MUMBAI: Warner Music Group Corp.’s fiscal third-quarter loss widened as the company continues to struggle with a shift away from compact discs, as well as lower consumer spending and foreign-exchange impacts, say reports.
The world’s third-largest music company said its loss from continuing operations was $37 million, in the fiscal third quarter which ended on 30 June , compared with a year-earlier loss of $9 million. Revenue decreased 9.3 per cent to $769 million, but excluding foreign-exchange impacts was down two per cent.
In the US, revenue fell 10 per cent. International revenue dropped 8.2 per cent, but rose 5.3 per cent in constant currencies, boosted by Warner’s European concert-promotion business, reports indicate.
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Warner Music Group Chairman and Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. said Warner is “making good progress” on diversifying its revenue streams, citing the company’s expanded rights agreement with artists as an example.
At a time when quarterly results are pressured by the macroeconomic downturn and the industry transition, we remain focused on prudently positioning ourselves to benefit when those pressures abate – by actively creating a new recorded music business model to diversify our revenue mix,… explains Bronfman, Jr.
We are making good progress on that effort. For example, we now have comprehensive expanded-rights agreements with more than half of our active global artist roster….
At the company’s recorded-music business, revenue fell 8.3 per cent, with digital sales up 4.5 per cent amid increased online downloads. The segment generated 26 per cent of its sales from digital, compared with 23 per cent a year earlier.
Warner’s fourth quarter schedule includes a new Madonna greatest hits album and it expects Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown to continue selling well, say media reports.
