The coronavirus pandemic has had significant effects on various areas of endeavor, and that has included the music industry. Now, Sony has detailed in a statement shared today how their business in music has been impacted, as well as their operations in film and gaming.
On the music side of things, the company has faced “delays in new music releases, interruptions in supply chains for CDs and other physical music media, and a decrease in music licensing resulting from both lower advertising activity and delays in production for motion pictures and television productions.” Additionally and not surprisingly, concerts and other live events by Sony artists have been canceled or postponed worldwide, including “100 percent of Sony-sponsored performances and events within Japan.”
Sony owns prominent record labels like Columbia, Epic, and RCA, and the roster of artists across all their labels includes Travis Scott, Harry Styles, Childish Gambino, Foo Fighters, Khalid, King Princess, Camila Cabello, ASAP Rocky, Brockhampton, and a host of other familiar names.
Meanwhile, film is not doing so well either, due to “shutdowns of movie theaters around the world and various restrictions on people’s movement” leading to “termination of theatrical runs and delays in release dates.” Sony has suspended “all of its film and television production, resulting in future changes in theatrical release dates for some titles.”
Sony is actually doing alright on the gaming side of things, though, as that part of their operations has experienced “no material impact on this business for the current fiscal year.” However, they also note, “Although no issues have emerged so far, Sony is carefully monitoring the risk of delays in production schedules for game software titles at both its first-party studios and partner studios, primarily in Europe and the US.”
Sony isn’t the only entity having a tough time dealing the the pandemic: BTS just announced that they have been forced to postponed some North American tour dates.
