Music Stocks
iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman apparently believes his company’s stock is undervalued.
The executive sent a message to Wall Street on Tuesday (March 4) when he spent $320,000 to purchase 200,000 iHeartMedia shares, according to an SEC filing released Thursday (March 6). Investors took note, sending the company’s stock price up 23.2% to $1.86.
iHeartMedia shares had plummeted 27.7% in the four trading days following the company’s fourth quarter earnings release on Feb. 27. The stock fell 15.3% to $1.77 following the announcement and slipped an additional 14.8%, to $1.51, by Wednesday (March 5). But Thursday’s SEC filing reduced iHeartMedia’s year-to-date decline to 6.1% from 23.7%.
CEOs will occasionally buy shares of their companies when they believe the market is undervaluing the company. In March 2020, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino bought approximately $1 million worth of shares as the price faltered at the pandemic’s onset; Live Nation’s share price has since risen 262% to $131.11. In May 2022, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek bought $50 million of Spotify shares a week after the stock hit an all-time low of $95.74. “I believe our best days are ahead,” Ek wrote on Twitter at the time. Spotify’s share price has since risen nearly six-fold to $543.51.
iHeartMedia, the country’s largest radio broadcaster, is trying to navigate the decline in broadcast radio while building a digital business. Although it ranks No. 1 in podcast market share, the company’s legacy business is still twice the size of its digital business. To shore up its financials, the company has laid off employees, sold tower sites and restructured its debt.
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Last week, iHeartMedia executives told investors that first-quarter revenue would decline in the low single-digits and full-year revenue would be flat. CFO Rich Bressler said that January revenue was up 5.5% but February revenue was on track for a 7% decline as consumer sentiment suffered its biggest one-month decline since August 2021.
“Although the year began with optimism, many companies are now focusing on how potential tariffs, inflation and higher interest rates may impact their businesses, introducing an element of uncertainty,” said Bressler.
Pittman remained optimistic and believed those uncertainties will “steady up a lot” as the year progresses. “If there’s a change, people take a beat and adjust to the change,” he said. “There’s a big change between this [presidential] administration and the last one, and I think people are digesting. I don’t think the uncertainty is totally unexpected, and it’s certainly understandable.”
HYBE shares closed the week up 4.9% to 245,500 won ($167.94) after the company teased the return of BTS in 2025 during its fourth-quarter earnings release on Tuesday (Feb. 25), effectively leading a strong week for K-pop stocks amid an overall down period for both music stocks and markets in general. Among other K-pop companies, YG Entertainment gained 8.8%, JYP Entertainment improved 2.4% and SM Entertainment rose 0.9%.
HYBE partially attributed its 38% decline in 2024 operating income to the BTS hiatus that began in 2023 when several of the group’s members were forced to step away to complete South Korea’s required military service. But the company said it believes operating profit will improve in 2025 “through the comeback of 21st-century icons BTS” and payoffs from investments in the company’s social media-superfan platform, Weverse.
The K-pop giant’s revenue increased 4% to $1.58 billion last year, with recorded music revenue, the company’s largest source of income, dipping 11.3% but concerts revenue jumping 25.6% as the number of performances rose from 125 in 2023 to 172 in 2024. HYBE’s South Korean labels generated 15% more streaming revenue internationally even as streaming fell 17% at home. Revenue from U.S. labels (Big Machine and Quality Control) fell 16%.
The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) had more losers than winners this week as it fell 2.3% to 2,613.79. Just seven of the index’s stocks finished in positive territory, and outside of K-pop stocks, none gained more than 2%.
Markets had a rough week owing to inflation and recession fears. Amidst talks of U.S. tariffs on foreign imports, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is now predicting U.S. gross domestic product, a measure of the country’s economic activity, will decline 1.5% in the first quarter. The S&P 500 finished the week down 1.0% to 5,954.44 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite, weighed down by Nvidia’s weaker-than-expected first-quarter guidance, fell 3.5% to 18,847.28. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was an outlier, gaining 1.7% to 8,809.74. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index sank 4.6% to 2,532.78. China’s SSE composite index dropped 1.7% to 3,320.90.
Live Nation shares fell 4.1% to $149.48 — the concert promoter’s second consecutive weekly decline. Wolfe Research lowered its Live Nation price target to $165 from $175 and Citigroup raised Live Nation to $175 from $163. Despite those declines, the company’s shares are up 10.6% year-to-date and 47.5% over the last 52 weeks.
Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group (WMG) fell 4.2% and 4.2%, respectively, with UMG slated to report fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday (March 6). Sphere Entertainment Co., which reports quarterly earnings on Monday (March 3), dropped 7.0% to $46.90, lowering its year-to-date gain to 2.8%.
Chinese music streamer Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) fell 15.3% to $14.40. On Friday (Feb. 28), the company announced a change on its board of directors, as Matthew Yun Ming Cheng retired from the board and was replaced by Wai Yip Tsang, the current financial controller of Tencent Holdings. In announcing Tsang’s appointment, Cussion Pang, executive chairman of Tencent Music Entertainment, said Tsang’s “deep financial background, extensive experience and business insights will be a tremendous asset to TME.”
iHeartMedia shares fell 15.3% on Friday and ended the week down 16.1% following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings release on Thursday (Feb. 27). The radio company said it expects first-quarter revenue to fall in the low single digits and forecasts full-year revenue will be flat compared to 2024.
The largest decline of the week came from Cumulus Media, which fell 20.0% on Friday and finished the week down 19.1% after the radio company released fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday. Cumulus’ revenue fell 1.2% in the fourth quarter and was down 2.1% for the full year.
Strong earnings releases from Live Nation, CTS Eventim and Cloud Music clashed with a downturn in the market this week. The most notable release of the week came from Live Nation, which reported record revenue of $23.1 billion in 2024 and forecast a healthy stadium business in 2025.
Still, Live Nation shares fell 1.9% on Friday (Feb. 21) after Thursday’s earnings release and finished the week down 2.8% to $148.48. The stock had gained 19.7% in the first seven weeks of the year, however, and expectations for a strong quarterly report and 2025 outlook were likely priced into the shares. More telling is Live Nation’s 56.8% increase over the previous 52 weeks, suggesting that investors are convinced the company has a winning combination of concerts, ticketing, and sponsorships and advertisements.
A bevy of analysts upped their Live Nation price targets following the company’s earnings release on Thursday (Feb. 20), including Evercore ISI (to $180 from $160), JP Morgan (to $170 from $150), Jefferies (to $180 from $150) and Rosenblatt (to $174 from $146). Ahead of the company’s earnings report, Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $170 from $150 and Seaport Global Securities raised Live Nation shares to $170 from $157. A dissenting voice came from CFRA, which has a “sell” rating on Live Nation shares and this week increased its price target to $135 from $115.
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The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) fell 2.9% to 2,674.34, marking its first decline in seven weeks and only its second weekly loss of 2025. Only six of the 20 stocks gained ground while 14 finished the week in negative territory. Even so, music stocks are performing well this year. Only four of the 20 stocks have lost value in 2025 and the BGMI has gained 25.9% year to date.
U.S. stocks cratered on Friday amidst a drop in consumer sentiment, an uptick in inflation expectations and worries the economy may be slowing. The Dow dropped 1.7%, the S&P 500 also fell 1.7% and the Nasdaq composite sank 2.2%. Summing up the market’s tenuous mood, Steve Cohen, CEO of hedge fund Point72, told the FII Priority Summit on Friday that tariffs, sharp cuts in government spending and slowing immigration will have negative consequences. “It may only last a year or so, but it’s definitely a period where I think the best gains have been had and wouldn’t surprise me to see a significant correction,” he said.
The best-performing music stock of the week was Chinese music streaming company Cloud Music, which jumped 18.1% on Friday and ended the week up 20% after the company’s 2024 earnings release on Thursday showed a 22% jump in music subscription revenue. At 170.70 HKD ($21.97), Cloud Music is up 52.1% year to date. Another Chinese music streamer, Tencent Music Entertainment, rose 5.6% to $14.40.
CTS Eventim shares rose 4.7% to 104.00 euros ($108.83) after the company announced record results for 2024 on Tuesday (Feb. 18). Consolidated revenue increased 19.1% to 2.81 billion euros ($2.94 billion) and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a common measure of profitability, jumped 21.9% to 444.8 million euros ($465 million). Live entertainment revenue rose 17.6% to 1.97 billion euros ($2.06 billion) while ticketing revenue climbed 22.7% to 879.9 million euros ($921 million).
Spotify fell 4.8% to $607.36 while Warner Music Group dropped 2.9% to $35.26 and Universal Music Group was down 3.0% to 28.02 euros ($29.32). Sphere Entertainment Co., which will announce quarterly earnings on Feb. 28, lost 2.8% and sister company MSG Entertainment fell 5.0%.
Most K-pop stocks rose this week as South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 2.5%. YG Entertainment rose 12.0% to 57,900 ($40.30) following the announcement on Wednesday (Feb. 19) of BLACKPINK’s 10-city 2025 world tour that commences in July and stops in Seoul, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Toronto, Paris, London, Milan, Barcelona and Tokyo. SM Entertainment shares rose 7.8% to 99,500 KRW ($69.25), bringing its year-to-date gain to 37.1%. JYP Entertainment rose 1.6% and HYBE fell 1.0%.
For more than a year, record labels and publishers have seen investors pour into streaming stocks — namely Spotify — while downplaying the potential benefits rights owners will accrue from rising subscription prices. Now, Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group (WMG) are getting some attention as analysts are optimistic about the terms of new licensing agreements Spotify reached with the companies.
WMG shares rose 10.9% to $36.20 a week after the company released fiscal first-quarter results. This week, the stock got a boost when Citi raised its WMG price target to $42 from $34 and upgraded the stock to a “buy” rating from “neutral.” As Morningstar explained last week, WMG is a “primary beneficiary of the ongoing growth” in the music industry. At $36.20, WMG shares have gained 17.0% in 2025 and are only slightly below their 52-week high of $36.64 set in February 2024. WMG shares fell 13.4% in 2024.
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At UMG, shares rose 7.1% to 28.89 euros ($30.32), the stock’s highest closing price since May 27, 2024. Morgan Stanley analysts have been making the case that UMG is undervalued given Spotify’s soaring share price and this week raised its UMG price target to 42 euros ($44.07) from 36 euros ($37.78). Recent licensing deals with Spotify and Amazon “increases our confidence that its subscription growth will accelerate” from approximately 5% at the start of 2025 to “closer to 15%” at the beginning of 2026, they wrote in a Monday (Feb. 10) investor note. After falling 4.2% in 2024, UMG shares are up 20.8% in 2025.
WMG and UMG were among the best performers on the 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) this week. The BGMI rose 4.6% to a record 2,755.53, bringing its year-to-date gain to 29.7%. Only two stocks lost ground while one was unchanged and 17 posted gains for the week. The index outperformed the Nasdaq composite (up 2.6%), the S&P 500 (up 1.5%), the FTSE 100 (up 0.4%), China’s SSE Composite Index (up 1.3%) and South Korea’s KOSPI composite index (flat versus the previous week).
Live Nation reached an all-time high of $152.94 on Friday (Feb. 14) before closing at $153.76, up 3.7% for the week. Ahead of the concert promoter’s earnings results on Thursday (Feb. 20,) Wolfe Research increased its price target to $175 from $160 and Goldman Sachs raised it to $166 from $148.
Streaming services fared well, too. Spotify rose another 2.4% to $637.73 and reached a new all-time high of $652.63 on Thursday (Feb. 13). Fewer than seven weeks into 2025, Spotify shares have gained 36.7%. Elsewhere on the streaming front, Cloud Music rose 9.1% to 142.20 HKD ($18.01) and Tencent Music Entertainment gained 8.7% to $13.63.
Music streamer LiveOne had the week’s biggest loss after falling 20.5% to $0.93. On Thursday, the company announced that its revenue fell 6% in the fiscal third quarter. LiveOne also lowered revenue and earnings guidance for its full year, causing shares to end the day down 18.6%. The other streaming loser was Abu Dhabi-based Anghami, which fell 2.7% to $0.71.
Satellite radio broadcaster SiriusXM shares rose 6.6% to $27.11, bringing its year-to-date gain to 21.2%. This week, Deutsche Bank raised its price target to $27 from $25.
Most K-pop companies finished the week in positive territory. HYBE shares rose 5.8% and reached their highest mark since July 2023. SM Entertainment, which reported a 9% increase in revenue this week, increased 5.4%. JYP Entertainment improved 4.2% and YG Entertainment fell 1.3%.
Spotify led all music stocks this week with a 13.6% gain after its fourth-quarter earnings results on Tuesday (Feb. 4) showed that the company posted its first-ever net profit. The streamer’s share price reached an all-time high of $632.41 on Friday (Feb. 7) before closing at $622.99, slightly lower than its closing prices on Wednesday ($626.00) and Thursday ($625.87). Fewer than six weeks into 2025, the Swedish streaming company’s stock has risen 39.3%.
With 203.8 million shares outstanding, according to its 2024 annual report released this week, Spotify’s market capitalization briefly reached $128.9 billion. A week ago, Spotify was worth nearly as much as the three major music groups. As of Friday, after gaining another 13.6%, Spotify is worth more than Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music and Warner Music Group (WMG) combined.
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Guggenheim was among a host of analysts to increase its Spotify price target, raising the streaming company’s shares to $675 from $520 and increasing its forecast for 2025 operating income to 2.61 billion euros ($2.7 billion) from 2.46 billion euros ($2.54 billion). Others that raised their price targets for Spotify were Evercore ISI (to $700 from $500), Morgan Stanley (to $670 from $550), DA Davidson (to $680 from $350) and Deutsche Bank (to $700 from $550).
Led by Spotify, the 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) rose 7.7% to a record 2,635.41, bringing its year-to-date gain to 24.0%. The index’s most valuable companies were among the 13 gainers while the seven companies that lost ground have relatively small market capitalizations. In contrast to music stocks’ gains, major indexes were muted this week. In the U.S., the Nasdaq composite index and S&P 500 fell 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 rose 0.3%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 3.0%. China’s SSE Composite Index was up 1.6%.
Chinese music streamer Cloud Music had the week’s second-best performance, rising 6.6% to 130.30 HKD ($16.73). SiriusXM was third-best after rising 6.0% to $25.44. Another Chinese music streaming company, Tencent Music Entertainment, improved 4.7% to $12.54. And K-pop companies all fared well: SM Entertainment was up 4.9%, HYBE improved 4.2% and JYP Entertainment rose 3.6%.
While record labels and publishers have benefitted from Spotify’s price increases, their stock prices haven’t followed the same trajectory. WMG gained 2.9% to $32.72 following its quarterly earnings report on Thursday (Feb. 6) and is up 5.5% year to date. Reservoir Media, which released earnings on Wednesday (Feb. 5) and raised its full-year guidance, closed the week down 4.2% to $7.96 and has lost 12.0% in 2025. UMG, which will announce its fourth-quarter earnings on March 6, rose 0.1% to $26.98 and is up 9.1% year-to-date.
MSG Entertainment gained 1.1% to $36.73. On Thursday (Feb. 6), the concert promoter reported that revenue increased 1% to $407.4 million and adjusted operating income improved 2% to $164 million in the fiscal second quarter ended December 31, 2024. Event-related revenue fell $22.5 million due to lower revenue from concerts and a drop in other live entertainment at the company’s venues.
LiveOne had the largest decline of the week, falling 19.3% to $1.17. The music streaming company will announce earnings on Feb. 14.
Spotify’s share price continues to soar in 2025 following a massive gain in 2024, making the music streaming company’s $109.3 billion market capitalization worth about the same as every standalone, publicly traded music company from which it licenses music combined — with nearly enough left over to include concert promoter Live Nation.
Based on closing prices Monday (Feb. 3), Universal Music Group has a market cap — the value of outstanding shares — of $51.1 billion, amounting to less than half of Spotify’s. The other standalone, publicly traded “multi-sector” music companies covering record labels and music publishers total another $27.8 billion: Warner Music Group ($16.6 billion), HYBE ($6.5 billion), JYP Entertainment ($1.8 billion), Believe ($1.5 billion), SM Entertainment ($1.3 billion), YG Entertainment ($646 million), Reservoir Media ($522 million) and Avex ($421 million). That brings the multi-sector aggregate market cap to $80.4 billion. If you add Live Nation’s $33.6 billion market cap to the multi-sector group, the combined market cap exceeds Spotify by just $4.7 billion.
Additionally, if you add the market cap of Sony Music – which is part of the Sony Corp. conglomerate and doesn’t trade as a standalone company – to UMG and WMG’s, the three major music groups’ aggregate market cap isn’t much more than Spotify’s. Importantly, if Sony Music was independent of Sony Corp, its value would be comparable to that of UMG. In the past four quarters, the two companies have had almost equal revenues on a dollar basis — $11.6 billion for UMG to $11.59 billion for Sony Music. Assuming the companies have similar margins and growth prospects, Sony Music’s market cap could — but would not necessarily — equal UMG’s $51.1 billion. Add WMG, and the three majors have a combined market cap of $118.8 billion — just $9.5 billion more than Spotify’s market cap at the end of trading on Monday.
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This imbalance between Spotify and music companies’ values hasn’t always existed. A move into podcasting and a pandemic-led growth spurt pushed Spotify’s stock above $380 in February 2021. The frothy times didn’t last long, however. Investors who were previously attracted to streaming companies’ high growth rates eventually demanded more financial discipline. When Spotify shares fell to an all-time low of $69.29 on Nov. 4, 2022, its roughly $13.3 billion market cap was less than a third of UMG’s $40.9 billion. But layoffs and price increases turbocharged Spotify’s financial statements and sent its share price into a new stratosphere. In 2023, the company laid off roughly a quarter of its full-time staff and implemented the first of two price increases. In 2024, Spotify’s share price rose 138.1%. Last month, it jumped another 22.6%.
Today, Spotify’s market value puts it in a rarefied air amongst entertainment companies. Netflix — which has 302 million subscribers globally to Spotify’s 252 million, and much higher prices — currently has a market cap of $418.8 billion. Walt Disney, which spans streaming, cable TV networks and theme parks, is worth $206.1 billion. Sony Corp, a huge company that includes games, movies, TV and hardware, has a market cap of $133.7 billion. Telecommunications giant Comcast, owner of NBCUniversal and cable company Xfinity, is worth $126.7 billion. Spotify is worth more than Warner Bros. Discovery ($24.9 billion), sports gambling company DraftKings ($20.2 billion) and video game companies Nintendo ($87.6 billion), Roblox ($46.4 billion) and Electronic Arts ($32.2 billion).
In a banner week for music stocks, record labels and music publishers posted gains after Universal Music Group (UMG) signed a new licensing deal with Spotify and Amazon announced further price increases for its music streaming service.
UMG gained 11.2% to 26.94 euros ($27.91) after the company announced it renewed its licensing deal with Spotify for its record labels and music publishing. According to the company, the agreement will allow for “new paid subscription tiers,” such as Spotify’s anticipated high-priced superfan offering, and bundling of music and non-music content. UMG also got a boost from news that Amazon is raising prices on its Amazon Music Unlimited on-demand service in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. After the week’s gain, UMG had recovered nearly all of the 24% decline it suffered after its second-quarter earnings results showed lower-than-expected streaming growth.
Morgan Stanley analysts called it “an important and positive week” for investors in companies that operate in the music streaming space. Warner Music Group (WMG) rose 6.7% to $31.80 as investors likely assumed the company will follow UMG and negotiate a mutually beneficial licensing deal with Spotify later this year. Both Believe and Reservoir Media rose 2%.
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Spotify rose another 7.5% to a new record closing price of $548.55 after multiple analysts raised their price targets and the streaming giant emerged victorious in a U.S. court case over a tactic employed to lower its royalty obligations. The streaming company’s stock reached as high as $560.36 on Friday (Jan. 31), valuing the company’s market capitalization at approximately $111 billion. More analysts hiked their price targets ahead of Spotify’s earnings call on Tuesday (Feb. 4). Deutsche Bank increased its Spotify price target on Monday to $550 from $535, while Citi raised it to $540 from $500.
Music stocks have produced strong gains just one month into the new year. This week, the 20-company Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI) rose 6.4% to a record 2,447.97. Just two of the index’s 20 stocks lost ground while one was unchanged and 17 posted gains. The index’s third-straight weekly gain was the best of the year and the best single-week performance since the BGMI gained 6.8% in the week ended July 21, 2023. Just 31 days into 2025, the index is up 15.2% and is outpacing major indexes such as the Nasdaq composite (up 1.6%), S&P 500 (up 2.7%) and FTSE 100 (up 6.1%).
Aside from Spotify, other streaming companies posted large gains. LiveOne, the week’s greatest gainer, jumped 20.8% to $1.45 after CEO Robert Ellin announced — from President Trump’s The Mar-a-Lago Club — that LiveOne had surpassed 700,000 Tesla users, half of which are free, ad-supported users. Chinese music streaming company Cloud Music also improved, with its stock up 8.4% to 112.20 HKD ($14.40), after the company announced it had reached a “preliminary” agreement with K-pop company SM Entertainment to keep the K-pop company’s catalog at the platform. Paris-based Deezer rose 9.6% to 1.26 euros ($1.31). Abu Dhabi-based Anghami improved 4.2% to $0.75.
SiriusXM rose 9.3% to $24.01 after the company’s fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday (Jan. 30) showed a drop in revenue and subscribers but gross margins and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EDITDA) that were in line with guidance. For full-year 2025, SiriusXM expects slight declines in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA but an increase in free cash flow to $1.15 billion from $1.02 billion in 2024. Ahead of the company’s earnings, Deutsche Bank lowered its price target to $25 from $28.
Sphere Entertainment Co. shares rose 8.5% to $46.60, with Guggenheim raising the company’s price target to $69 from $64 and maintaining its “buy” rating. Sister company MSG Entertainment, which will announce earnings on Thursday (Feb. 6), rose just 0.1% to $36.34.
iHeartMedia had the week’s largest decline, dropping 8.3% to $2.22, after posting gains in previous weeks. iHeartMedia shares are up 12.1% year to date.
Investors are betting there’s more gas in Spotify’s tank as the streaming company’s stock price reached an all-time high of $511.98 on Friday (Jan. 24) and finished the week at a record closing price of $510.43, up 5.1% from the previous week. Friday’s closing price valued the company at $101.6 billion, an increase of $5 billion in one week.
Spotify shares are off to a fast start in 2025 — rising 14.1% over the 15 trading days so far — after gaining 138.1% in 2024. The Stockholm-based streaming company is forecasting 665 million monthly active users, an increase of 25 million from the prior quarter, and 260 million premium subscribers, up from 252 million in the third quarter. Spotify’s fast-rising stock price mirrors the improvement in the company’s gross margin, which is forecasted to be 31.8% in the fourth quarter, up from 31.1% in the previous quarter.
Live Nation shares rose 3.8% to $140.74 on Friday, falling just shy of the all-time high of $141.18 reached on Nov. 25, 2024. On Thursday, Evercore raised its Live Nation price target to $160 from $150.
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The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index rose 3.5% to a new record of 2,303.31, bringing its gain in 2025 to 8.4%. That’s more than double the year-to-date gains of the S&P 500 (up 3.7%) and Nasdaq composite (up 3.3%). A dozen of the 20 music stocks finished the week in positive territory, with three exceeding 5% gains. Of the eight stocks that lost ground, just one fell more than 2%.
The week’s greatest gainer was Chinese music streamer Tencent Music Entertainment, which rose 7.4% to $11.59. On Tuesday (Jan. 21), Morgan Stanley upgraded Tencent Music to “overweight” from “equal weight.” K-pop company SM Entertainment also did well, gaining 7.1% to 84,000 won ($58.76), bringing its year-to-date increase to 11.1%.
Cumulus Media finished the week at $0.88, up 4.8%. The radio company’s shares soared nearly 17% on Thursday (Jan. 23) following news that Matthew Blank resigned from the Cumulus board and was replaced by Steven Galbraith, managing director of Kindred Capital Advisors and among the largest Cumulus shareholders.
SiriusXM shares fell 1.4% to $21.96. On Thursday, Morgan Stanley lowered its price target on the company to $21 from $23. SiriusXM has fallen 3.7% year-to-date and has lost 58.9% over the last 52 weeks.
The worst performer of the week was Deezer, which fell 7.3% to 1.15 euros ($1.21). Deezer shares have fallen 46.5% over the last 52 weeks and are already down 14.2% in 2025.
Stocks performed well globally as earnings season got off to a strong start. According to FactSet, 80% of companies that reported earnings thus far have exceeded expectations, beating the 10-year average of 75%. In the United States, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite each gained 1.7%. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index improved 0.5% to 2,536.80. China’s Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.3% to 3,252.63. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 increased less than 1%.
SiriusXM kicks off music companies’ earnings releases on Thursday (Jan. 30). Elsewhere, Spotify announced its fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 4 while Warner Music Group follows on Feb. 6.
Led by SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment, K-pop stocks soared above other music stocks in a strong week for markets in general. SM, home to such artists as Red Velvet and aespa, rose 13.8% to 78,400 won ($53.76) after news broke on Wednesday (Jan. 15) that the company will introduce a new girl group on Feb. 24. Meanwhile, JYP gained 6.7% to 76,400 won ($52.39), while YG Entertainment and HYBE rose 5.6% and 3.7%, respectively.
The gains made by K-pop companies in recent weeks have outpaced the overall Korean stock market. In the week ended Jan. 17, the four South Korean music companies had an average gain of 7.5%, beating the 0.3% gain of the KOSPI composite index, a measure of all stocks traded on South Korea’s exchange. South Korean stocks have rebounded from their low points since a declaration of martial law by South Korea’s prime minister on Dec. 3 that caused political turmoil and instability in the country’s market. The four K-pop companies are up an average of 20.6% from each company’s post-Dece. 3 low point, while KOSPI has gained 6.9% since hitting a low point on Dec. 9.
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The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index rose 4.7% to 2,226.11, its second-highest mark since reaching 2,280.51 on Dec. 6 and the third-highest one-week gain in the last year. Only four of the index’s 20 stocks posted losses while the remainder finished the week in positive territory. Radio companies led the way with an average gain of 13.3%. Multi-sector companies (labels and publishers such as Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group) gained 4.3%. Live music companies followed with a 3.6% gain. Streaming companies had an average loss of 1.1%.
Stocks were helped by news that the consumer price index, a widely used measure of inflation faced by consumers, rose a lower-than-expected 3.2% in December. The producer price index, a measure of wholesale prices, also beat expectations by rising just 0.2% last month. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite rose 2.4% to 19,630.20 and the S&P 500 had its best week since the presidential election, gaining 2.9% to 5,996.66. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 3.1% to 8,505.22. China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed 2.3% to 3,241.82.
iHeartMedia was the top music performer of the week, rising 23.9% to $2.33 in the absence of major news. The only significant public development was Barclays’s announcement through a regulatory filing on Friday that it increased its stake in the radio giant by 513% in the third quarter. Cumulus Media rose 9.1% to $0.84. The other radio company, satellite broadcaster SiriusXM, gained 6.9% to $22.27.
Spotify shares rose 5.7% to $485.53 on Friday after surpassing $500 per share on Thursday (Jan. 16) — marking only the second time Spotify shares have hit the $500 mark in intraday trading. Investors reacted positively to UBS increasing its Spotify price target on Wednesday (Jan. 15) to $540 from $485. Then on Friday, Wolfe Research downgraded Spotify to “peer perform” from “outperform,” helping Spotify shares fall 1%.
Concert promoter Live Nation rose 5.5% to $135.61. The stock peaked at $136.21 on Friday, its highest point since Dec. 17 and just 3.5% below its 52-week high of $141.18. Live Nation will co-produce the FireAid benefit concerts to benefit victims of the wildfires in Los Angeles. The Azoff family and AEG are also producers of the concerts, which will be held on Jan. 30 at the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome.
Abu Dhabi-based music streaming company Anghami was the week’s worst performer after dropping 10.3% to $0.70, while French music streamer Deezer fell 5.3% to 1.24 euros ($1.28) and LiveOne shares fell 1.7% to $1.18. LiveOne announced on Thursday that it has reached 500,000 Tesla users and projects to reach 550,000 Tesla owners — including 150,000 new ad-supported subscribers — by Feb. 1.
Pershing Square Holdings chief Bill Ackman won’t get his wish of a Universal Music Group (UMG) de-listing from the Euronext Amsterdam exchange, but the hedge fund king’s push for a UMG listing on a U.S. exchange will nevertheless come to fruition in 2025. UMG announced Wednesday (Jan. 15) that Pershing Square and some of its […]