Sony Posts A Solid Q3, Announces New Leadership

TOKYO, Japan (CelebrityAccess) — Japanese electronics giant Sony announced another solid round of earnings, with their music division consisting of Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Japan and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, posting revenue of 218.43 billion yen ($1.93 billion) for their third fiscal quarter ending on Dec. 31st, 2017.

Recorded music accounted for 128.24 billion yen ($1.135 billion), while music publishing added 18.33 billion yen ($162.2 million) to Sony’s bottom line for Q3, an improvement of 18% from the previous year.

Unsurprisingly, Sony’s recorded music sales were bolstered by streaming, which added 55.54 billion yen ($491.5 million) for the quarter, an improvement of more than 36% over the same period in 2016. The Q3 data prompted Sony to upwardly revise their full-year guidance for the segment by 6.8%.

Equally unsurprising, Sony noted that their annual physical recorded music sales continued to slide for the quarter, down 7.2% for the quarter, while digital downloads fell precipitously by 22.6%.

Amid the rosy financial statement, Sony announced that Kazuo Hirai, who has been the company’s President and CEO since April 2012 and led the charge that helped bring Sony back from the brink of extinction, will be stepping down from his post as of April 1st and assume the role of chairman.

Stepping in for Hirai will be Kenichiro Yoshida, who played a key role in turning around Sony’s consumer electronics division and has served as the company’s CFO since 2013. Yoshida oversaw the sale of Sony’s Vaio personal-computer business, refashioned the company’s television business and helped to revive the consumer electronics division.