Ateez’s Golden Hour: Part 5 generated the most revenue of any Sony Music release during Q3 2026. Photo Credit: pinkllamanade
Thanks to double-digit revenue growth across streaming, physical, and live/licensing alike, Sony Music generated nearly $3.2 billion (up 17.7% year over year) during Q3 2026.
The overarching Sony Group Corp. shed light on these and other fiscal Q2 performance figures, pointing first to across-the-board music revenue of ¥592.30 billion ($3.75 billion at the present exchange rate) for the three months ended September 30th.
That figure represents an 11.3% year-over-year (YoY) increase, but due to the inclusion of the adjacent “visual media and platform” category, it doesn’t necessarily paint a complete picture of core music results.
Less visual media and platform (which encompasses mobile gaming and more), then, Sony Music revenue came in at $3.17 billion (¥501.80 billion) during Q3 2026, up closer to 16% year-over-year (YoY), according to the report.
As usual, recorded music kicked in the lion’s share of the sum at $2.42 billion/¥383.20 billion (up 19.5% YoY); streaming accounted for $1.53 billion/¥242.20 billion (up 16.1% YoY) therein.
Physical formats including vinyl and CDs, for their part, generated $201.05 million/¥31.80 billion (up 16.5% YoY) on the quarter, with a multifaceted “other” sub-category (housing merch, live, and licensing revenue) contributing another $645.45 million/¥102.10 billion (up 31% YoY).
Rounding out the recorded music side, permanent downloads brought in $44.88 million/¥7.10 billion, up slightly YoY.
By revenue, the quarter’s top-performing releases were Ateez’s Golden Hour: Part 5; Michael Jackson’s Thriller; Ella Langley’s Dandelion; Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS; SZA’s SOS; and Shakira’s Dai Dai, respectively.
Shifting to publishing, some will recall that DMN earlier this year identified a material decrease in the size of Sony Music Publishing’s owned and administered catalog.
While the contraction’s cause wasn’t immediately clear, Sony Group today chalked it up to a reporting error.
“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],” the relevant line reads.
In any event, Q3 publishing revenue hit $749.70 million/¥118.60 billion (up 12.1% YoY), including $470.38 million/¥74.4 billion from streaming (up 14.3% YoY).
Finally, Sony Group’s music operating income reached $776.24 million/¥122.76 billion (up 6.4% YoY) during the quarter. However, the figure reflects contributions from visual media and platform, which is said to have made up “slightly more than 10%” of the profit at hand.
Looking ahead to the remainder of the fiscal year – meaning the rest of 2026 and then 2027’s first quarter – the conglomerate upped its music-segment revenue forecast by about 5% to $14.45 billion/¥2.30 trillion, citing ongoing boosts across live/merch and streaming.
A closing note on the exchange-rate front: Sony Music collects revenue in all manner of currencies and reports in yen; higher-ups once again acknowledged a positive impact here.
The above figures reflect the yen-dollar exchange rate at the time of writing. But calculating based on Sony’s provided average quarterly rate of ¥159.30 per dollar, or slightly below the present rate, is simple enough.
Sony Music Calendar Q3 2026 Revenue Based on the Period’s Provided Average Exchange Rate
Overall (Less Visual Media and Platform): $3,150,031,387
Recorded Music: $2,405,524,168
Recorded Music Streaming: $1,520,401,757.69
Music Publishing: $744,507,219
Music Publishing Streaming: $467,043,314
