Sony Music’s core music revenue rose close to 18% year-over-year (YoY) to $3.17 billion, or ¥501.80 billion in Japanese yen, in the third quarter (Q3) of 2026, according to a report from Sony Group Corp. The figure excludes visual media and platform, a separate category that includes mobile gaming.
Total and core music revenue#
Including the “visual media and platform” category, Sony Group reported total music revenue of ¥592.30 billion (about $3.75 billion at the exchange rate at the time of writing) for the three months ended September 30. That is an 11.3% increase year over year, but the total does not fully reflect core music results.
Revenue by format#
Several recorded music and other lines grew in the quarter.
- Physical formats (vinyl and CDs): $201.05 million (¥31.80 billion), up 16.5% YoY
- Other (merch, live and licensing revenue): $645.45 million (¥102.10 billion), up 31% YoY
- Permanent downloads: $44.88 million (¥7.10 billion), up slightly YoY
Top-performing releases#
Ateez’s Golden Hour: Part 5 generated the most revenue of any Sony Music release in the quarter. The ranking of the top six releases by revenue is below.
| Rank | Release | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Golden Hour: Part 5 | Ateez |
| 2 | Thriller | Michael Jackson |
| 3 | Dandelion | Ella Langley |
| 4 | DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS | Bad Bunny |
| 5 | SOS | SZA |
| 6 | Dai Dai | Shakira |
Publishing and operating income#
Publishing revenue reached $749.70 million (¥118.60 billion), up 12.1% YoY. Streaming accounted for $470.38 million (¥74.4 billion) of that total, up 14.3% YoY.
Music operating income reached $776.24 million (¥122.76 billion), up 6.4% YoY. The figure includes contributions from visual media and platform, which the report says made up “slightly more than 10%” of that profit.
Catalog disclosure correction#
Sony Group attributed a contraction whose cause was not immediately clear to a reporting error. The revised line reads:
“The number of songs in the music publishing catalog owned and administered as of March 31, 2026 was previously erroneously disclosed as 5.45 [million], and has been revised as shown in the above chart [to 7.57 million],”
Forecast and currency effects#
Sony Group raised its music-segment revenue forecast by about 5% to $14.45 billion (¥2.30 trillion) for the remainder of the fiscal year, covering the rest of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027. The company cited ongoing boosts across live, merchandise and streaming.
Sony Music collects revenue in many currencies and reports in Japanese yen, and company executives again acknowledged a positive impact from exchange rates. The figures above reflect the yen-dollar rate at the time of writing. Sony’s stated average quarterly rate is ¥159.30 per dollar, which can be used to calculate the figures on that basis.
