Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
WMG Q1 Revenue Climbs 17% to $1.7B on Bruno Mars, sombr and Major Releases
Warner Music Group reported Q1 revenue of $1.7B, up 17%, led by Bruno Mars, sombr; recorded music $1.38B, publishing $353M, net income $181M.
Warner Music Group reported on Thursday, May 7, that first-quarter revenue rose 17% year over year to $1.7 billion, a jump the company attributed in part to major releases from Bruno Mars and sombr.
Merchandise at The Romantic Flower Shop by Bruno Mars in Los Angeles pop-up activation on February 27, 2026. Christopher Polk/Billboard.
The company said recorded music revenue reached $1.38 billion, up 17%, while music publishing revenue was $353 million, up 14% from the prior-year quarter. Operating income rose 57% to $264 million. Adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, or OIBDA, increased 31% to $397 million.
“After years of doing hard, unsexy, foundational work, after making tough organizational decisions and redesigns and difficult decisions while growing the business, we have now hit our stride,” Warner CEO Robert Kyncl said on the earnings call.
Digital revenue across recorded music and publishing rose 16.7% to nearly $1.2 billion. Streaming revenue across WMG climbed 17.1%. Recorded music streaming was up 16.5%, while music publishing streaming rose 20.0%. The company cited broad-based growth in recorded music artist services and expanded-rights revenue, plus gains in physical sales and publishing synch and mechanical revenue.
Foreign exchange movements also affected results. WMG recorded a $22 million gain in the quarter related to its euro-denominated debt as the U.S. dollar strengthened. The company also reported a $12 million currency exchange gain on intercompany loans, compared with a $27 million loss in the year-ago quarter. Those items helped net income rise to $181 million from $36 million a year earlier.
On a constant currency basis, which removes foreign exchange impacts, total revenue grew 12% and adjusted OIBDA rose 24%.
WMG said first-quarter releases from Alex Warren and Ed Sheeran, in addition to Mars and sombr, helped recorded music revenue growth of 17.4%, or 12.7% in constant currency. Digital revenue was up nearly 16%. Artist services and expanded-rights revenue jumped 28.6%, while physical revenue increased 22%.
Music publishing revenue rose nearly 14%, or 9.6% in constant currency, driven by a nearly 20% increase in digital and streaming revenue after new publishing deals and renewals. Performance revenue rose nearly 10%, and synchronization revenue increased by about $1 million year over year.
WMG and Bain have deployed $650 million from their joint venture, called Beethoven JV, “to acquire a number of heavyweight … iconic, high-margin catalogs,” WMG Chief Financial Officer Armin Zerza said on the investor call.
Zerza said the company
