Depending on who you talk to, streaming is either the future or a complete and total ripoff. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, the fact is that at least three major labels made out pretty well in 2018.
According to Music Business Worldwide, labels UMG parent Vivendi, Sony Music parent Sony Corp and Warner Music Group quite literally made about $19 million per day in streaming revenue. This breaks down to about $800,000 per hour.
Overall, the trio of major labels made $6.93 billion in 2018, which is up from their revenue of $5.3 billion in 2017. Of that number, Universal was responsible for $3 billion.
This also equates to about a 39% jump in overall revenue between 2017 and 2018 for the label. Warner came in with $1.83 billion in streaming and Sony did about $2 billion. Music Business Worldwide further reports that between streaming and music sales overall, the trio of labels made $13.14 billion last year.
It's worth noting that Universal has the streaming rights to The Beatles, Drake and Post Malone. So it's not exactly surprising that their streaming income is through the roof.
