SM Entertainment reported a 15.4% year-over-year rise in second-quarter 2026 revenue to KRW 349.6 billion ($233 million), driven by a touring boom across its artist roster and a surge in merchandise sales. The Seoul-based K-pop label disclosed the figures in its quarterly earnings report published on August 5, 2026, confirming the results on its own domain.

Concert revenue climbed 23.6% to KRW 41.6 billion ($27.7 million), powered by what SM described as the expansion of tours by its legacy acts. SUPER JUNIOR closed out its 20th-anniversary SUPER SHOW 10 tour with three encore shows in Seoul. EXO played 19 concerts across 10 Asian cities on its sixth solo tour. TVXQ! performed twice at Nissan Stadium in Japan, aespa staged five shows across Jakarta and Japan on its SYNK: aeXIS LINE tour, and NCT WISH held five dates on its first-ever concert run.

Merchandising and licensing revenue grew 22.0% to KRW 77.9 billion ($51.9 million), which SM attributed to pop-up events and concert merchandise — including a nine-day NCT 10th-anniversary pop-up in Seoul and an aespa pop-up across seven cities.

The live-business gains more than offset a decline in recorded music. Revenue from physical albums and digital music fell 8.2% to KRW 90.9 billion ($60.6 million). New-album sales totalled 5.67 million copies in the quarter, down from 6.03 million a year earlier. Still, several releases posted big numbers: NCT WISH's first full-length album Ode to Love sold 1.92 million copies, RIIZE's second mini-album II moved 1.4 million (its fourth consecutive million-selling release), and aespa's second full-length album LEMONADE sold 1.06 million and debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200.

Operating profit rose 11.0% to KRW 52.9 billion ($35.3 million). Net income, however, fell 5.6% to KRW 29.2 billion ($19.5 million). SM attributed the decline primarily to valuation losses on equity investments, impairment losses on investment assets, and higher income tax expenses. The company's income tax bill jumped 52.8% to KRW 12.8 billion, even as pre-tax income rose 6.9%.

At the parent-company level — stripping out subsidiaries consolidated into the group total — revenue grew 9.2% to KRW 240.6 billion ($160 million). The gap between the parent and consolidated figures reflects revenue from subsidiaries brought into the group accounts, a move SM has made incrementally; it consolidated the fan-platform company Dear U starting in the second quarter of 2025, according to SM's own CEO message from May 2025.

The quarter also built on momentum: SM's Q2 revenue was up 25.3% from the KRW 279.1 billion it posted in the first quarter of 2026, and followed a record fourth quarter in 2025 when revenue reached KRW 319 billion ($219.4 million), also driven by concerts and merchandise.

SM is not the only Korean music company riding the touring cycle. HYBE, its larger rival, posted a record Q2 2026 with revenue more than doubling year-over-year to KRW 1.45 trillion ($967 million) on the back of BTS's ARIRANG world tour, according to Music Business Worldwide.

What makes SM's quarter notable is the split inside the numbers: the businesses that put artists in front of fans in person — concerts and merchandise — are growing at double-digit rates, while the recorded-music business that once defined the industry is shrinking. For now, the stage is carrying the shop.