Believe founder and CEO Denis Ladegaillerie. Photo Credit: Believe
Believe has posted a double-digit H1 2024 revenue jump – and acknowledged that an anticipated growth acceleration didn’t materialize across the six-month stretch’s second half.
Paris-based Believe, currently in the final stages of delisting from the Euronext, reached out today with its half-year financials. Beginning with the business’s well-documented privatization, the consortium that’s taking Believe off the public market now possesses a little over 96% of the relevant share capital.
Predictably – and as we previously reported – the switch back to private ownership is set to usher in operational changes. One such change will see Believe cease releasing quarterly financials, instead opting to disclose interim and full-year results. Consequently, Believe won’t put out its next earnings report until mid-March of 2025.
Returning to the H1 2024 showing, however, revenue improved 14.1% year over year (YoY) to $511.41 million (€474.1 million) despite the fact that “market growth was softer in Q2’24 than in Q1’24.” Ad-funded streaming monetization, Believe elaborated, “remained weak, notably in Asia,” and an “expected recovery at the end of Q2’24 did not happen.”
Moving beyond the point and the far-from-ideal trend at hand, the Global Records stakeholder attached $475.60 million (€440.9 million) in revenue to premium solutions (up 13.5% YoY), with $35.81 million (€33.2 million) attributable to automated solutions (up 23.4% YoY). (TuneCore artists have earned north of $4 billion since 2006, with $1 billion of that sum having been paid out since December of 2022.)
By region, revenue from operations in Europe (excluding France and Germany) spiked 24.7% YoY to $163.97 million/€152 million, against $125.46 million/€116.3 million for Asia, Oceania, and Africa (up 3.7% YoY).
Additionally, Believe generated $84.58 million/€78.4 million in France (up 17.9% YoY), $79.72 million/€73.9 million in the Americas (up 21.8% YoY), and $57.71 million/€53.5 million in Germany (down 1.2% YoY) in H1 2024, according to the earnings report.
U.S. revenue benefited from the reallocation of Sentric’s own revenue in Q2, Believe proceeded, while France delivered double-digit digital growth during the half-year window. Markets including China, Japan, and Mexico also achieved substantial H1 2024 growth, per Believe.
Overall, Believe noted a $7.55 million/€7 million H1 2024 operating loss, which was chalked up, in part, to $7.87 million/€7.3 million in expenses stemming from the consortium’s privatization play. Looking ahead to the remainder of the fiscal year, the company has lowered its YoY organic-growth forecast from 18% to 12% in part because the upside of Q4 2023’s streaming price increases may “fade away” throughout the year’s latter half.
“Believe now retains a conservative approach for its growth scenario for H2’24,” the business spelled out. “Paid streaming increase remains very resilient but will not be uplifted by significant price increases in H2’24.”
