BMG’s revenues for the first half of 2025 were down 8% year-on-year to €424 million.
The decline primarily reflects the disposal of non-core operations at BMG, including the divestment of live businesses.
On a more positive note, BMG highlighted a strong EBITDA margin of 29%, an increase of two percentage points compared to the first half 2024.
“This growth was driven by a more profitable business mix, resulting from a strategic focus on digital and scalable business models as well as continued cost control,” said a statement.
Despite market dynamic shifts in BMG’s core regions, operating EBITDA remained stable at €122m.
BMG’s underlying music streaming revenue had high single-digit growth, as the company continues to focus on optimising its relationship with digital platforms. Overall digital revenue now represents a 72% share of total revenue, up from 69% in the first half of 2024.
Organic revenue growth declined by 4% as BMG strategically scaled back lower-margin activities, in order to focus on digital income streams and long-term profitability.
BMG CEO Thomas Coesfeld said: “Our results for the first half of 2025 demonstrate the effectiveness and strength of our BMG Next business model: disciplined, digital-first, and built for long-term value for all stakeholders. Our strategy is rooted in what we do best – music publishing and recorded music – while continuously building new capabilities to enhance our service. Innovation and technology are the engines driving how we work and how we support our artists and songwriters. We’re building a future-forward music company, uniquely positioned at the intersection of creativity and technology.”
Our strategy is rooted in what we do best – music publishing and recorded music – while continuously building new capabilities to enhance our service
Thomas Coesfeld
As part of its BMG Next strategy, the company has unified its sync and production music teams. It also expanded its direct licensing agreements with DSPs and advanced efforts to deliver improved access to listening data and audience insights, and enhanced on-platform marketing capabilities.
BMG said that innovation remains central to the Next strategy, with its use now accelerating across the business. Strategic partnerships with Google Cloud and OpenAI, among others, are enhancing BMG’s AI capabilities, including supporting marketing content creation, streamlining workflows and enabling more consistent marketing efforts across its entire catalogue at scale.
Additional initiatives include upgrading its music rights infrastructure, developing automated data chains in finance & royalties and rebuilding copyright and royalty systems.
BMG continued its investment programme, completing 17 acquisitions in the first half of 2025. This brings BMG’s total investments in music rights catalogues since 2021 to €1.2 billion.
Marquee signings and extensions during the period included OneRepublic, Meek, Olly Murs, Evanescence, Mark Keller, I-dle, Joyce Wrice, Fredrik and Jessi in recordings, as well as Gareth, James Arthur, Snoh Aalegra, Tom Walker, Steven Wilson, Juicy Bae, Robert Harvey, Dardan, Alok, Michael Schulte and Sabotage in publishing.
BMG highlighted results across recorded music and publishing divisions from artists such as Spiritbox, Jelly Roll, Yung Kai, Wiz Khalifa, Billy Idol, Marina, Dope Lemon, Francesco Gabbani and Daniela Alfinito.
Jason Aldean and Blake Shelton each achieved their 30th No.1 country single, while Lainey Wilson dominated the 2025 ACM Awards with four wins.
In publishing, global hits co-written by BMG songwriters continued to perform strongly on the charts, including Bruno Mars and D'Mile’s Die With A Smile, Mars’ Apt and Roselilah and Kamasi Washington’s Luther.
BMG songwriters also earned top Grammy honours: The-Dream winning Album Of The Year for co-producing Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, and Bruno Mars, alongside Lady Gaga, won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their chart-topping collaboration Die with a Smile.
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