Universal Music Group (UMG) saw a more than two percent year-over-year increase in revenue for the first three months of 2021, as well as a 9.4 percent increase “to constant currency and perimeter.”
French conglomerate Vivendi, which is preparing to go public with Universal Music Group, revealed these and other notable performance details today, in its first-quarter 2021 earnings breakdown. Vivendi itself achieved a five percent year-on-year increase in revenue “at constant currency and perimeter,” according to the analysis, as well as 0.8 percent in real earnings growth.
This rebound in company-wide revenue was “primarily” due to strong performance by UMG, the text says, and occurred despite pandemic-driven declines in other divisions. Record label Big Three generated approximately $ 2.17 billion (€ 1.81 billion) in January, February and March 2021, an increase of 9.4 percent in constant currency and 2.2 percent in terms real.
This total revenue was the largest of all Vivendi’s divisions, as was the percentage increase, except for gains in the comparatively small Editis publishing group and in the “new initiatives” category. And as an added reference, UMG posted 3.8 percent year-on-year earnings growth for all of 2020, driven primarily by double-digit posting and streaming increases.
The same was true in the first quarter of 2021, except that Universal Music Publishing Group revenue improved by 6.9 percent at constant currency and perimeter, versus a constant currency increase of 10.8 percent for revenue by recorded music, driven primarily by a 19.6 percent subscription and streaming increase.
Unsurprisingly, given the continued lull in concerts and music festivals, UMG earned 10 percent less (at constant currency) from merchandise and ‘other’ sources in the first quarter of 2021 than in the first quarter of 2020, although physical sales increased 14.8 percent year-on-year, due to “better sales of new launches and catalogs,” according to Vivendi.
The report also notes that Universal Music Group boasted No. 1 on Spotify’s global chart for 12 out of 13 weeks in the first quarter of 2021, with Olivia Rodrigo’s “Driver’s License” and Justin Bieber’s “Peaches.” In addition, the leading record label, which Spotify’s CFO acknowledged last year was “willing to lean more aggressively” on promotional initiatives, boasted of being in the top three songs on the world chart for six consecutive weeks.
It’s worth noting on this last front is that Bad Bunny scored Spotify’s biggest debut of 2020 with his YHLQMDLG effort, albeit after participating in a paid promotional campaign, and generated the most global streams of any artist in the year. Last week, the Ticketmaster website crashed as crowds of fans rushed to buy tickets for the 27-year-old’s 2022 tour.
Universal Music Group is preparing to begin reopening its offices in mid-September, according to Hits Daily Double, and the company has continued to make high-profile plays ahead of the aforementioned IPO. It should be noted in this regard that 99.98 percent of Vivendi’s shareholders approved at the end of March a plan that allows executives to distribute dividends: UMG shares, in this case.
A month from now, at an annual shareholders’ meeting, Vivendi will ask its investors “to take a position on the plan to make an exceptional in-kind distribution in the form of UMG shares.” The completion of this distribution, the message retransmissions, is expected to arrive in the fall of this year, ahead of schedule.
Just over two weeks ago, UMG officially launched Universal Arabic Music, about three weeks after signing a strengthened license agreement with Boomplay, Africa’s leading music streaming service.
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