The majors in 2026, part 2: Warner Music Group

Part two of a three-part read on the major music companies in 2026, sourced from company newsrooms and filings. Part one covered Universal Music Group; part three covers Sony Music.

Warner is the smallest of the three majors and the one that spent 2026 restructuring in public. The results were strong and the org chart kept moving — those two facts are related.

Fiscal Q3 2026: the numbers WMG published

From WMG's own results release↗ (opens in a new tab) for the quarter ended 30 June 2026:

• Total revenue up 10%, or 9% in constant currency
• Net income of $200 million, versus a $16 million loss in the prior-year quarter
• Operating income up 80% to $305 million, from $169 million
• Adjusted OIBDA up 16% to $433 million, from $373 million
• EPS of $0.39, versus $(0.03); adjusted EPS of $0.51 versus $0.42
• Cash from operating activities of $142 million, up from $46 million

CEO Robert Kyncl framed it as the fifth consecutive quarter of hitting or beating targets, crediting subscription streaming growth, market share gains and operating leverage. Acting CFO Lou Dickler pointed at the mechanical driver behind the streaming line: contractual per-subscriber minimum increases. That detail is worth pausing on. A meaningful part of the majors' streaming growth in 2026 is not new listeners — it is contracted price floors kicking in on deals signed years earlier.

The company also reiterated a 50–60% operating cash flow conversion target for fiscal 2026.

The finance leadership shock

On 31 July 2026 WMG announced↗ (opens in a new tab) that Armin Zerza, CFO and COO, had decided to step down for personal reasons, effective immediately, remaining available through the end of the fiscal year. A formal CFO search was opened. SVP, Global Controller and Chief Accounting Officer Lou Dickler — who had held the role on an interim basis before — was appointed acting CFO.

An "effective immediately" CFO departure days before a quarterly print is the kind of thing that spooks markets. WMG's answer was to pair it with continuity: an internal finance leader who had already done the job, and a set of numbers that landed well.

Corson to COO

In July 2026 Tom Corson was promoted to chief operating officer, moving up from running Warner Records. Combined with the Zerza exit, that splits what had been a combined CFO/COO seat into two: a records operator running operations, and a finance search running separately.

Earlier in the year, Hannah Karp joined as EVP and chief communications officer in January 2026, and David Goldsen was named EVP of A&R at Warner Chappell Music. The pattern across the year is a leadership team rebuilt around operators rather than a single deputy.

AI: buy the attribution layer

WMG's 2026 AI strategy diverged usefully from Universal's. Where UMG converted litigation into licences, Warner spent money on the plumbing.

On 10 June 2026 WMG acquired Sureel AI, a company built to track intellectual property and name-image-likeness usage inside AI systems — attribution technology, essentially. The bet is that the hard problem in licensed AI is not agreeing on a rate, it is proving whose work is in the output.

Warner also settled with Udio and moved into a licensing collaboration with it, so both of the two largest majors ended up in the same place with the same defendant, via different routes.

If you want the thesis in one line: UMG is negotiating the price of AI music, and Warner is building the meter that reads it.

What it means for smaller operators

• Watch the contracted minimums. Growth attributed to "subscription streaming" is partly renegotiated floors at the top of the market. Independent deals rarely include those, which is why per-stream reality can feel disconnected from major-label growth headlines.
• Attribution is the next fight. Whoever owns credible AI attribution owns the audit rights. If you release music, your metadata discipline — ISRCs, splits, credits — is what makes you legible to that system when it arrives.
• Operating leverage is the story. WMG's operating income grew eight times faster than its revenue. Cost discipline, not a hit cycle, produced the quarter.

Continue with part three on Sony Music.