Music sales by Hozier, Taylor Swift and Dermot Kennedy helped the Irish arm of music giant Universal Music to increase revenues by 4% to €33.7m last year.
Universal Music Ireland Ltd also counts Chappell Roan, Adele and U2 amongst its roster of stars and new accounts show that higher costs resulted in pre-tax profits decreasing by 20% to €12.4m in 2025.
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”.
They state that the increase in revenues “was also due to the significant resurgent growth in popularity of vinyl records”.
“The company maintained its leading market share in the Irish music market in 2025,” they add.
Universal Music Ireland paid out a dividend of €1m after paying out a dividend of €1m in 2024.
The company’s cost of sales increased from €24.68m to €26.6m while its administrative expenses decreased from €6.08m to €5.6m.
Universal Music Ireland Ltd also counts Justin Bieber, Christy Moore and Billie Eilish amongst its stand out acts.
Numbers employed by the business, including directors, last year decreased by two to 22 with staff costs decreasing from €2.42m to €2.36m.
Mark Crossingham and Nick Younger are the directors of the business and directors’ pay last year reduced from €848,130 to €828,970 – made up of €788,416 in emoluments and €40,554 in pension contributions.
At the end of December last, the firm had shareholder funds of €3.56m that included accumulated profits of €3.04m.
The profits take account of non-cash depreciation costs of €83,547 offset by interest received of €55,361.
The company last year recorded post tax profits of €1.02m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €223,107.
The directors state that the risks faced by the company include the current world and local economic downturn and 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% increase in revenues to €12.05 billion where subscription and streaming revenues accounted for more than half of overall revenues at €6.3 billion.
Revenues generated by the sale of “physical” music increased by 9% to €1.47 billion.
