South Korean entertainment giant SM Entertainment reported a 19.3% YoY jump in consolidated revenue for the second quarter of 2025, driven by surging album sales and strong merchandise performance.
The agency, home to K-pop acts such as RIIZE, NCT 127, aespa, and NCT DREAM, booked 302.9 billion South Korean won (approx. USD $218 million) in Q2 consolidated revenue, up from 253.9 billion won ($183m) a year earlier, according to its quarterly earnings report published Wednesday (August 6).
Of the total, revenue at parent company SM Entertainment surged 26.5% YoY to 220.3 billion won ($159m), driven primarily by strong growth in album and digital music revenue, which jumped 37.9% YoY to 99.0 billion won ($71m).
The surge in album revenue came as “new album sales volume increased by over 1.9 million copies YoY,” SM Entertainment CFO Jeongmin Jang told analysts during an earnings call.
RIIZE’s debut full album ODYSSEY led sales with 1.93 million copies, followed by NCT WISH‘s second mini album poppop with 1.34 million copies and aespa’s single Dirty Work with 900,000 units sold. Additional releases from Mark and Doyoung brought total new release sales to 5.79 million copies for Q2.
SM Entertainment CEO Cheol-hyuk Jang said: “These achievements across our artist lineup continue to deepen our IP portfolio and enrich global fan experiences with even greater diversity.”
Concert revenue in Q2 slipped 1.9% YoY to 33.6 billion won ($24.0m), with major performances including TVXQ!‘s three Tokyo Dome concerts celebrating their 20th anniversary in Japan, NCT 127‘s six shows across Japan and Macau, and SMTOWN 30th Anniversary concerts in London, LA, and Mexico City.
MD/licensing revenue surged 39.6% YoY to 63.9 billion won ($46m), boosted by strong concert merchandise sales and successful pop-up events including NCT WISH’s exhibition pop-up and RIIZE’s character pop-up.
Operating profit jumped 92.4% YoY to 47.6 billion won ($34m), while net profit nearly tripled to 30.9 billion won ($22m) from 8.4 billion won ($6m).
Meanwhile, revenue from SM’s major subsidiaries climbed 25.4% YoY to 141.5 billion won ($102m). SM Entertainment Japan posted strong growth of 38.6% YoY to 26.0 billion won ($19m) driven by expanded concert activity, while SM Brand Marketing rose 38.2% to 19.5 billion won ($14m) on increased album and merchandise sales.
However, SM C&C continued its decline, falling 24.2% YoY to 21.1 billion won ($15m) due to reduced advertising revenue, while KEYEAST plunged 81.7% YoY to 3.0 billion won ($2m) amid fewer drama broadcasts.
The newly consolidated superfan app operator DearU contributed 20.2 billion won ($14m) in Q2 revenue following its acquisition.
Looking ahead, SM has a packed release schedule for the remainder of 2025. July releases included SUPER JUNIOR‘s 12th full album marking their 20th anniversary and NCT DREAM’s fifth album Go Back To The Future. Q3 will see new mini albums from aespa and NCT WISH, while Q4 releases include a Taeyeon full album, NCT DREAM mini album, WayV mini album, Hearts2Hearts mini album, and a RIIZE single.
The company’s touring lineup for H2 2025 features RIIZE’s first solo tour RIIZING LOUD with 20 shows across Asia, NCT DREAM‘s THE DREAM SHOW 4, WayV’s upcoming tour, and aespa’s third concert tour 2025 SYNK: aeXIS LINE.
In his CEO message following the release of the Q2 results, Jang highlighted SM’s partnership with Tencent Music Entertainment. In March, SM rival HYBE agreed to sell its entire 9.38% stake in SM to Tencent Music, which acquired 2.21 million shares for 243.35 billion won ($176m).
Jang said: “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.”
Tencent has over 550 million monthly active users across its platforms including QQ Music, Kugou, and Kuwo.
“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.”
Cheol-hyuk Jang, SM Entertainment
The CEO added: “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.”
Through the Tencent partnership, Jang said: “SM has taken a preemptive step in securing a robust infrastructure for content production, marketing, and distribution within China. This is expected to accelerate the localization of our new IPs and open up tangible monetization opportunities based on China’s fandom ecosystem.”
Music Business Worldwide
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