Within that, the company received a one-time gain of 6.5 billion yen ($62.2 million) by selling shares of Big Hit Entertainment subsidiary Pledis and another 5.4 billion yen ($50.85 million) in what it terms a music company business transfer of an undisclosed business, which it apparently no longer owns a stake in.
But even without those gains, the company would have posted a 40.95 billion yen ($384.7 million) in operating income, or a 9.3% increase.
The Sony segment containing its music operations breaks out to:
— Recorded music operations of Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Japan comprising 123.3 billion yen ($1.16 billion). That’s a 9.9% increase from the 2019 second quarter when recorded music tallied 112.2 billion yen ($1.045 million).
— Music publishing operations of Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Sony Music Japan’s publishing operations garnering 37.56 billion yen ($353.7 million). That’s down 2.2% from the year earlier corresponding period when revenue totaled 48.41 billion yen ($357.61 million).
— The visual Media/Platform segment which includes mobile video games, chalking up 67.54 billion yen ($636 million), or a 2.1% increase from the year earlier total of 66.1 billion yen ($615.8 million).
Breaking out recorded music by format:
—Streaming, accounted for 63.9% of recorded music revenue by totaling 78.83 billion yen ($752.25 million) a 18% increase over the 66.8 billion yen ($622 million) recorded in the year earlier corresponding period.
—Downloads, at 7.1% of recorded music revenue, brought in 8.7 billion yen ($82 million), a 1.5% decline the prior years total of 8.84 billion yen ($82.3 million)
—So overall, digital totaled 87.53 billion yen ($824.2 million), a 15.7% increase over the prior year’’s second quarter total of 75.64 billion yen ($704.2 million); and comprised 71% of recorded music.
—Physical grew 29.4% to 26.3 billion yen ($247.5 million) from 2019’s second quarter total of 20.3 billion ($189.1 billion), apparently due to releases in the Japanese market. Physical now comprises 21.3% of recorded music, up from 18.1% in the year earlier period.
—Finally, other operations, which includes merchandising and live, garnered 9.5 billion yen (89.5 million); down 41.5% from 16.25 billion yen ($151.3 million).
As a percentage of recorded music, that segment now stands at 7.7%, versus last year when it accounted for 14.5%.
Among the records driving revenue, the company cited these releases: Harry Styles’ “Fine Line;” Jawsh 685’s “Jawsh 685 Releases;” Future’s “High Off Life;” Polo G’s “The GOAT;” Travis Scott’s “Astroworld;” Dojo Cat’s “Hot Pink” Kang Daniels’ “Magenta;” Luke Combs “What You See Is What You Get” And “This One’s For You;” Bob Dylan’s “Rough And Rowdy Ways;” Kenshi Yonezue’s “Stray Sheep;” Man With A Mission’s “Man With A ‘Best’ Mission; and Sixtones’ “Navigator.”
