Since Robert Kyncl became Warner Music Group’s CEO in early 2023, the record label behind Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Stella Lefty and Burna Boy has undergone cost cuts, a corporate re-org and a slew of leadership changes. During the company’s earnings call on Wednesday (Aug. 5) for its third fiscal quarter, Kyncl sought to reassure investors that Warner’s consequent reinvestment and bottom line growth was evidence that “our long-term strategy is working.”

“Over the last three years, we’ve done lots of difficult things,” Kyncl said, reflecting on the company’s cost cuts, amounting to more than $600 million combined, and its work negotiating updated deals with streaming partners. “There’s a strategy here that was set in motion, and it’s delivering results. And we have an amazing team of executives who are rowing in the same direction.”

Kyncl’s message came days after the unexpected departure of CFO and COO Armin Zerza, whom Kyncl thanked for his “long-lasting” contributions, including sharpening WMG’s focus on “capital allocation, forecasting, and … investor messaging.”

“All of those are deeply institutionalized in our company now, and I’m very confident about them continuing,” Kyncl said, extending thanks to Louis Dickler, WMG’s chief accounting officer who was named acting CFO, and Tom Corson, Warner Records’ co-chairman and COO, who was named COO of WMG the same day as Zerza’s exit was announced..

Earlier this week, WMG released preliminary financial information showing that quarterly revenue rose by 10% to nearly $1.9 billion on an 11% increase in digital revenue, which hit about $1.25 billion. Supporting that digital growth was a 12% increase in recorded music streaming revenue year-over-year to just over $1 billion. Breaking down the 12% increase, acting CFO Dickler said that 6% to 7% came from subscription streaming income, 3.5% came from improved licensing deals with digital streaming partners and 1% came from expanded global market share.

Kyncl praised chief digital officer Carletta Higgins for inking those deals with all of WMG’s major streaming partners, including, most recently, Apple.

WMG’s market share has risen since a corporate reorganization in 2024 brought Elliot Grainge‘s 10K Projects under the Atlantic Music Group umbrella, but Kyncl said that much of its market share gains came after the 10K acquisition. WMG’s current share of the overall U.S. recorded music market, including catalog, rose by around 0.3%, and its share of the market for music released in the last 18 months grew by around 0.8%, according to Luminate.

Kyncl said Stella Lefty’s Billboard Hot 100 top 5 hit “Boston” and Shakira and Burna Boy’s “Dai Dai (FIFA World Cup Official Song 2026),” the first World Cup anthem to top both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, are the latest hits that contributed to three years of “significant improvement” for WMG’s global market share, which is not publicly available.

In the latter half of 2026, the label expects to release music from Alex Warren, sombr, David Guetta, Ravyn Lanae, Myke Towers, Teddy Swims, and Miley Cyrus.

While WMG does not issue guidance on subscription streaming growth, Dickler said the guidance that the company can achieve high single-digit top-line growth is “obviously … anchored by growth in paid streaming.”

A$AP Rocky is over the drama between himself and Drake.

The Harlem rapper and actor stopped by The Jason Lee Show recently and was asked directly if he would be open to fighting his former friend in a celebrity boxing match, to which Rocky said he was not interested in at all. He also addressed Drake’s disses on “Burning Bridges,” on which the Toronto rapper asked why Rihanna didn’t help promote Rocky’s latest project Don’t Be Dumb.

“He don’t wanna see me,” Rocky said about Lee’s celebrity boxing idea.” F— some gloves, n—a. Bare knuckle, like the Irish. We ain’t doin’ all that celebrity boxing sh–.”

And when it came to the “Your baby mama ain’t even post your single, damn/ Where she at? Yeah, where she at,” lines on “Burning Bridges,” Rocky explained that the jab doesn’t make sense to him. “That’s stupid,” he said. “This is the problem, though: If she would’ve posted my album, everybody would have been like, ‘You only went No. 1 ’cause your girl posted.’ … She not on my f—ing album. What single she supposed to be posting? She posted my album … after it went No. 1.”

“Everybody done moved on with their lives and motherf—as still strung up on that sh–,” he added after Lee jokingly asked if he took Drake’s girl. “It’s just bugged out to me. The Internet antics and smear campaigns and all that, we see right through that. That’s why I just be like, ‘I ain’t responding to that.’”

According to A$AP, his issues with Drake stem from when he started dating Rihanna around 2020. “I thought [Drake] was my mans. I thought he was my dude,” he told Akademiks in an interview earlier this year. “I first met him and he seemed embraceful and sh–. We went on tour with him. I think when I got with [Rihanna], he started throwing shots out of nowhere. I just woke up and felt like he was throwing subs and sh–.”

Rocky also watched never-before-seen footage of his daughter crawling for the first time and talked about how Rihanna has always been there for him whether it be as a friend or romantic partner.

You can watch the full conversation between Rocky and Jason Lee below.