Music Sings A Happy Tune For Sony

Despite a slow recovery in some divisions due to pandemic concerns, Sony Group saw an increase in profits of 9% in the period between April and June of 2021, the company reported in a earnings call on Tuesday, reports The Wrap.

During the period, which represents the first quarter of Sony’s 2021-2022 financial year, Sony Group was sales of 2.25 trillion yen or $20.5 billion, a gain of 15%.

During an earnings call Tuesday night, Sony Executive Deputy President and Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki said that Sony’s music division had increased 44% in all categories driven by growth in streaming, including paid subscription streaming services and ad-supported music streaming.

However, the executive added that a decline in “stay at home demand” for gaming and some electronic software as 2020’s pandemic restrictions began to be loosened affected profits in those areas. Totoki said observers should look to larger increases over between 2019’s numbers and 2021 rather than comparing to 2020 pandemic numbers in order to more accurately gauge the future growth of the gaming division.

The company’s pictures division, which includes film, network and TV production saw profits of 25.4 billion yen as compared with 27.0 billion yen in Q1 2020.

Totoki said that while music is booming and theatrical box office has improved in recent months, movie attendance has not completely recovered and new COVID surges are complicating projections for the rest of fiscal 2021 and beyond. He said Sony is still feeling the longterm effects of pandemic shutdowns in TV and movie production.

In fiscal 2020, Sony’s strong Playstation 5 sales helped to offset pandemic-induced declines in Sony Pictures profits. In late April Sony reported that it had sold 3.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the final quarter of fiscal 2020, bringing its full-year tally up to 7.8 million units. That helped to offset what the company referred to as a “significant decrease in sales” at Sony Pictures.