SM Entertainment posted a 19.3% year-on-year upturn in revenue to KRW302.9 billion (€188 million) in Q2 2025, but earnings from live music dipped marginally.
The K-pop juggernaut, which launched acts such as H.O.T., Girls’ Generation, EXO, NCT and Aespa, reported concert revenue of KRW33.6bn (€20.9m) – down 1.9% on the equivalent three-month period last year.
The company, whose growth was driven by a 37.9% increase in physical album and digital music income to KRW99bn (€61m), referenced boy band Riize’s Riizing Loud tour. The run started with three nights at Seoul’s KSPO Dome last month and went on to draw 54,000 fans to Saitama Super Arena in Japan – demonstrating “strong momentum beyond Korea”.
“Despite this being their first world tour, additional North American stops have been added, with upcoming shows scheduled in eight cities during Q4, including New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc,” adds the firm.
SM also has upcoming tours by artists including Irene & Seulgi, Yuta, NCT Dream, Kai, Aespa and NCT Wish.
Earlier this year, fellow Korean giant HYBE announced it was offloading its remaining stake in SM Entertainment to China’s largest music streaming firm Tencent Music (TME) for KRW243.4bn (€157m).
“SM Entertainment remains committed to sustainable growth”
Referencing the deal in the quarterly report, SM CEO Cheol-hyuk Jang said that TME “holds a powerful position in the Chinese music market” and outlined how the arrangement would benefit the firm.
“Through this alliance, we have established a practical and wide-ranging partnership that extends beyond music distribution to include content planning, fan data analysis, and concert execution in the China market,” he says.
“In the long term, we aim to create a comprehensive idol success model that combines SM Entertainment’s global production capabilities with Tencent Music Entertainment’s local marketing and distribution power – bridging global and local strengths.”
SM added that boy band Super Junior carried out a wide range of activities across exhibitions, albums and concerts to celebrate their 20th anniversary, with the Super Show 10 concert – part of the group’s long-running Super Show series – sold out entirely during the fan club presale.
“Moving forward, SM Entertainment remains committed to sustainable growth, not by focusing solely on short-term earnings, but by leveraging the structural competitiveness of our IP and building sustainable revenue models,” adds Jang. “We will continue to strengthen our IP portfolio across generations by establishing a virtuous cycle in which long-standing IPs generate stable profits while newer IPs realise their growth potential through performance-based results.”
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