Universal Music Group shared its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings report Thursday morning, reporting revenue of about 12.5 billion euros (about $14.4 billion) for 2025, an increase of 5.7 percent from the previous year.
Fourth-quarter revenue alone was about 3.6 billion euros ($4.1 billion), an increase of 10 percent year-on-year.
“2025 has been another banner year for UMG; creatively, commercially and strategically,” Lucian Grainge, UMG Chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “We’ve made real, measurable progress across our plan: evolving streaming 2.0, scaling artist and brand services, accelerating superfan initiatives, expanding into high-growth markets, and pioneering responsible AI. The result is a stronger, more connected, and growing ecosystem, creating greater opportunities for our artists and songwriters, and delivering long-term shareholder value.”
Recorded music revenues themselves exceeded 9.45 billion euros ($10.9 billion) in 2025, up 6.2 percent from 2024. Publishing revenues were about 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion), a 6.6 percent annual growth.
The call comes weeks after UMG’s Virgin Music closed its acquisition of Downtown Music after facing an investigation from European competition regulators. During Thursday’s earnings call, Greene said he expects the Downtown deal to be as “transformational” for the music business as the company’s landmark EMI deal in 2011, which helped establish his company as the biggest force in the music business.
“Our strong top-line and revenue growth in 2025 reflects disciplined execution toward our strategic priorities and continued investment in our global artists, songwriters and organizations,” said Matt Ellis, UMG’s CFO. “We are encouraged to head into 2026, having completed our acquisition of Downtown Music, investing in Excel Entertainment and expanding our partnerships across existing platforms and emerging innovators, as we focus on generating sustainable returns for all our stakeholders.”
Grainge and UMG Chief Digital Officer Michael Nash also touched on UMG’s ongoing efforts in AI music, pointing to partnerships with AI music companies like Udio, along with other recently announced partnerships with popular music production platform Splice and Silicon Valley giant Nvidia.
UMG “fundamentally disagrees” with the view that AI only poses risks to the market, Grainge said, adding that the technology adds “an unprecedented business opportunity for UMG and its artists.”
Nash added that AI-generated music revenues are still “tiny” at best, sharing a chart during the earnings call noting that it takes small amounts of sales for AI tracks to appear on the digital sales charts since so few people buy digital downloads anymore. He also pointed to data from Deezer, which suggests that up to 85 percent of AI music streams on its platform are fraudulent.
He added that fans’ desire for AI features mainly revolves around interactive features such as helping organize personalized playlists or restoring old recordings rather than completely replacing artists’ music.
