The revenue of Russian music labels is growing

After the departure of foreign labels, Russian companies increased revenue and profit by 50-60%. Among the largest players, a record result for the First Musical Publishing House is 2.6 billion rubles. Revenues. The market participants believe that the indicators influenced the growth of the market for musical streaming, but it could lead to a revision of the terms of contracts for the supply of content to the sites.

“Kommersant” analyzed the financial indicators of Russian music labels published on the state information resource of accounting (financial) reporting in January -February. Affiliated with the managers of the Russian author's society Lebble « First Musical Publishing House » (PMM, earlier – “Soyuz Musical Publishing House”; artists – ZIVERT, IWA, “Hands Up!” Group) over the past year, increased revenue by 53%, to 2.6 billion rubles. A year has grown by the year and the company's net profit – by 58%, reaching 747 million rubles. The PMM representative refused to comment on the financial results of the label.

Lotus Music (Emin, Hammali & Navai, LSP), owned by the former top manager of Warner Music in the Russian Federation Bakhtiyar Aliyev, increased revenue by 288%, to 431.4 million rubles, net profit-up to 51 million rubles. Kommersant's interlocutors in the musical market suggest that the label indicators are due to its growth, in fact, from the zero base: the project was launched two years ago (See “Kommersant” dated March 1, 2023).

A similar situation « MTS label » (enters the MTS Media). The company representative said that the annual revenue of the direction has grown 20 times over the past year without specifying absolute indicators. MTS Lebbber has been working in the market for two years (See “Kommersant” dated January 9, 2023). In addition to revenue, the company's catalog volume has grown by 68%, the number of listening to label artists at streaming is seven times.

Data on other labels, including the Union Studio (Maksim, Surganova and the Orchestra, The Limba), “Union Music” and Effective Records, have not yet been published. VK (controls VK Records) refused to comment, there is also no reporting in this area of ​​VK.

After the official departure from Russia against the backdrop of military operations in Ukraine, the largest Major Labels Warner Music, Universal Music and Sony Music, large Russian companies began active expansion to the music business.

For example, VK launched VK Records in the fall of 2022, two directions were allocated in its structure – VK Beats Records and VK Music Records. Subsequently, they were combined within the framework of one structure (See “Kommersant” dated February 28, 2024). MTS, Ricky Group of Companies, video service Yappy (part of Gazprom-Media Holding « also appeared; See “Kommersant” dated February 9, 2024).

The revenue of the labels is growing directly in proportion to the growth of the streaming market, the participants in the music market assure. According to the results of last year, he amounted to a little more than 32 billion rubles, estimated in an interview with Kommersant the head of the Yandex Music service Alexander Sagalovich (see “Kommersant” dated December 20, 2024). At the same time, the top manager noted that it is becoming increasingly difficult to assess the market state of the market every year. According to her, this is due to the fact that the ecosystems themselves do not disclose the data.

While the musical market is mainly growing due to paid subscribers, Kommersant’s interlocutors know in the Stream market: “Moreover, the Russian market is growing a pace that is ahead of the world.”

Against this, against the backdrop of this, the conditions for the interaction of labels with distributors and streaming could be revised, says the producer of Colisium International Music Forum, Sergei Babich: “Labbels could request an increased interest rate when working with them, for example, not 60%, but 80% of the income from sketches from a streaming service or a distributor for a streaming service or a distributor for Accommodation on the artist catalog site. « 

Julia Yurasova