Warner Music profit falls as industry slumps
Warner Music Group Corp, the world's third-largest music company, on Thursday posted a 58 percent drop in quarterly profit, hurt by an industry-wide slump in CD sales, as more fans bought songs online. Although Warner's revenue rose 2 percent to $869 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, it declined 2 percent when taking out the impact of the weaker dollar. The company also posted weaker international sales, particularly in the United Kingdom.
Digital music revenue was up 25 percent at $130 million during the quarter, but this could not make up for the short-fall in compact disc sales. U.S. album sales fell 14 percent year on year, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan, as more fans bought individual songs through online stores such as Apple Inc's iTunes, or used free file-sharing services to get music.
Microsoft Challenges the iPod (Again)
But Microsoft’s new second-generation Zune music/photo/video player is a pleasure to use. It fixes a long list of things that made the original Zune such a pathetic wannabe. Best of all, the new Zune is starting to develop its own identity. The echoes of Microsoft executives saying, “It’ll be just like the iPod, only ours” aren’t quite as loud on this one.
'Tis not the season for music as album sales tumble
While album sales for the week ending Sunday were up 19% over the previous week, the Thanksgiving week total of 14 million albums trails 2006's take by 18%. So far in 2007, 415.7 million albums have been sold, down 14% from last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
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