SONY MUSIC HAS A $4B YEAR

Numbers don’t lie: Rob Stringer had a great first year running Sony’s music division, as revenue rose 12.2% to more than $4b.

The company also posted a $1b quarter in the traditionally fallow January-March period, a nearly 22% jump over the company’s fiscal 2017 fourth quarter.

Streaming was responsible for 44% of Sony Music’s revenues, $1.8b, a rise of 37% over 2016. Physical sales were also up a smidge, coming in at $1.2b. Revenues from downloads were off by 18%—$449.4m—and other recorded music revenue was up 9% to $582m.

Biggest sellers were P!nk’s Beautiful Trauma, DJ Khaled’s Grateful, Camila Cabello’s Camila, Khalid’s American Teen and Harry Styles’ self-titled album.

Profits for Sony overall hit $4.5b, thanks to success in the gaming division, semiconductor business and blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man: Homecoming and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.