Streaming Revenue at Warner Up 45 Percent Year-On-Year, Generating 100 Million a Month

Before streaming was the popular way to find and listen to music, it was all about the thrill of the hunt as you browse rows after rows in the local record store. Now, music lovers can sit in the comfort of their homes and stream a million songs.

According to the documents that were filed by SEC, Warner’s recorded music division generated $300m from streaming services in the latest quarter. According to documents, the quarter was up 45%, or $93m, on the $207m that the company generated from streaming in the same period of 2016.

According to Steve Cooper, the CEO of Warner Music Group; “We had another excellent quarter, with double-digit growth in both the current and prior-year quarters. Our Streaming revenue is now double that of physical and triple that of downloads. An improved industry environment is helping, but we continue to outperform our competition due to fantastic new music and outstanding execution by our operators around the world.”

While streaming is up, the physical music sales has decreased by 6% ($9m) to $142m, as licensing revenue remains flat at $63m. With everything combined, Warner’s recorded music division had posted revenues of $686m in the quarter which has gone up 10% or $65m since the previous year. There was a fall about 17.4% in Q1 download revenues which dropped $21m year-on-year to $100m. This is an exactly one third of the size of streaming’s cash haul.

Merchandise revenue is one of the reasons why artists services and expanded-rights have increased by $2m (to $81m) and it all comes down to the success of US artists. Some of the strong performers in the three months include Ed Sheeran’s new album, Bruno Mars, Twenty One Pilots and the successful soundtrack to Hamilton.

Eric Levin, the Executive Vice President and CFO of Warner Music Group added; “This was a very strong quarter, marking the 7th consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth,” He continues with, “Although tough comparisons could make for a more challenging second half, I’m confident we’ll have another great full fiscal year.”

With so many people using streaming as a form to get their music, and more artists continue to use streaming service as a means to share their music, there is no doubt that revenues will continue to rise.