Warners: In Love With Streaming

The streaming march continues inexorably onwards, with Warner Music Group announcing it is now generating over $100m a month from streaming, an increase of 45% year on year.

According to Music Business Worldwide, Warner’s recorded music division generated $300m from streaming services in quarter one of this year, up by $93m.

This perhaps isn’t surprising- it’s no coincidence that figures reflect a period in which a certain Ed Sheeran released new album “÷”, alongside other ongoing successes such as Bruno Mars and lets face it, Sheeran’s back catalogue.

Overall, Warner’s recorded music division posted revenues of $686m in the quarter, up by $65m (10%) on the previous year despite a 17.4% fall in download revenues, which dropped $21m year-on-year to $100m. In other words, downloads at Warners are now worth a third of streaming revenue, which is quite an eye popping fact.

Warner Music Group’s CEO Steve Cooper could have probably just said “Cheers, Ed Sheeran” but he in fact said this: “We had another excellent quarter, with double-digit growth in both the current and prior-year quarters”, continuing “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”.