Music sales by Hozier and Taylor Swift lift profits and revenues at Universal Music Ireland

Gordon Deegan

Music sales by Hozier, Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter helped the Irish arm of music giant Universal Music to increase pre-tax profits by 20 per cent to €1.56 million last year.

Universal Music Ireland Ltd also counts Chappell Roan, Adele and U2 amongst its roster of stars, and new accounts show that the rise in profits followed revenues increasing by 2 per cent from €31.67 million to €32.4 million in 2024.

Sales of the soundtrack to Wicked also boosted revenues, while six of the Top 10 global artists on Spotify in 2024 were Universal Music artists.

In their report, the directors state that the revenue increase last year was primarily “due to the continued positive growth in subscribers to legal music streaming services”.

The directors state that the increase in revenues was “also due to the significant resurgent growth in popularity of vinyl records”.

They state that “the company maintained its leading market share in the Irish music market in 2024”.

The company paid out a dividend of €1 million after paying out a dividend of €1.5 million in 2023.

The company's cost of sales increased from €23.3 million to €24.68 million, while its administrative expenses decreased from €7 million to €6.08 million.

Universal Music Ireland Ltd also counts Justin Bieber, Christy Moore and Billie Eilish amongst its standout acts.

Numbers employed by the business, including directors, last year increased by one to 22, with staff costs decreasing by 21 per cent from €3.08 million to €2.42 million.

The main driver in the decrease in staff costs was directors’ pay reducing as the aggregate remuneration to Mark Crossingham and Nick Younger declined by 27 per cent from €1.16 million to €848,130 made up of emoluments of €808,485 and pension contributions of €39,645.

At the end of December last, the firm had shareholder funds of €3.5 million that included accumulated profits of €3.01 million.

The profits take account of non-cash depreciation costs of €86,631 offset by interest received of €90,140 and a gain of €100,100 on the sale of property, plant and equipment.

The company last year recorded post-tax profits of €1.35 million after incurring a corporation tax charge of €214,361.

The directors state that the risks faced by the company include the current world and local economic downturn, its effect on customer spending in all areas of the Irish music market, and its effect on discretionary consumer spending in general.

Globally last year, Universal Music recorded a 6.5 per cent increase in revenues to €11.83 billion, where subscription and streaming revenues accounted for more than half of overall revenues at €6.03 billion. Revenues generated by the sale of ‘physical’ music totalled €1.35 billion.