31).<\/p>\n

Total WMG quarterly revenues in this record quarter \u2013 inclusive of both recorded music and publishing via Warner Chappell Music \u2013 hit $1.26bn, up 4.4% year-on-year (or 5.5% at constant currency).<\/p>\n

One key sign it was a healthy three months for WMG: it paid out a cash dividend of $37.5m to its stockholders (i.e. Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries) on January 17.<\/p>\n

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WMG’s recorded music revenues in the quarter (fiscal Q1 \/ calendar Q4) hit $1.08bn, up 4.1% year-on-year (or 5.1% at constant currency).<\/p>\n

If you’re thinking that 4% sounds like a notably skinny YoY rise considering the barnstorming recent performance of the global record business, you’d be right, but it was a particularly tough comp for WMG \u2013 calendar Q4 2018 saw the company release a record-breaking Johnny Hallyday album and benefit from an outstanding commercial performance from Ed Sheeran.<\/a><\/p>\n

Specifically, Warner’s recorded streaming<\/em> revenues in calendar Q4 2019 hit $589m, up 17% on the $502m posted in the prior year quarter.<\/p>\n

The biggest revenue drivers amongst Warner labels in the quarter included TWICE, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Lizzo (pictured).<\/p>\n

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Warner Chappell Music saw its quarterly revenues in the three months to end of December hit $173m, up 4.8% YoY (or 6.1% in constant currency).<\/p>\n

Growth in digital and synchronization revenue more than offset a decline in performance revenue at the publisher during the period, while mechanical revenue was flat.<\/p>\n

WMG said Chappell’s YoY decline in performance revenue was driven by timing of distributions.<\/p>\n

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Overall, Warner Music Group’s revenue grew 4.4% (or 5.5% at constant currency) year-on-year, to that record-breaking $1.26bn.<\/p>\n

Operating income was $165m compared to $147m in the prior-year quarter.<\/p>\n

As of December 31, 2019, the company reported a cash balance of $462m, total debt of $2.988bn and net debt (defined as total long-term debt, net of deferred financing costs, minus cash and equivalents) of $2.526bn.<\/p>\n

“We achieved the highest quarterly revenue in our 16-year history as a stand-alone company. ”<\/p>\n

Steve Cooper, WMG<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Our Q1 results were very strong.\u00a0 We achieved the highest quarterly revenue in our sixteen-year history as a stand-alone company.\u00a0 We\u2019re especially pleased with this result considering the strength of the prior-year quarter,\u201d said Steve Cooper, Warner Music Group\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n

“The combination of our creative expertise, global expansion, commercial innovation and financial discipline makes us very confident about our long-term growth prospects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe again solidly grew both revenue and OIBDA,\u201d added Eric Levin, Warner Music Group\u2019s Executive Vice President and CFO.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOur cash position also remains strong with $462m on the balance sheet at quarter-end.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Cooper says WMG experienced biggest ever quarter in calendar Q4 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2504,418],"class_list":["post-77577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-steve-cooper","tag-warner-music-group"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77577","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=77577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}