2025 Q2 Earnings: Here’s What Every Music Company Made - Black Promoters Collective (BPC)
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2025 Q2 Earnings: Here’s What Every Music Company Made

August 28, 2025
Home > News > 2025 Q2 Earnings: Here’s What Every Music Company Made

The only sure thing in this earnings season is unpredictability. While the global economy remains resilient in the face of U.S. tariffs, and U.S. gross domestic product grew 3% in Q2, stocks took a hit from a weak U.S. jobs report on Aug. 1, and some experts believe a constant drip, drip, drip of negative developments will cause “death by a thousand cuts.”

Music companies’ early results also offered mixed signals. Spotify, the first music company out of the gate on July 29, posted solid year-over-year growth but disappointed investors with weaker-than-expected guidance for the third quarter. Spotify shares dipped 11.6% as a result. Two days later, Universal Music Group (UMG) posted 4.5% revenue growth and 8.5% subscription growth. But investors were hesitant — was it a lack of margin improvement or concerns about cash flow? — and UMG’s share price dipped 5.2% the following day.

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Below are summaries, listed in alphabetical order, of every music company to report second quarter earnings as of Aug. 28. Billboard will update the page as more results are announced. (If the summary includes a hyperlink, click on it to get the full story.)

  • BMG: The Berlin-based music company was able to keep operating EBITDA flat at 122 million euros ($133 million) while sales fell 8% to 424 million euros ($463 million). Organic sales — income from continuing operations — declined 4%. EBITDA margin improved to 29% from 26.5%, which CEO Thomas Coesfeld attributed to a variety of factors. “It’s distribution, it’s catalog acquisitions, and first and foremost, it’s about focusing the business, for the time being, on publishing and recordings.” More details at the full article.
  • CTS Eventim: The German concert promoter and ticketing company had record revenue in the first half of the year, but its earnings slipped due to “intense and persistent cost pressures” and the costs of integrating France Billet and See Tickets and its U-Live companies. Mid-year consolidated revenue was up 7.6% to a record 1.29 billion euros ($1.41 billion), but adjusted EBITDA fell 0.8% to 200.5 million euros ($219 million).
  • Cumulus Media. The No. 3 radio company in the U.S. posted a 9.2% drop in revenue and an 11.3% decline in adjusted EBITDA. Broadcast radio revenue was down 13.0% and digital fell 1.4%. CEO Mary Berner referred to a “challenging” advertising environment for legacy media companies and noted that Cumulus created an additional $5 million in cost reductions in the quarter, bringing its total annualized cost cuts to $175 million over the last five years. 
  • Deezer: Total revenue was flat at 267.1 million euros ($298.1 million), and subscribers fell 7.6% to 9.2 million (subscriptions through B2B partnerships fell 21% to 3.9 million). But the French music streamer managed its costs, resulting in improved operating loss and adjusted EBITDA. The company reiterated its belief that it will finish 2025 with both positive cash flow (for the second consecutive year) and positive adjusted EBITDA. Go here for the full article.  
  • HYBE: South Korea’s HYBE said on Aug. 6 that its second quarter revenue rose 10.2% year-over-year to $516.7 million, while operating profit jumped nearly 30% to $48.3 million due to successful global tours and releases from several of its artists, including BTS members Jin and j-hope. Recorded music revenue fell by nearly 8.5%, but that was offset by double-digit year-over-year increases in merchandise and touring revenue. The company said news of BTS members completing their military service also drove record-high engagement for its superfan platform Weverse. For more, read the full article.
  • iHeartMedia: Although CEO Bob Pittman said “there is still uncertainty in the marketplace,” the radio giant was able to beat guidance and post a 0.5% revenue gain in the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA came in at the high end of guidance. Revenue for the multi-platform group, which houses the radio broadcasters, fell 5% to $545 million while digital revenue, led by podcasts, jumped 13% to $324 million. Read the full article for more.
  • JYP Entertainment: A record-setting world tour by Stray Kids helped K-pop company JYP Entertainment to $157 million of revenue, up 126%. Concert revenue, also aided by DAY6 and Xdinary Heroes, rose 342% to a record $45 million. Merchandise revenue, aided by strong concert sales, jumped 356% to $49 million, also a quarterly record. Click here for the full article. 
  • Live Nation: Consolidated revenue jumped 16% to $7 billion and concert revenue improved 19% to $5.95 billion, proving that fans continue to clamor for live music despite whatever weirdness is going on in the economy. Adjusted operating income grew 11% to $798 million. Ticketmaster revenue grew 2% to $742.7 million while sponsorship & advertising rose 9% to $340.6 million. Check out the full article with earnings numbers and the follow-up with additional insights from the earnings call.
  • MSG Entertainment: Without Billy Joel, whose residency at Madison Square Garden concluded in July 2024, MSG Entertainment’s fiscal year profit suffered. Revenue of $947 million was down 2% while net profit of $37.4 million was down 74%. In the fourth quarter, revenue from entertainment offerings fell 17% to $118.7 million. Go to the article for all the details and management’s comments about fiscal 2026. 
  • NetEase Cloud Music: The Chinese streaming service saw revenue of RMB 3.8 billion ($529 million) in the first half of 2025, a 6.0% decrease from the first half of last year. Operating profit, however, increased 40.8% to RMB 845 million ($117 million). Revenue from online music services was RMB 3 billion ($417 million), up 15.9% from the first half of 2024. The company also saw an increase in subscription revenue, which was up 19% to RMB 2.5 billion ($348 billion) in the first half of the year.
  • Reservoir Media: Quarterly revenue rose 8% to $37.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 on strong recorded music and sync revenue. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a popular measure of profitability, was up 10% to $13.9 million. Acquisitions in the quarter, which contribute to the company’s revenue from catalogs, include a strategic partnership struck with Fool’s Gold and an investment in an experiential entertainment company called Lightroom. Go here for more details.
  • SiriusXM: SiriusXM reported that overall revenue of $2.14 billion in the second quarter fell 2% from the year-ago quarter, pressured by lower subscriber growth, a legal settlement and higher operating expenses. The satellite radio giant is rolling out a new $7 subscription option to try to boost lagging ad revenue and subscriber growth. SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz said they will cautiously roll out the new offering, as they push other initiatives aimed at improving their standing amid a “challenging…ad market.” The full story is here.
  • SM Entertainment: Album sales and events revenue from RIIZE and NCT WISH helped SM Entertainment’s consolidated revenue increase 19.3% to $216.5 million. Album and digital music revenue jumped 37.9% to $70.8 million, and merchandise and licensing revenue rose 39.6% to $45.7 million. Concert revenue was flat at $24.0 million. For a breakdown of subsidiary revenue, check out the article.
  • Sony Music: Led by Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, SZA’s SOS and Sleep Token’s Even in Arcadia, Sony Music’s consolidated revenue was up 5.3% to $3.22 billion in the first fiscal quarter ended June 30. A strong yen made year-over-year comparisons a challenge. Recorded music was up 0.7% to $2.09 billion but improved 8.4% on a dollar basis (Sony does not report results in constant currency). Music publishing revenue rose 2.1% as reported; on a dollar-denominated basis, it improved 9.8%. More info at the full article. 
  • Sonos. Revenue of $344.8 million was down 13.2% from the prior-year period, the company announced Aug. 7. Gross margin fell to 43.4% from 44.7% as CFO Saori Casey noted “a complex environment marked by tariffs and an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop.” Go here for Billboard‘s coverage of Sonos, including its recent layoffs and how it cut sales projections after a disastrous app redesign in May 2024. 
  • Sphere Entertainment Co: Total second quarter revenues rose 3% to $282.7 million, helped by a 16% increase in income from more concerts and corporate events at the Sphere venue in Las Vegas. That offset a 12% revenue decline in the MSG Networks division from a year ago. The Sphere division’s revenue of $175.6 million was driven by a $26.7 million increase in event-related income from corporate events and nine more concerts compared to the prior-year quarter. More details at the full article.
  • Spotify: The streaming giant enjoyed another quarter in which it beat its own subscriber and monthly user growth targets, but a lukewarm financial forecast from executives and lower quarterly operating income due to currency fluctuations and taxes caused a sharp one-day selloff in its stock. Check out our article about the earnings release and a follow-up story with takeaways from the company’s second quarter results. 
  • Tencent Music Entertainment: The Chinese streamer saw Q2 revenue jump nearly 18% to 8.44 billion RMB ($1.18 billion), thanks in large part to 26% growth in its music services division. Total subscribers rose 6.3% to 124.4 million, driving a 17% year-over-year increase in music subscriptions revenue to 4.38 billion RMB ($611 million). Executive chairman Cussion Pang added that music-related services such as advertising, concerts and artist merchandise “showed impressive momentum.”
  • Universal Music Group: Revenue increased 4.5% to $3.38 billion while recorded music subscription revenue rose 8.5% to $1.36 billion (all growth figures in constant currency). Elsewhere, music publishing soared 14.5% with a boost from Chord Music Partners, but both merchandising and physical recorded music dipped. For more, read our earnings story and a follow-up article with takeaways from the results. 
  • Warner Music Group: WMG reported revenue grew to $1.7 billion in the last quarter, thanks to a double-digit increase in publishing revenue and strong subscription streaming returns. That helped offset the impact of losing BMG as a distribution client and helped push Warner’s stock price up by 3.5%. All the details at the full article. More insights are in the follow-up article.
  • YG Entertainment: The K-pop company behind BLACKPINK improved its Q2 revenue 11.6% to 100.4 billion KRW ($72.2 million). Operating income improved to 8.4 billion KRW ($6 million) from an 11 billion KRW ($7.9 million) operating loss in the prior-year period.

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