Buzz surrounding the return of Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion may have helped make Sphere Entertainment Co. the best-performing music stock for the week ended Aug. 29. Sphere Entertainment shares rose 6.8% to $45.35 in an otherwise muted week for music stocks.
On Thursday, the Sphere venue in Las Vegas debuted — to both positive and negative reviews — its revamped version of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The premiere was prefaced by a heavy national media campaign that showed both the love for the 1939 original film and curiosity about the state-of-the-art, multi-sensory venue. By Aug. 12, Sphere had sold 120,000 tickets for The Wizard of Oz — at over $100 each — and executives expected to have sold 200,000 tickets by Thursday.
Sphere Entertainment shares have gained 13.7% in the last two weeks, turning a 5.1% year-to-date loss into a 6.8% gain this year. Aside from the attention gained by The Wizard of Oz, the venue has racked up some wins in recent months. The Sphere recently concluded a Kenny Chesney residency in June and will commence with a Zac Brown Band residency in December. In addition, the venue added 14 additional Backstreet Boys performances to extend the group’s well-received run into February 2026.
The Billboard Global Music Index (BGMI), a float-adjusted index of 19 publicly traded music companies, fell 1.5% to 2,979.62 in its second consecutive weekly decline. (The index originally had 20 stocks, but Believe was taken private and no longer trades on the Euronext Paris exchange.) With a majority of music stocks in the red this week, the index’s year-to-date gain dropped to 40.2%.
U.S. indexes fell as core U.S. inflation, which excludes food and energy costs, rose to 2.9% in July, the highest level since February. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.6% to 21,142.01 and the S&P 500 dropped 0.1%. International indexes were mixed. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 1.4% to 9,187.34 but South Korea’s KOSPI composite index rose 0.5% to 3,186.01 and China’s Shanghai Composite Index improved 0.8% to 3,857.93.
Other than Sphere Entertainment, only three stocks had gains above 1%: Cumulus Media (up 6.3%), Anghami (up 4.1%) and MSG Entertainment (up 3.5%). Three of the most valuable music companies had gains of less than 1%: SiriusXM (up 0.8%), HYBE (up 0.5%) and Live Nation (up 0.5%).
With most music stocks losing ground this week, the BGMI was dragged down by the losses of its three most valuable music companies. Spotify fell 1.5% to $682.34, taking the stock 13.1% below the all-time high of $785.00 set on June 27. Universal Music Group dropped 2.7%, bringing its year-to-date gain to 1.0%. And Tencent Music Entertainment sank 3.2% to $24.53, although a blistering first half of 2025 has helped put the stock up 120.0% this year.
Two K-pop companies were among the week’s worst performers. SM Entertainment fell 3.9% to 138,800 KRW ($99.82) and JYP Entertainment was down 5.6% to 72,700 KRW ($52.29). The biggest loser of the week was music streamer LiveOne, which fell 8.3% to $0.55 and extended its year-to-date loss to 59.9%.
Billboard
Billboard
Billboard
