That represented the equivalent of USD $5.00 billion<\/strong>, according to average exchange rates for the year as per IRS data.<\/a><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Q4 2024 (the three months to end of December), UMG’s subscription streaming revenues from recorded music were up 9.0% YoY<\/strong><\/span>, to EUR \u20ac1.227 billion (USD $1.33bn).<\/strong><\/p>\n There was less good news, however, from the world of ad-funded streaming.<\/p>\n UMG’s recorded music turnover from ad-funded streaming in Q4 fell 4.1% YoY<\/strong><\/span>, to \u20ac375 million ($408m)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n For the full year of 2024 (Jan-December), UMG’s ad-funded revenues for recorded music were flat (+0.1% YoY<\/strong><\/span>) at \u20ac1.414 billion ($1.53bn)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n (All YoY percentage growth figures in this report reflect reported constant currency.)<\/p>\n To put all of that into context: Subscription streaming made up over three-quarters (77%<\/strong>) of UMG’s total recorded music streaming revenues in 2024, which hit EUR \u20ac6.038 billion (USD $6.53bn).<\/strong><\/p>\n Ad-funded streaming contributed less than one quarter (23%<\/strong>) of this total figure.<\/p>\n UMG’s overall<\/em> revenues in FY 2024 (across recorded music, publishing, and more) stood at EUR \u20ac11.834 billion (USD $12.81bn)<\/strong>, up 7.6% YoY<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n The firm’s adjusted EBITDA hit \u20ac2.661 billion ($2.88bn)<\/strong>, up 13.8% YoY<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n UMG\u2019s recorded music<\/em> revenues in the 12 months to end of December 2024 grew 6.4% YoY<\/strong><\/span> to \u20ac8.901 billion ($9.63bn)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The firm’s music publishing revenues in the FY period hit \u20ac2.121 billion ($2.30bn)<\/strong>, up 9.0% YoY.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n “We continue to create value for both our artists and shareholders by advancing our artist-centric strategy, ushering the next evolution of streaming \u2014 ‘Streaming 2.0,\u2019 and advancing a responsible and effective approach to AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Sir Lucian Grainge, UMG<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n “2024 was a year distinguished by the exceptional performance of our artists and songwriters and significant progress on our strategic initiatives,\u201d said Sir Lucian Grainge<\/strong>, UMG\u2019s Chairman and CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cOur industry-leading investment in talent continued to produce spectacular results, both from global superstars, as well as developing artists from around the world.<\/p>\n “We continue to create value for both our artists and shareholders by advancing our artist-centric strategy, ushering the next evolution of streaming \u2014 ‘Streaming 2.0,\u2019<\/strong> and advancing a responsible and effective approach to AI.\u201d<\/p>\n UMG said its biggest global recorded music sellers in FY 2024 included “multiple albums” from Taylor Swift<\/strong>, plus albums from Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Morgan Wallen,<\/strong> and Chappell Roan.<\/strong><\/p>\n See below for a more in-depth look at the Q4<\/strong> numbers.<\/p>\n In the last three months of 2024, UMG generated revenues of EUR<\/strong> \u20ac3.439 billion (USD $3.74bn)<\/strong> across all of its divisions (including recorded music, publishing and more). That revenue figure was up\u00a07.9% YoY<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n According to its Q4 fiscal report<\/a>, without a EUR \u20ac20 million<\/strong> ‘catch-up’ payment from a DSP, plus a further EUR<\/strong> \u20ac40 million<\/strong> in legal settlements banked in the quarter, UMG’s overall revenues in Q4 were up 6.1% YoY<\/strong><\/span> at constant currency.<\/p>\n UMG\u2019s recorded music<\/em> revenue in Q4 2024 was up 6.8% YoY<\/strong><\/span> to EUR<\/strong> \u20ac2.566 billion (USD $2.79 bn).<\/strong><\/p>\n This recorded music figure benefited from the one-off EUR<\/strong> \u20ac20 million<\/strong> ‘catch-up’ payment from a DSP.<\/p>\n It also benefited from a EUR \u20ac32 million<\/strong> bump via two legal settlements in the quarter, related to: (i)<\/strong> the settlement of a copyright infringement lawsuit booked in Q4 2024, and (ii)<\/strong> a settlement associated with an exit in Q4 2024 by UMG from a JV partnership.<\/p>\n Without these legal settlements and the DSP ‘catch up’ payment in Q4, UMG said its recorded music revenues grew 4.6% YoY<\/strong> <\/span>in the quarter.<\/p>\n Universal’s top global recorded music sellers in Q4 included Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan,<\/strong> and Wicked: The Soundtrack.<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Universal\u2019s music publishing<\/strong> division, Universal Music Publishing Group<\/a>, generated revenues of\u00a0\u20ac613 million ($666m) <\/strong>in Q4, up 7.0% YoY<\/strong><\/span> at constant currency (see above).<\/p>\n An \u20ac8 million<\/strong> sum from the legal settlements described above was attributed to UMG’s publishing revenue in the quarter.<\/p>\n Excluding this legal settlement money, said UMG, meant its publishing division’s revenue grew 5.6% YoY<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0in the quarter, driven by “continued growth in subscription and streaming revenue and improvements in performance revenue”.<\/p>\n UMG\u2019s ‘Merchandising and Other’ revenue in Q4 2024 was \u20ac264 million ($287m)<\/strong>, up 23.4% YoY<\/strong><\/span>, driven by “growth in direct-to-consumer and touring merchandise sales”, according to the company.<\/p>\n Note: As mentioned, all FY EUR-USD conversions in this report have been made using average annual data from the IRS. All quarterly EUR-USD conversions have been made using a rate supplied to analysts and investors by UMG.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There was less good news, however, from the world of ad-funded streaming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":225652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![](\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/03\/Screenshot-2025-03-06-at-18.50.13-80x38.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n
\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/03\/universal-annual-revenues-80x33.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/02\/Sir-Lucian-Grainge-80x45.jpg)
Q4 snapshot<\/h6>\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/03\/Screenshot-2025-03-06-at-18.52.18-80x28.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n
\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/03\/Screenshot-2025-03-06-at-18.52.55-80x46.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n
\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/files\/2025\/03\/universal-quarterly-revenues-2022-2024-80x98.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n
\n