A rundown of publicly traded companies' results for the quarter ending Sept. 30, from Spotify to Universal Music Group and more.
Money In Music Illustration Billboard
The broader economy’s struggles with increasing prices, worsening consumer sentiment and fears of an AI bubble are not far from music industry executives’ minds this quarterly earnings season. Music companies have been cutting expenses, building up their available cash and prioritizing the music fans and audio entertainment subscribers who deliver the most to their bottom line.
Spotify — the biggest publicly traded music company, with a $122 billion market cap — showed it has not suffered any loss of subscriber growth momentum, even amid global price increases. But to keep growing, executives said they will continue to enhance the platform’s premium tier with add-on subscription offerings like audiobook subscriptions and new features like Reserved, while also adding value to the free tier.
Also on the streaming front, Deezer continued letting low-margin legacy partnership deals roll off in the third quarter in favor of higher-value direct relationships with subscribers. That focus, along with attention to costs, has the company looking ahead to a third profitable year.
SiriusXM focused on stabilizing self-pay subscriptions (+5,000 net adds) and driving down churn to 1.5%, while Universal Music Group (UMG) honed in on integrating Downtown Music Group and reviving its subscription and streaming revenue. UMG’s efforts paid off, as the company reported that revenue from subscriptions and streaming grew by 8.4% on an organic basis and 17.9% when including Downtown’s contribution.
In the live sector, Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE) reported that demand for concerts and other live entertainment offerings remains so high that most events across its venues were sold out in the first quarter, leading the CEO to describe Harry Styles‘ record-setting sold-out residency as “an additional positive” for the company’s financial results.
The first K-pop company to report earnings, HYBE, said BTS‘ ongoing world tour helped it generate $1.135 billion last quarter, or 1.5257 trillion Korean won — the company’s biggest financial quarter in its history.
Deezer and SiriusXM raised their full-year profitability guidance, while Spotify delivered record gross margins (33%) and free cash flow generation. MSGE forecast further growth in the number of events and concerts held at its venues, especially Madison Square Garden, including in residencies.
Nonetheless, all of these companies are keeping a watchful eye on operating expenses. SiriusXM slashed market spend to make up for revenue stagnation, and UMG recently rolled out another raft of layoffs related to a previously announced cost-cutting plan meant to deliver 250 million euros ($271 million) in annual savings by the end of 2026.
Next week, Warner Music Group and others will report their last quarter financial results.
Here is a roundup of the key takeaways from companies’ earnings so far. We will update this list as more results are reported.
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Deezer
Paris-based Deezer said it’s on track for its third profitable year following third-quarter results that showed its subscriber base in France grew by 6.5%, helping drive subscriber revenues up 6.4% to 94.1 million euros ($108.3 million). The company reported that overall revenue edged 1% higher in constant currency, which neutralizes foreign exchange rate fluctuations, to 133.8 million euros ($153.9 million). Deezer needed that growth in subscribers; outside of France, total direct subscribers grew 4% from a year ago to 5.8 million. Deezer still onboards clients through its streaming service offered on phones by telecom providers like TIM and Orange, but it has wound down some of those business partnerships, resulting in a 17% decline in subscribers in that segment. (Notably, Deezer loses out on some revenue when it onboards subscribers through business partnerships.) Average revenue per user (ARPU) from subscribers gained through partnerships rose by nearly 16.7% to 3.7 euros ($4.26) a month in the prior quarter, though ARPU from direct subscribers held flat at 5.4 euros ($6.21). Read more here.
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HYBE
BTS’ ongoing world tour has helped HYBE to its biggest financial quarter in the company’s history, generating 1.5257 trillion Korean won ($1.135 billion) in revenue and 188.5 billion Korean won ($140.35 million) in operating profit for the third quarter of 2026. Revenue from recorded music, concerts, appearances and advertisements for HYBE’s artists accounted for 70% of this quarter’s revenue, or 1.0753 trillion Korean won ($800.06 million). Indirect artist activities, which include merchandise, licensing, fan club memberships and content, came in at 450.4 billion Korean won ($334.88 million). HYBE’s other most internationally recognizable act, KATSEYE, released its third EP, WILD, on Aug. 14, which topped the Billboard 200 and earned 170,000 equivalent album units in its first week. Read more here.
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Live Nation
Live Nation’s executives would be forgiven if they felt like they were repeating themselves on quarterly conference calls. The world’s largest live entertainment company once again reported a staggering 61 million concertgoers — a record-high number driven by 30% growth in audiences outside the U.S. — helping the company achieve nearly 20% year over year revenue growth to $10.1 billion. The concerts business alone reported $8.7 billion in the quarter ending Sept. 30, putting the company comfortably on pace for a full-ear of double-digit revenue growth. Read more here.
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Madison Square Garden Entertainment
It would be an overstatement to say Harry Styles’ sold-out residency drove MSGE’s 37% surge in quarterly revenue — only 16 of Styles’ 30 shows landed in MSGE’s first fiscal quarter. But as CEO David Collins points out, that’s how good MSGE’s first fiscal quarter was. Total revenue surged 37% to $217 million, boosted by an additional $30 million from concerts, as overall entertainment offering revenue rose by 33% to $174.9 million. A “significant majority” of MSGE concerts sold out during the quarter, and food, beverage and merchandise spending per concertgoer was up by double-digit percentages. “Obviously, Harry Styles’ run was an additional positive on top of that underlying strength, but you know we do believe the garden delivered robust growth … in the number of concerts year over year on an underlying basis,” Collins said on a call discussing earnings. Read more here.
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SiriusXM Holdings
SiriusXM Holdings stock rose by more than 4% on Thursday (Oct. 29) as investors rejoiced in the 5,000 net new subscribers and stabilization of ad revenue shown in the audio entertainment giant’s third-quarter financial results. Sirius executives said the number of subscribers tuning into its sports stations, which include a growing number of local sports offerings, rose by 4% in the quarter and that they listened 7% longer on average. And while advertising revenue was flat at $465 million, advertising revenue from podcasts rose 20%, helping to offset softness in music ad revenue. SiriusXM raised its full-year forecast for revenue, adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and free cash flow for the second straight quarter, saying it now expects $8.55 billion in revenue, $2.65 billion in EBITDA and $1.4 billion in free cash flow for 2026. For the quarter, Sirius reported revenue of $2.153 billion, down slightly due to lower equipment revenue, while net income was up 6.7% to $317 million, or $0.94 earnings per share. Read more here.
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SM Entertainment
SM Entertainment’s stock sank more than 7% on Wednesday (Nov. 4) after the label home of K-pop stars aespa and NCT said lower physical and digital music sales and concert revenue resulted in a 9% decline in overall revenue. Operating profit of 35.5 billion Korean won ($25 million) fell 26%, and the company operated at a net loss of 1.1 billion Korean won ($775,000) for the quarter. Company executives said the primary driver was a light slate of releases as SME’s biggest stars all pursue international careers, a headwind likely to persist for the company into 2027. Read more here.
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Sony
Sony Group’s music business added another strong quarter to its steadily taller tower of growth. Revenue growth in the areas of streaming, physical music sales, live events and merchandise was compounded by foreign exchange currency benefits to drive more than 10% top-line growth. The record labels’ stars come from across the map, indicating this growth likely has durability. Leading the list of top sellers was the K-pop group ATEEZ, who, following the return of some members from South Korean military service, are having their biggest year yet. Michael Jackson, Ella Langley, Bad Bunny and SZA rounded out the top five. The music division — Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) and Sony Music Publishing — notched 598 billion yen ($3.75 billion) in revenue for what was Sony’s second fiscal quarter. The music segment is on track to generate 2.3 trillion yen ($14.438 billion) for the full fiscal year, a target that was revised upward for two quarters straight. Read more here.
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Spotify
Spotify’s 6 million net new subscribers in the third quarter came in 1 million ahead of guidance and drove the streamer’s stock up 11% on the day following earnings. Total revenue rose 14% in constant currency to 4.97 billion euros ($5.63 billion) from a year ago, helped by a 15% rise in subscription streaming revenue to 4.5 billion euros ($5.08 billion). While monthly active users (MAUS) grew in line with guidance — rising 11% to 788 million users worldwide — Spotify’s execs were pleased with what they described as positive signs of growth from a rebuilt advertising tech stack. Ad-supported revenue rose 9% in constant currency from a year ago to 482 million euros ($546 million). Operating expenses stemming primarily from “temporarily elevated growth in marketing and cloud/AI spend” totaled 967 million euros ($1.1 billion) in the quarter — nearly 20% of Spotify’s overall revenue. Read more here.
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Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group (UMG) reported revenue growth of 11.7% to 3.39 billion euros ($3.87 billion), or 5.3% without Downtown. The quarter benefited from 1.81 billion euros ($2.063 billion) in subscription streaming revenue, an increase of 17.9%, of which Downtown contributed 9.5%. While those percentages exaggerate Downtown’s financial contribution to some extent because of the newness of the acquisition — Downtown contributed 195 million euros ($222.3 million) to UMG’s overall revenue — UMG’s executives reiterated that Downtown is the most important acquisition UMG has made in a decade. “The numbers are already proving why we made this deal,” UMG CEO Lucian Grainge said on a call discussing the results. Read more here.
