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WMG’s Q1 Revenue Jumps 17% to $1.7B as Bruno Mars, sombr and New Releases Lift Streaming and Catalog Deals
Warner Music Group’s Q1 revenue rose 17% to $1.7B, driven by Bruno Mars, sombr, streaming growth and catalog deals.
Warner Music Group announced on May 7 that first-quarter revenue climbed 17% year over year to $1.7 billion, a bump the company links to big releases from Bruno Mars, sombr and other priority artists alongside expanding streaming and catalog strategies.
Merchandise at The Romantic Flower Shop by Bruno Mars in Los Angeles pop-up activation on February 27, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
Christopher Polk/Billboard
The headline numbers are concrete: recorded music revenue reached $1.38 billion, up about 17%, while music publishing pulled in $353 million, up 14% from the year-ago quarter. Operating income jumped to $264 million — a 57% increase — and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization (adjusted OIBDA) rose 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. “It feels great to work hard for years and now have consistent delivery, and it feels great to have confidence about the future.”
Digital revenue across recorded music and publishing approached $1.2 billion, a 16.7% increase, with streaming up 17.1% overall. Recorded music streaming revenue grew 16.5%, while publishing streaming climbed 20.0%, helped by expanded rights and artist services. The company also highlighted an uptick in physical sales and a near-20% rise in publishing digital and streaming revenue following new deals and renewals.
WMG flagged foreign-exchange movements as a material factor in the quarter. The stronger U.S. dollar produced a $22 million gain on euro-denominated debt, and the firm recorded a $12 million currency exchange gain on intercompany loans versus a $27 million loss in the year-ago quarter. Those items helped net income swell to $181 million from $36 million in Q1 2025; earnings per share were $0.35 versus $0.07 a year earlier.
Strip out currency swings and the underlying business still shows momentum: on a constant-currency basis total revenue rose 12% and adjusted OIBDA increased 24%.
WMG credited first-quarter releases from Bruno Mars and sombr, along with new music from Alex Warren and Ed Sheeran, for helping recorded music revenue growth. The company reported recorded music revenue growth of 17.4% (12.7% in constant currency) in one presentation of the quarter’s figures.
Other line items bear noting: artist services and expanded-rights revenue surged 28.6%, physical revenue rose 22%, performance revenue climbed nearly 10% and synchronization revenue was up by about $1 million year over year.
Warner’s longer-term strategy showed up in the quarter too. WMG and Bain’s Beethoven JV has deployed roughly $650 million to buy “a number of heavyweight … iconic, high-margin catalogs,” CFO Armin Zerza told investors, a play that dovetails with the company’s push into high-value rights.
Zerza argued that WMG’s 2023 reorganization is delivering the kind of margin expansion the company targeted. Adjusted OIBDA margin widened by 2.5 percentage points to 22.9% in the quarter — roughly at the “high end” of the firm’s margin-expansion goal, he said, equating to around 200 basis points of expansion for the year.
“At the same time, we are leading the industry in AI initiatives, which we believe will be a material contributor to our top and bottom line growth, starting in fiscal 2027,” Zerza added.
Earnings snapshot
Total revenue: $1.7 billion, up 17% (12% constant currency). Recorded music revenue: $1.38 billion, up 17%. Music publishing: $353 million, up 14%. Operating income: $264 million, up 57%. Adjusted OIBDA: $397 million, up 31% (24% constant currency). Net income: $181 million, versus $36 million a year ago. EPS: $0.35 versus $0.07 in the prior-year quarter.
For fans and investors, the quarter reads as a proof point: catalog buys, priority releases from global stars and rising streaming — plus a reorganized cost base and a nod to forthcoming AI-driven opportunities — combined to push WMG into brighter profit territory this spring.
