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\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tSince Robert Kyncl <\/strong>became Warner Music Group\u2019s CEO in early 2023, the record label behind Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Stella Lefty and Burna Boy has undergone cost cuts, a corporate re-org and a slew of leadership changes. During the company\u2019s earnings call on Wednesday (Aug. 5) for its third fiscal quarter, Kyncl sought to reassure investors that Warner\u2019s consequent reinvestment and bottom line growth was evidence that \u201cour long-term strategy is working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cOver the last three years, we\u2019ve done lots of difficult things,\u201d Kyncl said, reflecting on the company\u2019s cost cuts, amounting to more than $600 million combined, and its work negotiating updated deals with streaming partners. \u201cThere\u2019s a strategy here that was set in motion, and it\u2019s delivering results. And we have an amazing team of executives who are rowing in the same direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tWhat Every Music Company Made in Q2 2026\u00a0(Updating)\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Elizabeth Dilts Marshall<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n- <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tKyncl\u2019s message came days after the unexpected departure of CFO and COO\u00a0Armin Zerza<\/strong>, whom Kyncl thanked for his \u201clong-lasting\u201d contributions, including sharpening WMG\u2019s focus on \u201ccapital allocation, forecasting, and \u2026 investor messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cAll of those are deeply institutionalized in our company now, and I\u2019m very confident about them continuing,\u201d Kyncl said, extending thanks to\u00a0Louis Dickler<\/strong>, WMG\u2019s chief accounting officer who was named acting CFO, and\u00a0Tom Corson<\/strong>, Warner Records\u2019 co-chairman and COO, who\u00a0was named COO of WMG the same day as Zerza\u2019s exit was announced..<\/p>\n\n\tEarlier this week, WMG released preliminary financial information showing that quarterly revenue rose by 10% to nearly $1.9 billion on an 11% increase in digital revenue, which hit about $1.25 billion. Supporting that digital growth was a 12% increase in recorded music streaming revenue year-over-year to just over $1 billion. Breaking down the 12% increase, acting CFO Dickler said that 6% to 7% came from subscription streaming income, 3.5% came from improved licensing deals with digital streaming partners and 1% came from expanded global market share.<\/p>\n
\n\tKyncl praised chief digital officer Carletta Higgins<\/strong> for inking those deals with all of WMG\u2019s major streaming partners, including, most recently, Apple.<\/p>\n\n\tWMG\u2019s market share has risen since a corporate reorganization in 2024 brought Elliot Grainge<\/strong>\u2018s 10K Projects under the Atlantic Music Group umbrella, but Kyncl said that much of its market share gains came after the 10K acquisition. WMG\u2019s current share of the overall U.S. recorded music market, including catalog, rose by around 0.3%, and its share of the market for music released in the last 18 months grew by around 0.8%, according to Luminate.<\/p>\n\n\tKyncl said Stella Lefty\u2019s Billboard Hot 100 top 5 hit \u201cBoston\u201d and Shakira\u00a0and\u00a0Burna Boy\u2019s \u201cDai Dai (FIFA World Cup Official Song 2026),\u201d\u00a0the first World Cup anthem to\u00a0top both\u00a0the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, are the latest hits that contributed to three years of \u201csignificant improvement\u201d for WMG\u2019s global market share, which is not publicly available.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the latter half of 2026, the label expects to release music from Alex Warren, sombr, David Guetta, Ravyn Lanae, Myke Towers, Teddy Swims, and Miley Cyrus.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile WMG does not issue guidance on subscription streaming growth, Dickler said the guidance that the company can achieve high single-digit top-line growth is \u201cobviously \u2026 anchored by growth in paid streaming.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/warner-music-earnings-call-recap-cost-cuts-streaming-growth\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/P1070CKW-e1785977043295.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard Since Robert Kyncl became Warner Music Group\u2019s CEO in early 2023, the record label behind Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Stella Lefty and Burna Boy has undergone cost cuts, a corporate re-org and a slew of leadership changes. During the company\u2019s earnings call on Wednesday (Aug. 5) for its third fiscal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2079635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2079635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2079635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2079635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2079635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}