Robert KynclCEO, Warner Music Group

The big change is that after many years of growth mostly through subscriber growth, now we are also going through price increases. It is not only volume in terms of subscribers, but also price, and that has not been the case in the previous 15 years. That shift changes the industry’s economics.

We have to increase the value of music through our wholesale relationship with partners, and become more efficient at the same time so we can reinvest into music and drive the flywheel. We also focus on growing our share of music, because leverage comes from performance, market share, and outcomes.

I am bullish on AI overall to drive the industry further. If you think about it, every new technology has generally benefited copyright holders over time. AI feels like what happened with user generated content years ago, but on steroids. The key is to figure it out correctly so everyone participates the right way.

Over the long term, yes. If you look at the multiples people pay to acquire copyrights, they are the highest they have ever been. That tells you copyright is more valuable than ever, at least for music. There were waves of friction, but the long-term value trend is clear.

At the end of 2024 there are about 750 million paying subscribers around the world, and that number continues to grow. If you combine subscriber growth with driving ARPU up, it is a healthy industry. It becomes more than just adding users; it is also increasing value per user.

We reserve our rights every time something new is happening. Our strategy is license, legislate, and litigate in that order. We always prefer to license if we can set up the right outcomes and be open for business. Legislation helps make licensing workable, and litigation is when everything else fails.

You have to think about inputs and outputs. On the input side, for training, we maintain that if you want to train on our content, you have to license it. On the output side, you look at what is being created, how it is used, and how value is shared in a practical structure.

There are two types. One is generic music that is not recognizable by any artist and does not implicate name, image, likeness, or voice. For us, that can be a new revenue stream if it is licensed properly. The other implicates identity, and that needs stronger constructs, like UGC but adapted.

We believe there will be a lot more music, and a lot more unrecognizable music, which increases noise and frustration. But we also believe branded, big, recognizable music from stars becomes more valuable in that world. The flood of content can make true brands stand out even more.

We believe it so much that we and our partners at Bain Capital put together a $1.2 billion JV to buy copyrights just like that. It is not only belief inside the company. It is also smart people on Wall Street who believe recognizable catalogs and star music will become more valuable over time.

I do not want to tell others how much they should charge for their products. What I can tell them is how much we charge for our product to them, and they can decide retail pricing. I think about it prospectively now: this is what our product costs into the future, then they choose.

Like everyone in media, each side wants to take a little more from the other one. Our job is to grow our share of music and increase the value of music through the wholesale relationship. We also have to become more efficient so we can reinvest into music and keep the flywheel going.

Proof shows up in market share and performance. We increased our market share by one percentage point over the last 12 months, and we have been dominating in the charts with amazing talent. Even while going through difficult changes, we delivered growth. That shows you can do hard things and win.

We are very focused on the core because we have to deliver stable growth and stable earnings growth. At the same time, we look at adjacencies and start building areas that can help expand the business. The sequence matters: deliver stability first, then build the next engines without distracting from the core.

We have tremendous catalog presence, and the stories are incredible. Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, it goes on and on. I think of it like Marvel for music. Those stories can be unlocked and brought to life around the world with the right partner. It can also bring young audiences back to streaming.

Doing the true and tried things is boring, and everybody does those. If you are in an industry that is changing, you have to do different things. I want a company that is not afraid to be first, not afraid to be daring, and not afraid to break the mold. That mindset applies to org changes too.

Some methods are very analog and still work. Go to live shows, watch the audience rather than the act, and see how the audience is reacting to the artist. If there is a connection, there is something real to build on. For superstardom, that consistent connection matters more than one random spike.