Warner Music Group Top Music Stock in Week Led by Streaming Companies

Warner Music Group shares rose 6.6% to $31.47 this week, narrowing the stock’s year-to-date loss to 12.1%. Other gainers in the record label and music publisher space were HYBE, up 1.8% to 200,500 won ($144.95), and Universal Music Group, up 1.4% to 28.63 euros ($30.67). 

Streaming companies had the best week, however. Led by LiveOne’s 6.4% gain, music streaming stocks had an average gain of 0.3% — versus an average 0.3% decline for record labels and publishers. Elsewhere, Tencent Music Entertainment gained 5.2% to $14.80 and Spotify added 1.6% to $313.02. The three companies also boast three of the top four year-to-date performances: Live One is up 30.0%, Tencent Music is up 64.3% and Spotify is up 66.6%. The fourth company in that equation is Hipgnosis Songs Fund, which is up 41.4% due to its upcoming acquisition by Blackstone. 

Despite overall strength among streaming companies, three of them posted losses. Cloud Music fell 2.4% to 103.00 HKD ($13.19), lowering its year-to-date gain to 14.8%. Anghami lost 2.8% to $1.03, putting the stock’s year-to-date loss at 1.0%. And Deezer stumbled 6.1% to 1.86 euros ($1.99), bringing its year-to-date loss to 12.7%. 

The 20-company Billboard Global Music Index rose 1.1% to 1,820.01, bringing its year-to-date gain to 18.7% and its 52-week improvement to 36.5%. Although the index mustered a small gain, 11 of its 20 stocks lost value compared to seven gainers and two that were unchanged.

While overall music stocks managed only a small increase, the Nasdaq composite rose 3.2% to 17,688.88 and enjoyed its fifth-straight closing record on Friday (June 14). Th eS&P 500 improved 1.6% to 5,431.60. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 1.3% to 2,758.42. On the losing side, China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.6% to 3,032.63 and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 fell 1.2% to 8,146.86. 

The Billboard Global Music Index is outperforming these major indexes in 2024, however. Through June 14, the Nasdaq is up 17.8% and the S&P 500 is up 13.9%. Indexes in other countries have managed smaller gains. The FTSE is up 5.3%, the KOSPI composite index is up 3.9% and the Shanghai Composite Index is up 1.9%.

LiveOne shares improved 6.4% to $1.82 after the company announced it had surpassed 3.8 million total members, a 25% year-over-year increase, while Tesla memberships rose to 1.8 million, up 32% year-over-year (nearly all new Tesla vehicles sold in the United States come with a paid membership to LiveOne’s Slacker Radio). “Our goal is to forge meaningful alliances with companies that share our passion for innovation, bespoke programming, and delivering exceptional customer value,” Brad Konkol, head of Slacker Radio, said in a statement. 

Live Nation shares fell 2.0% to $88.75 as the company continued to lose ground in the wake of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit seeking to break up the company’s concert promotion and ticketing businesses. CFRA Research lowered its Live Nation price target to $98 from $105 on Wednesday (June 12). Although its earnings-per-share estimates were unchanged, CFRA opted for a more conservative valuation multiple to reflect “business risk from the DOJ and live entertainment moving to the slower part of the year starting in October,” analyst Kenneth Leon wrote. 

The Billboard Global Music Index’s biggest loss of the week came from Cumulus Media, which fell 18.1% to $1.94. The Atlanta-based radio company’s shares are down 63.5% year to date. Fellow radio company iHeartMedia dropped 3.2% to $1.21 this week, bringing its year-to-date loss to 54.7%.