Universal Music Group, the world’s largest record label, reported revenue that beat estimates on the back of subscriber growth and price increases at some platforms.
Revenue from recorded music rose to US$3.1 billion in the third quarter, the Hilversum, Netherlands-based company said in a statement on Thursday (Oct 31). That compared with the 2.83 billion euros (S$4.06 billion) analysts had forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Subscription income rose 8.2 per cent, also beating expectations.
Universal Music’s shares rose as much as 5.6 per cent in Amsterdam on Friday (Nov 1) after the results.
The stock sank in July after lacklustre subscription and streaming sales dominated investor concerns. The music company had attributed it partly to a slowdown in subscriber growth at some platforms and as Meta Platforms stopped licensing premium music videos for Facebook.
The company is targeting revenue growth of more than 7 per cent at a compounded rate through 2028 driven by subscription revenue growth and increasing superfan monetisation. The record label, that represents artists including Taylor Swift, expects its subscription revenue to grow between 8 per cent and 10 per cent in the same period, it said on its capital markets day in September.
Streaming revenue increased 0.3 per cent in the period but missed analyst estimates due to “mixed performance at advertising-based platform partners as the digital advertising market remains volatile,” the company said. That segment shrank in the second quarter.
Universal Music was spun off from French media company Vivendi and was listed in Amsterdam in 2021. Its biggest investors include billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.
Top sellers of the quarter included Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Post Malone.
Separately, the company said it has begun searching for a new chief financial officer as Boyd Muir was promoted to the newly-created role of chief operating officer. BLOOMBERG
